BOONE, N.C. — There were no shortages of team and individual accomplishments during a record-breaking wrestling season for App State.
The season ended earlier than scheduled, before the start of the NCAA Championships because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the Mountaineers had a school-record six NCAA qualifiers, including all four NCAA qualifiers who were products of North Carolina high schools.
To conclude a 2019-20 season in which App State led the country with four dual meet shutouts en route to a 9-3 team record and second-place finish in the Southern Conference, four wrestlers won SoCon titles:
Cary Miller (heavyweight),
Matt Zovistoski (157 pounds),
Demazio Samuel (197 pounds) and
Jonathan Millner (149 pounds).
Thomas Flitz followed an unbeaten SoCon regular season at 174 pounds by earning the league's second automatic NCAA berth, and
Codi Russell received an at-large berth at 133 pounds.
"I thought we would be a lot better than most people expected," said head coach
JohnMark Bentley, whose coaching staff this past season included Josh Roosa, Ryan LeBlanc and
Randall Diabe. "I think a lot of our competition and a lot of wrestling fans thought this might be a down year because we lost six starters from the 2018-19 team, but we knew we had a lot of good, young guys that were going to be coming into our lineup.
"I think our team and our staff knew we could be very competitive and probably surprise a lot of people."
App State was one of only three Division I teams nationally with at least four conference champions, and it was one of only six teams that had all 10 starters finish the season with a winning record. That hadn't happened in Boone since the 1983-84 season.
Academically, the Mountaineers tied a school record with a league-leading four NWCA Division I Scholar All-Americans, and they ranked No. 4 nationally in community service hours among Division I wrestling teams.
With a dual meet winning percentage of .750 that ranked 14th nationally. App State's shutouts of Presbyterian, Duke, The Citadel and VMI contributed to the Mountaineers climbing to as high as the No. 26 spot in the national coaches rankings before finishing at No. 27. They ranked in the top 10 nationally in several team categories, notably wins by fall (No. 6 with 56) and tech falls (No. 2 with 36).
"In most of those victories, one of our guys had to beat a nationally ranked opponent to secure the shutout," Bentley said. "It's hard to shut out a team and win all 10 weights, and to do that four times this year was pretty remarkable. I think it speaks to the kind of culture and the balance of our team."
Individually, during a season in which Bentley surpassed 100 career wins as a head coach, several milestones were reached.
About six weeks after the season ended, Zovistoski officially became an NWCA Division I Scholar All-American for the third time, as he was joined by Flitz,
Will Formato and
Sean Carter in receiving that honor.
Zovistoski picked up career win No. 100 in his final match as a senior, the SoCon final at 157 pounds. He is sixth on App State's career wins list with a 100-46 record.
Miller, another senior, moved into eighth place with a career record of 95-39. In his last match, he used an overtime takedown to secure a dramatic win against top-15 opponent Jere Heino of Campbell in the SoCon final.
"My teammates made it special at App State," Miller said. "They motivated me to push myself and become a better person and wrestler."
Miller led the team in wins by going 32-5, followed by Millner at 31-4 and Flitz at 30-11. Those single-season win totals are tied for ninth, 12th and 17th in school history.
App State wrestlers were also among the national leaders in several statistical categories, with Millner's 10 wins by major decision ranking No. 1 among wrestlers at 149 (and No. 8 total), Russell's eight tech falls ranking No. 1 among wrestlers at 133 (and No. 8 total) and Miller's nine pins tying for seventh among Division I heavyweights.
With Zovistoski (28-7), Russell (26-10), Carter (28-14 at 125 pounds), Formato (24-14 at 165 pounds),
Bradley Irwin (23-13 at 141 pounds) and
Julian Gorring (20-16 at 184 pounds) all reaching 20 victories, plus Samuel going 19-9 at 197 and
Paul Carson posting a 19-13 record with nine dual team starts at the same weight, it was a complete team effort in 2019-20.
The 10-man lineup included four outgoing seniors in Miller, Zovistoski, Irwin and Samuel.
Christian Beach and
Garrett Church were also seniors in 2019-20.
"All the guys we're losing were awesome leaders on our team and a really big part of what made our team so great this year," Formato said. "We have an incredible culture of working hard and coming in every day excited to get better."
