Waynesburg and its young roster were still without top wrestler Rocky McGeary for Saturday’s action. Senior Dylan Winters competed in his first tournament since his freshman season. Winters had the best day wrestling at 133 with a 4-2 record and a dominant victory to advance him to the backside of the tournament.

The Jacket wrestlers had an average day in Washington County. Damion Finnegan, Alex Coppolo and Seth Evans all finished the day with solid records of 2-2.

The orange and black were looking to avenge its close loss against Division II Shippensburg last Wednesday that saw the Raiders pull out a 27-23 victory.

Dylan Winters finished with the best record of any Yellow Jacket wrestler. He finished with a 4-2 record and impressed head coach Ron Headlee in the process.

“He looked really good today,” Headlee said when praising Winters. “He wrestled really well along with Coppolo, I enjoyed watching those two today.”

Wrestling in a way is an individual sport. But at the end of the day, it is a collaborative effort. Coach Headlee saw improvement today, but recognizes his team still needs to develop and grow.

“For me overall, it’s good seeing guys get their first college wins and do things we’ve been working on and getting better at,” Headlee said. “So that’s been encouraging.”

Every day provides a new opportunity to get better. The Waynesburg wrestling team definitely improved from the Ned McGinley Invitational earlier in the year. The Yellow Jackets put up a good fight against Shippensburg and performed fairly well in the W&J tournament, having a couple guys with multiple wins.

“The things we’re working on in the practice room are starting to work, they’re getting better at it,” Headlee said. “We’re making some good shots, making some good decisions and they’re scoring. So, those are the things I like to see.”

The Yellow Jackets host the Waynesburg Duals next weekend. Again, they will be faced with another Division II opponent in Glenville State, but coach Headlee still wants to see improvement against their tough foe.

 “The first weekend we took a lot of losses, today, we had a lot of wins,” Headlee said. “We’re improving, we don’t have some of our top guns in there yet. The young guys are coming along and that’s what we need right now.”

Waynesburg will host the Waynesburg Duals on Saturday, Nov. 20. The other teams involved are Pitt Bradford, Alvernia and Glenville State. The tournament is set to begin at 12:30 pm.