In their last regular season contest, the No. 24 Mountaineers defeated Gardner-Webb 45-3 at home Sunday afternoon to finish with a 10-4 overall record.
“Our guys scored a lot of points today,” said head coach JohnMark Bentley. “We had some guys that wrestled really hard.”
Before the match, four senior wrestlers were recognized in Varsity Gym: 141-pound redshirt junior Ike Byers, 149-pound redshirt senior Cody Bond, heavyweight senior Jacob Sartorio and 141-pound junior Heath Gonyer.
To begin the dual, App State won their first matches at 157, 165 and 174 lbs. No. 19 junior Tommy Askey won 21-5 by tech fall at the 5:16 mark against Tyler Brignola. Junior Will Miller, ranked No. 22, followed by defeating Andrew Wlson via fall in the first period. Finally, redshirt sophomore Luke Uliano won by fall with a second-period pin to give the Black and Gold a 17-0 lead.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs responded in the 184-pound match as freshman Tomas Brooker lost a 7-3 decision against No. 28 and two-time NCAA qualifier Jha’Quan Anderson, giving Garnder-Webb three points.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, but I think we saw some things that we’re doing better and have shown tremendous improvement at that weight class,” Bentley said.
The Mountaineers wouldn’t look back, winning the next six matches to secure a dual victory.
At 197 lbs, sophomore Carson Floyd defeated Josh McCutchen in a 9-1 major decision before the halfway point intermission.
Redshirt sophomore Triston Norris made his season debut at heavyweight, and won a 11-1 major decision against Edison Flores.
In the final four matches, the Black and Gold won at 125, 133, 141 and 149 lbs. Junior Chad Bellis won by fall, 27th ranked redshirt sophomore Ethan Oakley won by 14-2 major decision, Byers secured a 14-3 major decision and redshirt freshman Kaden Kesier landed a fall after 43 seconds.
With Sunday’s senior day victory, App State improved to 7-1 in the SoCon and 66-6 in SoCon duals since 2014.
“Now is when everything counts,” Bentley said. “We’ll work on fine tuning a couple of things.”
The Mountaineers will compete on the mat in the SoCon Championship as the host school March 9 in Holmes Convocation Center. The tournament will begin at 10 a.m, with finals scheduled for 7 p.m.
