The Waynesburg University wrestling team’s season started last weekend with the Orange/Black wrestle-offs. In the annual inter-squad battle, the black team emerged victorious 19-9.

This year the Yellow Jackets are filled with the veteran wrestlers like senior Jake Evans, the returning Division III National Champion at 285-pounds, junior 197-pounder Ken Burrs, who also competed in the national championship tournament last season, and sophomores Caleb Baxter, (165-174) and Josh Kuslock, (131-141), who were PAC runner-up’s last year.

Head coach Ron Headlee saw Baxter and Kuslock grapple well in the Orange/Black wrestle-offs and even saw a freshman emerge as a competitor for a starting role.

“They’re two guys that are going to battle, they have great attitudes, shaking hands and saying they wrestled well,” Headlee said. “Dillion [Charlton] and Baxter are a great match and they also battled and gave us everything we want out of them.”

This was also the first time for the two new freshmen to wrestle and Headlee expects them to have an impact in the starting roster this year. Dylan Williams will be replacing last year’s starting 125-pounder Tristan Buxton, who was a national tournament competitor in his senior campaign. Dylan Winters is anticipated to fill the role of starting 133-pounder.

“Dylan Williams, who transferred from [University of Pitt-Johnstown]—we like a lot of stuff he’s doing in the room and just seeing him out there solidifying some of the stuff we did there,” said Headlee. “The other Dylan [Winters]—it’s kind of nice having Dylan [and] Dylan back-to-back and I am just happy. Sometimes you recruit, and you don’t know what you got. You can watch them in school a bit, but I think they are going to be good ones for us.”

Overall for Headlee, it was a productive start to the 2018 season.

“I thought it went well, I was happy with close matches. I knew that we would have some good, contested matches,” Headlee said. “Overall you’re looking for conditioning to see if our guys are using the stuff we’re working on.”

Evans and Burrs were both at the Clarion Open instead of the Orange/ Black wrestle-offs in order to start the season off with some stiff competition, knowing their roles in the starting lineup for the Yellow Jackets were solidified.

Both Burrs and Evans were the only Division III talent at an event which hosted many wrestlers from Division I. Burrs went 2-2 and fell one match short of the bronze match.

Evans had a much more dominant day on the mat, going 5-1 and finishing third. He was knocked off by Demetrius Thomas from University of Pittsburgh, who eventually won the 285-pound title.

For Evans, he didn’t think twice about going against high competition, which included a Penn State recruit in Seth Nevills, who is a four-time state champion in California and comes into the 2018-19 season as the number two heavyweight recruit in the country. Evans defeated Nevills 6-1 in the third-place match.

“I was watching him wrestle a little bit,” Evans said. “I didn’t think he was that special, like he [didn’t] look very athletic at all so I felt like I could take him. Going in I felt I could use my speed against him.”

Going into the year as a defending national championship, Evans feels that wrestling against better competition at the beginning will prepare him for a repeat. Headlee was proud to see his guys do well at Clarion.

“Really pleased, just showing what we are doing in the room works against the best guys, in the country at the Division I level,” Headlee said. “I am really happy the way the guys went up there and represent us really well, I am really proud of them.”

The Yellow Jackets will be back in action this Saturday at the Washington & Jefferson Invitational, which starts at 9:45 a.m.