Inside the John Reese wrestling center the 7th ranked Wilkes Colonels prepare for another wrestling match. The division III power with plenty of talent across the board and a pipeline of wrestlers from Head Coach Jon Laudenslager's home area of Pocono Mountain and District 11.
"I have a lot of ties there, it's a perfect fit for most of these kids. It's an hour away. An hour an a half away. So I think a lot of them know each other and our best recruiters are our kids," said Jon Laudenslager.
3rd ranked Mark Hartenstine is from Easton. He is (16-1). Teammate Kristopher Krawchuk the "Bulldog" from Northern Lehigh is (21-2) and 5th in division III, and Matthew Transue out of Stroudsburg at (19-8) loves wrestling for Wilkes.
"The MVC has prepared me for college, but definitely being here having Slager he's fine-tuned whatever moves you need to do and we're pushing ourselves as hard as we can," said Matthew Transue.
"All the Stroudsburg guys we got along with Mark Misczenski from Easton all the Easton guys we got Flecky. It's just really good to be wrestling with these guys up here," said Mark Hartenstine.
With a win up in the Marts Center the Wilkes wrestling team will extend their winning streak to 18 wins in a row and tie a university record set back in 1979-1980.
"It's more or less something to feed off of in the room pushing each other everyday anytime you can break a record as a team is something say for what you have done that season," said Kristopher Krawchuk.
The Wilkes Colonels also honoring former wreslter and fallen Army Ranger Sandrino Plutino with the community service award. This year's recipients the women's field hockey team
"Sandrino Plutino was on my first team that I coached here, so he was on my original team won the first dual meet together and just a great kid obviously a tragic story. He's brought a lot of great to Wilkes you know there's been more community service done here the last year and a half than my entire time here," added Jon.