The team of the 2010’s.

Many people have given that label to the Waynesburg University wrestling program.

But out of the seven PAC team championships the wrestling team has collected since the turn of the decade, the most recent carries the highest historical significance.

Heading into the final bout of the evening, Waynesburg and Washington & Jefferson College were tied with 103.0 team points.

Waynesburg’s closer was waiting.

Senior Jake Evans pinned W&J freshman Jacob Walker in just 1:23 to not only win the team tournament for Waynesburg, but also eclipsed the NCAA all-time career wins mark.

The four-time PAC heavyweight champion didn’t even bother to celebrate the milestone because he had one goal in mind.

“[Winning] will feel a lot better once I win nationals,” said Evans. “To me, this is a stepping stone. [Winning nationals] is the ultimate goal.”

Getting to the national level is also on the mind of head coach Ron Headlee, but he was also very pleased with how his team fought back.

“We did it the hard way,” Headlee said. “We had a terrible first round and it would have been easy for our guys to hang their heads. We had a team meeting and we said that [the championship hopes] aren’t over, just keep believing.”

Waynesburg did not tally a point until the second phase of matches and trailed by 19 points heading into the consolations. However, when it was time to begin the PAC Championship round, Waynesburg only trailed by four points after some miscalculations.

With the Yellow Jackets trading blows with W&J, the 174-pound match was the one Waynesburg needed to win to stay alive. Freshman Tony Welsh, a transfer from the University of Pitt-Johnstown, battled with a pair of takedowns late in the final period to come away with an 8-3 triumph over Thiel’s Austin Bonacci.

“We knew we needed to have that one,” said Headlee. “[Welsh] is coming in and getting in better condition. His addition has been huge for us.”

With the 184-and-197-pound matches featuring the Thiel and W&J wrestlers, Waynesburg sat by and watched a pair of Thiel wrestlers win their respective titles which set the stage for Evans’ history-making match.

“He’s just so humble,” Headlee said in regard to Evans. “He just goes out and does his work. He’s come so far, works so hard every day in the room. Coming from where he was not knowing if this was what he wanted to do to, [breaking a national record] shows that all of the hard work has paid off.”

With the Presidents’ Athletic Conference season complete, Headlee and his staff now turn to the NCAA Division III Southeast Regionals at Lycoming College starting Feb. 22.

With Evans returning as the reigning national champion and junior Ken Burrs getting healthy after suffering an injury over winter break, Headlee is looking forward to the next step.

“I want to be a top-10 team,” Headlee said. “If we can get there, we have to get guys to the national level and we can compete, I think.”

Headlee also picked up his seventh PAC Coach of the Year award with the memorable comeback and Evans won his second PAC Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Year award.