The Whitehall grapplers will be hitting the mat this upcoming season with a roster that has veterans sprinkled throughout the lineup.

They return starters in the lightweights, middleweights and upper weights, giving the Zephs a good foundation heading into the 2018-19 campaign.

They finished 11-8 overall last season and will look to build on that success as they roll out the new campaign that began with a dual meet Dec. 10 versus Pocono Mountain West.

Returning for the Zephs will be lightweights Caleb Staub, Luke Rex, Josh Grol, Wilfred Jimenez and Carlos Lorenzo. Of that group, Staub, Grol and Rex are seniors and should provide valuable leadership to a team that has a good mix of youth and veterans. Those four have a lot of varsity matches under their belts, and will form a solid foundation as they embark on the upcoming campaign.

Staub registered 13 wins last season, while fellow senior Grol notched 13. They also got double-digit wins from junior Carlos Lorenzo who finished the season with 15 victories.

Their middleweights also feature a strong group of returning grapplers, including Kai Clark who missed a substantial portion of last season who was able to compete in nine matches, winning five.

Also in that group is sophomore Aiden Toussaint and junior Sean Cunningham Jr., both of whom saw plenty of varsity action last season.

Junior Izak Bright leads their upperweights, recording 12 wins for the Zephs last season.

Head coach Tim Cunningham said that they’ll also feature some newcomers and that group has a number of promising performers. Those looking to give the Zephs an added boost will be freshmen Johnny Colon (113 lbs.). Tyler Cunningham (113 lbs.), Xavier Arner (126 lbs.) and Mike Hernandez (160 lbs.).

Sophomores who will be looking to make their mark include Jhonangel Guzman (195 lbs.) and Tim Ritter, also at 195.

Head coach Tim Cunningham is eager to lead this year’s roster of established vets and talented newcomers into the rigors of a tough Eastern Pennsylvania Conference schedule that sees them battle Northampton and Bethlehem Catholic this season, two of the top teams in the league.

“We are looking forward to working with the core of returning wrestlers as well as the good crop of young wrestlers that could make up the nucleus of our team for the next several years,” said Cunningham who is embarking on his sixteenth season as the head coach. “We will have some holes to fill as well, and maybe not filling each weight class which makes it difficult to win dual meets.”

His mission once they get inside the wrestling room is to prepare every wrestler as best as they can.

“We plan on concentrating on making each wrestler better every day and be at their best for the postseason,” said Cunningham. “We hope to install a culture similar to what we had years back and that is you need to earn it through hard work and having the intrinsic desire to be competitive in every match they wrestle.”

Cunningham said that what matters is how one competes during the match and not the results after the bout.

“We stress scoring points not winning or losing, and hopefully develop a relentlessly attacking style no matter who they are wrestling,” said Cunningham. “If they do this it is all we can ask for as a staff.”