After jumping to a 16-5 lead, the Mountaineers fell to the senior led Camels 22-16 in a Friday night matchup in Buies Creek.
“It stings,” said head coach JohnMark Bentley. “I’m a little fired up about it and I think our guys will be too.”
With two SoCon foes facing off, Campbell won the 125-pound class bout as Anthony Molton defeated junior Chad Bellis by 19-4 via tech fall.
App State then won five consecutive duals to jump out to an early 16-5 lead.
“We were relentless,” Bentley said. “We didn’t give up in those matches.”
In a 133-pound matchup featuring two ranked wrestlers, redshirt sophomore Ethan Oakley defeated Domenic Zaccone in a 14-8 decision after trailing 7-1. Oakley’s comeback victory improves his career dual record to 16-0.
In his third career start, 141-pound redshirt junior Ike Byers won a 4-0 decision over Chris Rivera. Byers victory included a 99 second ride as his riding time gave him an advantage in the matchup.
At 149-pounds, redshirt senior Cody Bond ranked 20th defeating Justin Rivera in a 1-0 decision.
With three takedowns in the third period 157-pound junior Tommy Askey provided another Mountaineer victory in a 15-5 major decision over Chris Earnest.
In the Black and Gold’s final victory of the night, 165-pound junior Will Miller took advantage of a first period takedown to defeat Dom Baker in a matchup between top-30 wrestlers.
The Camels closed out the night with four victories over 174-pound redshirt sophomore Luke Uliano, 184-pound freshman Tomas Brooker, 197-pound sophomore Carson Floyd and heavyweight senior Jacob Sartorio.
This stretch of losses was too much for App State as Campbell took advantage of a three-point decision at 174 pounds, a six-point fall at 184, a three-point decision at 197 and a six-point fall in heavyweight. The Camels were deducted one team point for conduct at heavyweight.
With the 22-16 loss, App State falls to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in the SoCon.
“I think we got a good team,” Bentley said. “We’re continuing to get better, this team is still going to be a force to be reckoned with in March.”
The Mountaineers return home against VMI Sunday at 2 p.m. The match will be streamed on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.
