PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Reigning Southern Confernence wrestler-of-the-week, Denzel Dejournette, continued the excellent start to his season at the Keystone Classic on Sunday. Dejournette claimed first place in the heavyweight division and helped Appalachian State University wrestling place sixth.
The Mountaineers had four wrestlers place on the day with Dejournette finishing first, Dylan Cottrell coming in second place at 149, Dominic Parisi claiming third at 125, and Michael Longo placing fifth at 141.
Dejournette started his tournament with a 6-1 decision victory over Rider's Andrew Marr. In the second round Dejournette earned another decision over Gage hutchison (Eastern Michigan), 9-4. Dejournette pinned Alex Macki (South Dakota State) 2:10 into the quarterfinal. In the Semifinal, Dejournette defeated Nathan Butler (Stanford) by 2-0 decision. Dejournette capped off his tournament with 6-3 decision against Havard's David Ng in the final.
Cottrell pinned Frederick Dunau (Penn) at the 3:15 mark in the opening round followed by a 5-1 decision victory over Andrew Kaluzny (Pitt). Cottrell then won by major decision 14-6 in the quarterfinal over Josh Lauderdale (Stanford). In the semifinal, Cottrell defeated No. 13 (Intermat) Mike Racciato by decision 8-2. No. 1 ranked (Intermat) Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) defeated Cottrell in a close 5-4 decision in the final.
In the 125 weight class, Parisi had an opening round pin of David Conte (Indiana) 00:53 into the match. Parisi then defeated Isaac Andrade (South Dakota State) 5-2 in the quarter final. Eastern Michigan's Shayne Wireman defeated Parisi by decision 9-5. Parisi earned a decision in his first consolation match over Jake Gromacki (Pitt) 7-3. In the thrid place match, Parisi defeated Gerald Wert (Rider) in a 10-8 decision.
Longo pinned Paul Kirchner (Rider) 1:16 into the match after receiving a first round bye. In the quaterfinal, Longo defeated Travis Shaffer (Pitt) by decision 12-8. Longo then fell to No. 9 (Intermat) Todd Preston (Harvard) by major decision 11-3. Longo then dropped the consolation semifinal to Lucus Zilverberg (South Dakota State 12-7. Longo Defeated Tanner Cahill (Bloomsburg) by a 5-1 decision to take fifth place.
Also receiving victories on the day was Zack Strickland at 157, earning two pins in the consolation bracket over Colton Peppelman (Harvard) and Max Hvolbek (Stanford) after falling to Peter Galli (Stanford) by major decision 15-3 in the opening round.
Nick Kee had three wins on the day including a 15-4 major decision over Kannon Dean (Harvard). Marcus Johnson lost in the opening round, but then won three consolation matches including a pin of Jake Masengale (Indiana). Kacee Hutchinson also had three consolation victories including a technical fall over Yousif Malik (VMI).
Three matches featured two Mountaineers facing off against each other. Javon Johnson defeated Alex Lewis by a 7-2 decision. Marcus Johnson earned of 5-0 decision over Aaron Mattioni. Tyler Radford defeated Elijah Farmer by a 4-2 decision.
The Mountaineers are back in action in Boone on Nov. 30 to take on North Carolina in the Varsity Gym.
