With the recent slew of injuries on the Waynesburg wrestling team this season, people may begin to wonder if this will affect the team drastically down the road and potentially stop it from grabbing its second consecutive Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship.
Well, here’s the deal as things stand right now: It won’t make much of a difference the rest of this season.
Why? This team has great depth at almost every weight class.
The biggest example of this team’s depth is its win over the Presidents of Washington & Jefferson on Jan. 10. Going into the match, the team had just suffered multiple injuries that were either season ending or caused wrestlers to miss some time. Without a typical starter at more than half of the contested bouts, and losing six out of 10 matches, the team pulled out a walk-off 24-22 win behind pins from junior 197-pounder Josh Sneeringer and senior Jake Evans at 285 pounds.
Likewise, 12 different wrestlers on the team have reached double digits wins this season, with three of them having at least 20 wins in freshman Caleb Baxter (22), senior Tristan Buxton (30) and Evans (32).
The second reason this team is still in good shape for the rest of the season is that many of those injured wrestlers have already returned or will be back in time for the PAC Championships.
Baxter missed the match against W&J, but otherwise has been healthy and dominant in his time on the mat in his first season as a Yellow Jacket. The freshman from Butler, Pennsylvania has 13 wins by pin this season and has won three PAC Rookie of the Week Awards at 174 pounds.
Freshman Matt Lascola recently returned after missing time off the mat and scored wins against Thomas More and Thiel at 141 pounds.
During the Thiel match, head coach Ron Headlee saw two starters in sophomore Dan Verhovsek (157 pounds), who has battled a shoulder injury for much of the campaign after posting 19 wins as a freshman, and sophomore Ken Burrs (197 pounds). The duo notched victories in their respective weight classes en route to one of Waynesburg’s most dominant wins of the year, 40-6.
Despite losing, as Headlee described, the No. 1 and No. 2 184 pounders in freshman Mike Mahon, who is out for the year, and junior Mike Millero, who doesn’t have a timetable for returning yet, senior Landon Lohr should fill in admirably as the 184 pounder with 55 wins in his career at Waynesburg. Lohr typically wrestles between 165 and 174 pounds, but the circumstances call for him to bump up a weight class when necessary. Sophomore Adam Rigney should also be available at 184 pounds and has also seen varsity time in his first two seasons.
The final reason this team should be able to overcome this injury bug is that they’re just filled with talent. Buxton, Baxter and Evans are typically locks for bonus points when they hit the mat, so that gives the team potentially up to 18 points between those three, not to mention guys like freshman Josh Kuslock (133 pounds) and senior Derek Hull (165 pounds), who have been steady all year with 19 and 16 wins, respectively. Burrs has scored bonus points in 12 of his 15 wins this season. Freshmen Dillion Charlton and RJ Hall and junior Josh Sneeringer have 11 wins each, each of whom weren’t starters at the beginning of the year.
While the injuries might not be ideal, this team is getting healthy at the right time and should not be impacted too severely in regards to the upcoming PAC Championships from the injury bug that has plagued the team all season.