App State wrestling had an eventful two-match weekend as they dismantled Virginia Military Institute 40-3 Thursday in Boone. The following day, they proceeded to Blacksburg, Virginia to face off against the No. 7 Virginia Tech Hokies
App State had 12 different wrestlers compete over the weekend with the only changes between the duals coming at the 125 and 174-pound weight classes. Freshmen Cooper Foster and Colt Campbell started Thursday, while head coach JohnMark Bentley chose to go with more veteran wrestlers in redshirt junior Colby McBride and redshirt senior Joe Zovistoski Friday.
The Mountaineers kicked off the two-day stretch on a cold Thursday night, keeping the heat on in Varsity Gymnasium against VMI. They won the first 9 matches against their Southern Conference foe en route to a dominant victory that saw a three-match stretch where no Keydet wrestler was able to score a single point.
The streak began with 197-pound redshirt sophomore Logan Eller winning a 9-0 major decision. Eller took 4 points off of 3 stalling calls in the first period alone. He finished his night with a takedown in the final period to cement the extra-point decision.
The heavyweight match continued the domination as sophomore Stephan Monchery needed just one minute and two seconds to pin his opponent — the second fall of his career. Monchery isn’t taking it as a personal victory but said that he knows that the work of the entire team enables his talents.
“You go through the same struggles every day: practice together, train together, we go through the hard stuff together, but we celebrate together,” Monchery said. “We all deserve that kind of win. It’s a team effort.”
The 125-pound match saw Foster finish the stretch with a tech fall after racking up 16 points in the first period. Half of his points came from two separate 4-point near falls, the last coming in the waning seconds of the match.
The win moves Foster to 2-0 in SoCon duals this season and 14-11 overall in his young career.
“I feel great. I feel like I’m improving every single day and that’s my goal,” Foster said. “At the end of the year, I’m going to win that SoCon title.”
Other wrestlers picking up bonus wins included No. 23 184-pound redshirt sophomore Tomas Brooker, 133-pound redshirt freshman Jarvis Little and 157-pound redshirt sophomore Jeremiah Price. Brooker showed phenomenal ability, netting takedown after takedown in his 20-4 tech-fall win.
Price and Little each won via major decision, 17-9 and 17-4, respectively. Both wrestlers needed big wins to start SoCon play, with Price losing 7 of his previous 9 matches and Little falling out of national rankings after a great start to his season.
The two closest of App State’s 9 wins came from No. 26 149-pound redshirt junior Kaden Keiser and Campbell. Both matches came down to the final seconds with the Black and Gold sneaking out 2-point victories with great takedown defense.
A controversial win came from 165-pound redshirt junior Anthony Conetta, as his opponent could not continue after a shoulder injury. The VMI coach was not happy with the official allowing Conetta to attempt a pin after his opponent was already screaming in pain, but no points were docked against the first-year starter.
The lone loss of the day came from 141-pound redshirt sophomore Aldo Hernandez, who dropped a 4-3 decision that saw him fail to take chances early on in the match. Coach Bentley and others in the crowd could be heard yelling “let’s go,” signaling to Hernandez that it was time to get on the offensive, but it came too little and too late.
The win marks the Mountaineers’ second in SoCon play and third-straight after victories over Presbyterian College and Duke University.
The Black and Gold then made the trek up the Blue Ridge Parkway Friday to face off against what could be their toughest opponent all year in the top-10 Virginia Tech Hokies. The team had a taste of their own medicine, losing 39-0 against a team that has seen every starter ranked at some point this season.
Zovistoski, McBride, Price and Hernandez each saw their opponents’ hands raised in tech-fall defeats, with McBride and Price as the only ones to grab more than 2 points. The starts for Zovistoski and McBride were the second and third career dual starts for them, respectively. Hernandez’s 16-0 result comes as a bit of a surprise, as he defeated his opponent earlier in the season at the Cliff Keen Invitational.
Conetta, Eller and Keiser also gave up extra point losses by major decision, with the 165-pound and 197-pound wrestlers losing 9-0. Keiser had the lone ranked-on-ranked matchup of the night and was the closest Mountaineer to grabbing a win, only down 4-2 heading to the final minute, but he gave up a takedown and 3 near-fall back points to end the match 10-2.
The three closest matches on the final score sheet came from Little, Brooker and Monchery. Little was unable to score any points but wrestled a very technically sound match versus the No. 11 wrestler in the 133-pound weight class. Brooker and Monchery lost 8-6 and 12-6, respectively, as each wrestler in Black and Gold had chances to win, but their opponents showed their rankings towards the end of the match.
App State moves to 4-5 after both dual matches. The matchup versus the Hokies completes non-conference play for the season as the Black and Gold finsih 3-5 outside of SoCon action.
App State returns home to host the Appalachian Open Saturday. The tournament-style event will begin at 10 a.m. and will host numerous teams and wrestlers from all across the country.
