Chambersburg’s Zach Evans has signed to wrestle at the University of Buffalo next year.

Zach Evans has set some pretty lofty goals for himself before he begins his senior year of wrestling for Chambersburg at 215 pounds.

“I want to win the ETR (Escape the Rock Tournament) and win states, and then win the Senior Nationals in the spring,” said Evans, setting a high bar, indeed.

Fortunately, one of his other goals has already been met.

Last week, Evans committed to the University of Buffalo, a Division I school in the MAC Conference.

“I didn’t want to be worrying about it during the season,” Evans said about his early decision. “I just want to focus on wrestling.”

Evans is already a three-year starter for the Trojans, going 19-15 as a freshman, 18-7 in an injury-shortened sophomore season and 23-7 last year as a junior. He has a 60-29 career record, and was 1-1 in the District 3 Tournament last year before getting knocked out by default.

“I think a lot of our kids this year are poised to break out, and Zach is definitely one of them,” Chambersburg coach Matt Mentzer said. “He’s practicing in a good room, with Avery (Kuhns) and Aiden (Hight) to work with and he had a good consistent summer of work.”

Evans said, “I did a lot of work in the room (in the offseason), and I worked out with the Young Guns (club), too. Anytime you wrestle, you will get better. I worked on getting out from bottom and stopping shots.”

Buffalo assistant coach Kyle Shoop, a graduate of Boiling Springs, was the contact that helped Evans decide to wrestle with the Bulls.

Mentzer said, “He’s local and he has ties here — he’s worked some clinics down here. He reached out to me and then Zach took his visits. And now he’ll get to keep wearing the blue and white.”

Evans talked to coaches from Drexel, Franklin & Marshall and Davidson, but once he visited Buffalo he knew what he wanted.

“I took an unofficial visit in July, and then the official visit about a month ago,” he said. “It kind of felt like Chambersburg. I live in Fayetteville and the campus is like that — a smaller area outside of the bigger town.”

With his decision made, Evans is looking forward to his final year and believes his team has a chance to make it memorable.

“I think we can make a little run and make the team state tournament,” he said.