As most of the fall sports seasons come to an end, the Waynesburg University wrestling team has begun practices and will be starting its season in the coming weeks.

Coming off a season in which the team won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship, had five individual conference champions, three medalists at the regional tournament, including a champion and two wrestlers that placed on the podium at the national tournament, expectations are high.

The returning conference champions graduated two key members of its 2016 roster, 141-pounder Filippo Crivelli and 184-pounder Ryan Shank. Crivelli finished his Yellow Jacket career with the most wins in program history with 121 and Shank had gone 74-23 over his final three years at Waynesburg, qualifying for the national tournament in his senior year campaign.

“We are definitely going to miss them, that’s a lot of wins right there between [Filippo] and Ryan [and] not [having them] in our lineup,” said head coach Ron Headlee. “I’m confident [we have] guys that can step in and do a good job for us.”

The Yellow Jackets still bring back a trio of PAC Champions in senior 125-pounder Tristan Buxton, sophomore 197-pounder Ken Burrs and junior heavyweight Jake Evans. Buxton had a 45-5 overall record for the season and fell just shy of qualifying for the national tournament, while Evans rolled to a program-record 49 wins, including 30 pins, and finished seventh at nationals.

The trio also have been noticed nationally heading into the 2017-18 campaign, as Evans is featured as the number-four 285-pounder by D3wrestle.com and Intermat, Buxton was listed as a ‘contender’ for the top 10 at 125 pounds by D3wrestle.com and Burrs was anointed as an honorable mention by D3wrestle.com for the 197-pound weight class.

They also return multiple contributors from the season last year, including the PAC runner-up at 165-pounds, sophomore Dan Verhovsek, senior Derek Hull, sophomore Adam Rigney, senior Landon Lohr and junior Matt Claxton, among others.

“I think we have good leadership in the room,” Headlee said. “I think those guys have seen what it takes. We have two guys, Ken and Tristan, who were close to [contending nationally] last year. They know what they missed out on and they’re hungry and want to get better. It’s a nice mix, we have a good upper-class mix and good group of young guys that I think can compete with a lot of people.”

The team also will welcome back two wrestlers that contributed in seasons prior: senior DJ Grindle, who Headlee said will likely fill in at 141-pounds for the graduated Crivelli and junior Mike Millero, who was the starting wrestler at 174-pounds as a freshman; both did not compete last season.

One of the biggest things Headlee said the coaching staff wanted to address was the hole the team had at 133-pounds last season. For a majority of the season, the team took a forfeit at that weight class because there wasn’t anyone on the team that typically wrestled that weight.

“We have three guys, three freshmen, who have come in. That was one of our main concerns,” he said. “Shawn McGing out of New York, Anthony Mastrangelo from Canon Mac and Josh Kuslock from Chartiers-Houston…all local guys that did well in high school last year. We’re expecting them to battle it out and one of those guys will fill that spot for us.”

Some other newcomers that Headlee brought in to bolster the roster includes Caleb Baxter at 165 or 174 pounds, Sean Bright at 285 pounds, Dillion Charlton at 174 pounds, Matt Lascola at 141 pounds, Marco Parry at 133 or 141 pounds, Jeff McConn at 157 pounds and Mike Mahon at 174 or 184 pounds, among other wrestlers.

Two new coaching changes also highlight the start of the 2017-18 season. Gennaro Bonaventura moves from the graduate assistant position to assistant coach, while Canonsburg, Pennsylvania native Colt Shorts, who recently graduated from Division I California Polytechnic State University, fills the graduate assistant opening.

“Gennaro has been here and has been in the GA role, so he knows what to expect from the team and that part. He has a good hands on feel for how I like to run practices and what I like to do without coming in with a whole new staff,” Headlee said. “Colt coming off a D1 program – he just has really good technique coming from Cannon Mac. He’s been a real good addition. He’s done what I’ve expected out of him. His technique is real good and the guys are picking up stuff off him right away. They’re impressed with how good a wrestler he really is and how he can help them.”

Headlee expects a lot out of his team for the upcoming season and thinks he has the pieces to again contend for a PAC title. The ultimate goal for the 10th-year head coach, however, is to try and get multiple individual wrestlers to be All-Americans.

“There’s a lot of things that happen from November to get to March, but I like the team that we have this year,” said Headlee. “For me, it’d be nice to win a PAC title, but it’d be nice to have three or four guys on the award stand at nationals this year. Nationals are at Cleveland State, so it’s real close. It’d be nice to have a few guys going there.

The team’s annual Orange/Black Wrestle-Offs begins this Saturday, Nov. 4, at 11 a.m., but the official season gets underway next Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.

“It’s always been nice wrestling here at Waynesburg,” Headlee said. “I think we get good fan support and other people that are there. It’s just a great time and I hope the guys have a good experience here and I really feel privileged to be able to coach here.”