Young, coachable and committed. That's how first-year coach Pankil Chander describes his team. And, the return of NCAA regional fifth-place finisher Noah Hunt, along with the addition of several top-notch high school freshmen including PIAA state champion Isaac Cory, should help as the program continues to build.
 
The Wildcats are scheduled to open their season Saturday in the Ned McGinley Invitational at King's College.
 
A four-year wrestling starter at Wilkes University from 2013-17, Chander comes to Williamsport after spending the previous two seasons as the assistant coach at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Out of college, he spent a year as a volunteer assistant coach at Bloomsburg University and then two seasons as the assistant coach at Gettysburg College.
 
"Overall, we have an incredibly young team that needs to accumulate experience when it comes to competition. I think we'll see early on that the inexperience of this young team may show," Chander said. "I have noticed that this team has many quick and eager learners; this lends itself to significant growth curves as the year goes on. This also is encouraging when considering the progress this team can make throughout the season.
 
"We hope to be competitive as a tournament team since we have several individuals that know how to advance through a bracket well. I anticipate we'll have a competitive dual team with most of our lineup being able to compete with anyone. Our dual success will largely depend on if we can pick up bonus points with our stronger weight classes and have productive performances at the developing ones."
 
Hunt, a junior from Muncy and projected to start at 133-pounds this season, had a team-best 16-12 record a year ago mostly in the 141-pound weight class.
 
Joining him from last year's team that posted a 5-13 dual meet record are senior Ryan Berstler, of Middletown (125); sophomore Patrick Snoke, of Northampton (133); senior Colin Jens, of Centreville, Maryland (141); junior Logan Ledebohm, of Mechanicsburg (141); junior Andy Muzika, of Chalfont (149); sophomore Cullen van Rooyen, of Dresden, Ohio (149); sophomore Anton Easterbrook, of Wyomissing (157); and junior Gabriel Kennedy-Citeroni, of Blairsville (197).
 
Cory, of Montoursville (projected 184), captured the Class AA 189-pound title earlier this year. A four-time state qualifier, he finished seventh in the state in 2020 at 160 pounds and closed out his high school career with a 136-36 record.
 
Other newcomers of note include Mason Leshock, of Shamokin (157-165), a two-time state qualifier who was 117-63 during his high school career at Line Mountain; Liam Goodrich, of Cogan Station (141-149), a four-time PIAA District 4 place-winner with a 90-53 record at Jersey Shore High; Michael Sandacz, of York, the District 3 Class AAA runner-up at 113 pounds in 2022 at Central York; Billy Bumbarger, of Morrisdale, a District 6 Class AA place-winner at 215 in 2022 at West Branch High; Gage Sutliff, of Renovo, a four-time District 6 Class AA place-winner at Central Mountain High; Brett Patton, of West Chester; and Jake Kunselman, of Ridgway, a transfer student from Division II Davis and Elkins.
 
"Practice has been incredibly productive! We have covered significant ground in just two and a half weeks and the guys have responded well at every turn. From top to bottom, I have witnessed visible growth in each individual on our team. It is a coachable, fun and committed group," Chander said.
 
Team strengths, Chander said, are "coachability and commitment. This team is full of student-athletes who are in demanding majors when it comes to time and academic rigor. Because of the time demands and hands-on labs, we have a couple days a week that we have 6 a.m. practices. This has been a preferred time of training for our guys and that goes to show how committed and hard-working they are. They like getting up early, working hard, having fun and getting better with each other. They are also quick learners, which speaks to their coachability and potential to develop."
 
"We need to continue applying a growth mindset in training and competition. As a young program, we haven't had our first NCAA qualifier or All-American yet. It is tough to get over that hump as a team and program. We need to continually condition our mindset and approach to believe we are positioned to get over that hump," the coach stated of areas that still need work.
 
"As we all know, the college wrestling season is a grind, unlike any other sport. A major key to our success will be remaining healthy, continually making gains in training and competition, and having teammates challenge, encourage, and hold each other accountable," Chander said.
 
"This is the first season as members of the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference with many of the teams also in the NCAA Mideast Region. There are some perennial powerhouses in both the conference and region with proven training systems that develop great wrestlers. Our conference tournament in the third weekend of November will allow us to have many great opportunities for our top performers to test their mettle against the best pretty early in the season and provide a benchmark on where we're at," the coach continued.
 
"Every other event on our schedule is considered nonconference, but our schedule was designed to be challenging to best prepare our team for the postseason. We are going to some events for the first time, like the always tough Wilkes Open, the Waynesburg Invitational and a slate of duals at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio," Chander said.