When Lou Rivellini took over as head coach of East Haven wrestling a season ago, he was expecting a long process for his squad to become one of the top programs in the state. Although the Yellowjackets aren’t quite there yet, they’re well ahead of schedule and standing at 16-7 this season. East Haven picked up victory No. 16 last week by blowing out New Haven 72-12.

“If I’m being honest, we’re definitely ahead of schedule. We thought this was going to be a three-to-five-year process to be where we’re at,” said Rivellini. “Even though we lost two senior captains and one of our top-five wrestlers, we’re a borderline top-20 program. That’s not what we expected at this stage of the game.”

The Yellowjackets’ four captains this season are seniors Jose Magana-Bautista, Mark Moreno, and Codey Borchert, as well as junior Tim Seksinski. Having lost Magana-Bautista and Moreno for the year with injuries, Rivellini thinks his team could be doing even better if they were competing this winter.

“Looking back at the whole season, it’s still a great season, but what could’ve been? Without the injuries, we could’ve possibly been a top-10 program. In my opinion, we’re a great dual-meet team because our whole team, top to bottom, is pretty solid,” Rivellini said, who noted the injured captains are still around to help the team improve. “We still have Jose to help the younger guys develop; Mark, as well. We had high hopes as they had a lot of promise, so we were devastated we lost them. That was a huge loss, but they’re around to be positive role models for our younger guys.”

Virtually every Saturday, East Haven competes at a multi-squad competition, which Coach Rivellini believes is a big reason for the team’s rapid development.

“Right now, the most important thing is getting our guys matches. In the past, we’ve had some Saturdays off, but we decided that since have such a big team, it’s better to wrestle five matches every Saturday,” he said. “Having that many matches, we’re able to give out matches, so everyone has a chance to develop. Having more matches has allowed our guys to get better. The only way to get better in wrestling is to just wrestle more, so we’re trying to get in as much wrestling as we can.”

On Feb. 2, East Haven hosted New Haven and won the bout 72-12 with 10 of its 12 wins coming by forfeit.

“It’s great we have numbers up this year. That’s indicative of the culture we’re starting to spread this year,” Rivellini said. “Kids want to be a part of this team and they want to be a part of a winning team. That’s what we have here. Some guys will join, tell their friends, and they try it and love it.”

For the Yellowjackets who wrestled against New Haven, one was Seksinski, who was a victor in the 195-pound weight class when he pinned Deshar Blackmon in 1:36.

“Tim came out and did what he always does. The kid is automatic. Every time he goes out there, we know we’re going to get a win from him,” Rivellini said. “He did the same thing tonight. He has a great double leg, shot a great double leg takedown, threw a half-nelson, and that was it. That’s just Tim’s thing.”

Justin Fonacier followed that up with a pin over Stephen Mikolike in the 220 class in 2:59.

“Justin has stepped up all year. He weighs 210, but so often we ask him to go up to heavyweight and he ends up still beating that guy, even though he’s giving 30 pounds,” Rivellini said. “Justin wins probably 80-to-90 percent of his matches. Like our team, he’s ahead of schedule. He’s better than we thought he’d be as a sophomore.”