Wyoming Area returns five district place winners and adds a pair of junior high conference champions as it tries to improve in the first season under former Warriors wrestler Jason Prokopchak.
Kendrick Beyer returns after winning a 126-pound District 2 Class 2A title while fellow senior Adam Buczynski is back after tying for second on the team in wins by going 27-12 and taking third place at 182 pounds.
Justin Joseph was fourth at 195, Robin Wroblewski was fifth at 113 and Justin Esposito finished sixth at 106 a year ago and are still underclassmen. Joseph and Esposito are juniors while Wroblewski is a sophomore.
The Warriors have other varsity experience from a team that was 2-3 in the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 and 10-10 overall, but formed a stronger tournament team because of its ability to place several wrestlers high in weight classes. Wyoming Area took fifth out of 14 in the team scoring at the District 2 Class 2A tournament.
Experience on lower levels could also pay off.
Charlie Banashefski and Corey Mruk won Wyoming Valley Conference junior high titles at 122 and 145 pounds. Alex Pierce took third at 130 pounds.
All three could find themselves in the varsity lineup as freshmen.
Prokopchak is still determining how many total freshmen to keep on the varsity roster and how many to give another year at the junior high level, a decision that must be made prior to the opener, a Dec. 10 dual meet trip to the Saucon Valley Tournament.
“We still have to check out weight classes and see where we’re going to have some lineups and see where they’re going to fit in,” Prokopchak said. “ … If there’s really not a spot for them, we determine if it might be a better fit for me on the junior high team, rather than be in the JV lineup.”
The five returning district place winners give the Warriors a solid base.
Tyler Martin, Jaren Polit-Moran and Nick Semanek also have experience.
Martin won nine times as a freshman at 126 and 132. Jaryn Polit-Moran, another current sophomore, wrestled in every spot from 152 to 182 while junior Nick Semanek put in the bulk of his time at 145 while each starting nearly full-time.
“They’ve been working hard all summer, as well,” Prokopchak said.
Prokopchak, a two-time District 2 champion at Wyoming Area and four-year NCAA Division I starter at Bucknell, has hopes for how his first team will look.
“They’re going to be aggressive on their feet, looking for falls while on top and always looking to score points,” he said, “but most importantly, they’re going to be in very good condition.”
Because there are only five matches in Division 2, the conference part of the schedule does not begin until Jan. 11 at home against Lake-Lehman.
The home opener and dual meet opener is Dec. 15 in a non-league match with Lackawanna Trail.
