Gennaro Bonnaventura After sweeping its Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) schedule last week with wins over Washington & Jefferson and Thiel, this weekend the Waynesburg wrestling team will participate in the 33rd annual John Summa Tournament, hosted by Baldwin Wallace.
Head coach Ron Headlee said this trip to Baldwin Wallace is to act as a way to solidify his lineup heading into the PAC Championships, which take place next Saturday, Feb. 8.
Given that multiple teams competing in the John Summa Tournament are also in the Yellow Jackets’ region, he also is eager to square up against teams they will see once they head to the regional tournament.
“How I look at it is that it’s a real good tune-up before your regional tournament going into that,” Headlee said. “It gives you one last good look at some hard teams.”
Additionally, the other two PAC teams will compete in the tournament. Headlee, as his team prepares to defend its PAC title for the second straight year, is happy that his wrestlers will get one more chance to see the opponents they will square up with next weekend at this tournament.
Building off that, the host team Baldwin Wallace, which is currently ranked sixth in the country by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, offers Waynesburg an opportunity to square up with some of the nation’s best.
Baldwin Wallace defeated Waynesburg 35-12 earlier this season.
“[We’re] just seeing wherever we stack up because Baldwin Wallace is definitely a tough team and that’s what we tell our guys—‘If you go in and wrestle with them, you’re going to be seeing that same caliber of wrestling at your regionals,’” Headlee said. “You’re going to have to beat someone like that to make it to nationals.”
The season hasn’t exactly been what Headlee envisioned at the beginning of the year, as the team is currently 7-7 overall in part due to an influx of injuries and other factors. However, the team has hit its stride in recent weeks with a fifth-place finish at the Spartan Mat Classic Jan. 12, followed by the two PAC victories last week.
“I think we are on pace. We wrestled a really hard schedule the first semester, and with our guys its hard. You have to stay on the course,” Headlee said. “We just were losing guys to injury and didn’t have our lineup that we were planning on having. So, you just have to get better individually.”
According to Headlee, many wrestlers have stepped up in starter’s absences, particularly senior Nick Kusich at 197 pounds in place of Ken Burrs’ the 2018 National qualifier. Headlee is confident in the team’s prospects going into the final couple weeks of the regular season.
“[We are] getting guys at weight classes where they can compete better,” Headlee said. “I think we are just starting to gel a little bit, I think they are starting to believe in themselves and each other. That’s what we need and that’s what we hope to do at the end of the year.”
As for the 2018, 285-pound, national champion Jake Evans, who is 36-1 this season with 21 pins, Headlee anticipates him to keep rolling with the momentum he’s built up as he prepares to defend his national title.
“We’ve just been telling him one match at a time and this time of the year he’s mixed it up and tried some different things,” Headlee said. “Now’s the time of year to do what you do best, keep it simple and don’t try to overthink it. Just keep doing what you do best and keep going from here on out.”
The 33rd John Summa Tournament is set to start at 10 a.m. this Saturday in Berea, Ohio.