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Wyoming Valley West has had a number of rebuilding seasons since a historic season in 2014 when the program swept championships in the Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2.Since then, the Spartans experienced four losing seasons until finally getting over the .500 mark this season and qualifying for district duals.They still finished in fourth in Division I of the WVC, but now they consist of six regional qualifiers for this weekend&#8217;s Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament, which is the second-most among teams from the conference. Only Hazleton Area&#8217;s 11 bests the Spartans.&#8220;Obviously we&#8217;ve had our ups and downs since then and we&#8217;re trying to rebuild I think we&#8217;re on the uphill of the rebuild,&#8221; said coach Ryan Vassello, who was an assistant on the team in 2014 before taking over the head coaching duties. &#8220;I think the future of the Valley West program is starting to look bright once again and I think the offseason program is helping. I think what we&#8217;ve gotten away from is that offseason program. We&#8217;ve put a lot of time in and all of our success has come from the amount of work we&#8217;ve put in. The kids are starting to buy in and it&#8217;s showing.&#8221;Valley West consists of a pair of historic wrestlers in 126-pounder David Krokowski, who became the 29th athlete in D2 history last weekend to win four straight district golds. His workout partner JJ White, also reached a milestone with his third district title last weekend, doing so while not losing a match to anyone in all of District 2.But there are others from the Spartans who have also contributed in big ways.Cadden Kucek, a junior like White, reached the 120-pound district final before losing in overtime to Scranton&#8217;s Bobby Zelinski. Freshman Ian Ratchford advanced to regionals with a fourth-place finish at 106 pounds. With those two performances, Vassello is optimistic about the future of the team.&#8220;Some of those guys they have the best workout partners in the conference in White and Krokowski so when you&#8217;re working with guys like that on a daily basis, you have no choice but to get better,&#8221; Vassello said. &#8220;You grind on a daily basis. Those guys are in your face always constantly pushing the pace and you have to get better in a situation like that.&#8221;Seniors Jaylon Brunson (160) and Dave White (no relation to J.J.) also advanced to regionals.For Brunson, it&#8217;s his second straight appearance after his second consecutive finish at districts. White (220) placed fourth at districts for his first district medal after spending several years with the program since junior high.&#8220;It&#8217;s all about getting into the grind of the offseason workouts. Once people see what the offseason truly does and what the outcome can be everyone is going to follow suit,&#8221; Vassello added.A Patriots&#8217; stunnerFor the second time in three years, Pittston Area will not have a participant in the Class 3A regional. The Patriots have been a rebuilding mode for the last few years.Before this little blip, the Patriots enjoyed plenty of success. So much that even though this is the second time in three years with no regional qualifier, it&#8217;s also just the second time since 1990 that the team hasn&#8217;t produced a wrestler for regionals.Junior A.J. Gorto was the team&#8217;s highest placer at districts taking fifth, one place shy of moving on to the next round.Help is on the way though as the team had three champions in the WVC Junior High Tournament last month, the second-most in the tournament.Breaking throughIt&#8217;s rare when an underclassmen from the Wyoming Valley Conference doesn&#8217;t get to the state tournament in Class 3A and then returns another year during his career.Last year, there were four underclassmen that advanced to states in 3A and will be looking to advance again this season. Krokowski, Dallas&#8217; Steven Newell and Hazleton Area&#8217;s Shane Noonan are hoping to get back to states by finishing in the top four this weekend. Tunkhannock&#8217;s Dave Evans qualified in 3A last year as a sophomore, but is now in Class 2A.There are five underclassmen from the WVC who claimed a district gold last week in Coughlin&#8217;s Cooper Price (freshman), Hazleton Area&#8217;s Johnny Corra (sophomore), Valley West&#8217;s J.J. White (junior) and Hazleton Area&#8217;s Charles Everdale and Jake Marnell (both juniors).<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West 126-pound grappler David Krokowski is one of six Spartans wrestling at the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament this weekend. Only Hazleton Area&#8217;s 11 wrestlers bests the Spartans within the WVC. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_wvc_finals2_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Valley West 126-pound grappler David Krokowski is one of six Spartans wrestling at the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament this weekend. Only Hazleton Area&#8217;s 11 wrestlers bests the Spartans within the WVC. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave RosengrantFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>CLASS 3A NORTHEAST REGIONAL TOURNAMENTWhere: Liberty High School, BethlehemWhen: Friday and SaturdayAt stake: The top four placewinners advance to next weekend&#8217;s PIAA Championships at Giant Center in HersheyWyoming Valley ConferenceClass 3A Regional QualifiersBerwick: J.J. Snyder (195)Coughlin: Cooper Price (106); Nino Cinti (126); Jamie Pahler (138)Crestwood: Jordan Miale (132); Garrett Swank (138)Dallas: Justin Benscoter (113); Len Kelley (170); Steven Newell (182); Taylor Bolesta (220); Shawn Henniger (285)Hazleton Area: Johnny Corra (113); Beck Hutchison (120); Jorven Rodriguez (126); Christian Kislan (132); Charles Everdale (145); Bryce Molinaro (152); Dante Matarella (160); Jake Marnell (170); Jayson Brielmeier (182); Seth Hunsinger (195); Shane Noonan (220)Nanticoke Area: Shane Repasky (285)Wyoming Valley West: Ian Ratchford (106); Cadden Kucek (120); David Krokowski (126); J.J. White (132); Jaylon Brunson (160); Dave White (195)</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

H.S. Wrestling: Wyoming Valley West looking to make splash at regionals