BUTLER TWP — Butler wrestling is coming off its worst dual-match season ever and three of the team's would-be top returnees are no longer with the program.

Ian McLaughlin has transferred to Kiski Prep, Ryan Bock has rushed for 1,200 yards and 22 touchdowns for unbeaten St. Joseph (Mich.) in football and Jordan Emrick opted not to wrestle this year.

But don't feel too badly for 15th-year coach Scott Stoner.

"We've got a pretty solid lineup from top to bottom,"Stoner said. "We should have a team well-suited for dual matches and we're wrestling a lot of those this year.

"We definitely want to get back into the (WPIAL)team playoffs. We've got some talented young kids to go with our senior group that we want to send out on a positive note."

Butler, 7-14 last year, opens its regular season with a home dual match against Shaler tonight. Seniors in the Tornado starting lineup include Dave Jaillet (13-15 last year) at 119 pounds, Aaron Raible (15-17) at 130, Ken Rosenbauer (9-17) at 140, Jon Sanko at 145, three-year letterman Alex Evanoff (82-41 career, 20-13 last year) and two-year letterman Josh Pascazi (58-15 career, 30-7 last year) rotating between 152 and 160, and Mark Moses (8-15) at heavyweight.

Sanko was 23-12 as a sophomore and did not wrestle last year. Moses is only a second-year wrestler.

"Mark has improved a ton over last year and Jon's return will have a definite impact,"Stoner said.

Other key returnees are Derek Hays, who may wrestle anywhere from 145 pounds through 171, junior 215-pound Marino Quercio (23-13). junior 171-pound Jake Lytle (4-4) and sophomore 112-pound Daman Redenbach, who was hurt all of last year.

Four members of Butler's section championship junior high team last year are cracking the Tornado varsity lineup: Eric Tuck at 103, Mike Crawford at 112, Cole Baxter at 130 and Chris White at 189. All four won section titles a year ago and their combined won-loss record was 78-13.

"Cole was 24-0 and gave up two escape points in two years of junior high wrestling,"Stoner said.

Here is a look at other area wrestling teams:

Veteran coach Marty Ruley enters his 30th season and is looking for his 250th career dual match victory when the Eagles host Hickory tonight. Ruley is 249-149 in his career.The team lost five quality seniors friom last year, including Charlie Baer (Thiel) and Josh Miller (Mercyhurst), but plenty of talent returns.Junior 112-pound Johnny Pas, senior 152-pound and captain Craig Johnson, along with junior 160-pound Caleb Kolb all won at least 30 matches last year.Others in the lineup include sophomore Garrett Zarecky at 119, junior Brady Fyffe at 125, sophomore Aaron Anderson at 130, junior Grant Errera at 140, sophomore Kirby Buchanan at 145, senior Justin Spencer at 171, junior Nick Miller at 189 and senior Caleb David at 215."We've got seven pretty good wrestlers in our lineup right now," Ruley said. "Our other kids are young, inexperienced and not quite as good — yet."

The Knights won only two matches in their first season last year and coach Mark McLaughlin doesn't return a lot of wrestlers."Some of our more promising kids chose not to return this year,"McLaughlin said. "Maybe they didn't realize the commitment the sport takes, I don't know ... It's very frustrating."Sophomore 112-pound Grayson Hixon (17-4, WPIALqualifier) does return for Knoch, along with senior John Zellhart at 152 or 160 and sophomore Richard Rickerd (6-7) at 135. A torn ACLcurtailed Rickerd's first wrestling season.Senior heavyweight D.J. Miller is back as well."We won't be as bad as last year, but we won't be as good as we could have been if everyone was back, either,"McLaughlin said. "Still, we want to win a few more matches and contuinue to progress."

Fourth-year coach Don Cooley will try to get the Planets to rebound from a 6-21 season.Two 20-win wrestlers return in senior 135-pound Luke Selker and junior 130-pound Luke Salter.Other key returnees are senior 160-pound Ben Ziggas (11-20) and senior heavyweight Ryan Johnston, who was .500 last year.Freshman 125-pound Ronnie Dakin had a lot of mat success in junior high."We're young, but we should be able to field a full lineup,"Cooley said. "We're building the program here, all of us, and the goal is to get somebody to Hershey."Two former Mars wrestlers in their second year on the mat for Division I programs — Dave Pisarcik at Purdue and Adam Smetana at Penn State — are red-shirting this year.

Lee Mullett returns for his fourth year and led the Raiders to a 12-7 record last season.Top returnees include junior Grant Evans (19-9) at 119, sophomore Nate Cully (19-9) at 135, senior heavyweight Zach Eckstrom (8-10, section title) and sophomore Dan Papst (14-16) at 130."We're loaded with freshmen and sophomores this year,"Mullett said. "We've got very few juniors and seniors."We want to continue what we've had going here for three years now, and that's posting winning seasons."

Longtime mat coach Fred Powell has retired and 19-year-old Derek DeGraaf takes over a program that has three starters returning.Back on the mat will be junior 103-pound Ryan Gossett, junior 152-pound Adam Kummer and senior 189-pounder Drew Grills. Gossett had a winning record last year.The Rockets have 15 wrestlers in the program."We won two matches at the Hampton duals last year and that was it," DeGraaf said. "Hopefully, we can improve upon that and send a couple of kids to districts, maybe regionals."Depth will be a problem and we're going to be inexperienced. We'll have to work at it."

John McLeod returns as the only wrestling coach the Knights have ever had. He is in his 30th year as a mat coach overall.All of Summit's wrestlers are in their first year, with 160-pound Melvin Roman, 112-pound Eric Walker and 130-pound Tariq Muhamed showing the most promise early."Our goal, as always, is to teach the sport to the kids and hopefully peak toward the end of the year,"McLeod said.