BOONE, N.C. — Ranked in the top 20 nationally, with another SoCon regular season dual team title secured, App State Wrestling now sets its sights on the SoCon Championship tournament.
Held Saturday in Boone at the Holmes Convocation Center, the tournament serves as a chance for individual wrestlers to earn automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla., and the team to pursue another conference title trophy.
The SoCon Championship will run all day Saturday, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and competition starting at 10 a.m. Semifinals are tentatively scheduled for noon, followed by consolation matches at 2 p.m. and consolation finals at 5:30 p.m. before the championship finals begin at 7 p.m.
App State students can attend for free, with tickets available to purchase by the general public at $15 for adults and $10 for youth (ages 6-12). Those tickets can be purchased online by
clicking HERE.
The Holmes Center does have a clear bag policy. For more info on tickets, arena policies, session schedules and parking,
click HERE for the SoCon Championship Central page. The tournament will be streamed on ESPN+.
There will be eight-man brackets at each weight — there are nine teams in the SoCon, but Bellarmine is not eligible for postseason competition yet.
Each champion in the 10 weight classes Saturday will qualify automatically for the NCAA Championships that will be held from March 16-18 in Tulsa. Based on pre-allocations from the NCAA, the SoCon's second-place finishers at 133 pounds and 174 pounds will also qualify automatically — if a runner-up hasn't faced the third-place finisher in a bracket, they meet after the championship finals to determine a true second place at that weight.
The 20th-ranked Mountaineers went 8-0 in SoCon duals and possess five individuals who went unbeaten in league duals during the regular season to earn top seeds:
Caleb Smith (8-0 at 125 pounds),
Ethan Oakley (7-0 at 133 pounds),
Jon Jon Millner (8-0 at 149 pounds),
Tommy Askey (8-0 at 157 pounds) and
Will Formato (8-0 at 165 pounds).
Will Miller (174 pounds) and true freshman
Carson Floyd (197 pounds) are seeded No. 2 in their brackets thanks to 7-1 records in SoCon duals.
Heath Gonyer (6-2 at 141 pounds) and
Jacob Sartorio (4-2 at heavyweight) are No. 3 seeds, while redshirt freshman
Luke Uliano (5-3 at 184 pounds) is seeded fifth despite having the fourth-best record in a bracket with three ranked upperclassmen.
The Mountaineers will attempt to break a four-year streak of tournament titles for Campbell in Boone. Campbell edged App State 100.5-95.0 in the 2022 tournament race at the Holmes Center after holding off the Mountaineers in 2021 (92.0-87.0), 2020 (117.0-102.0) and 2019 (95.0-92.5).
Millner, a two-time All-American with a 118-24 career record, is seeking his fourth straight SoCon title. Smith and Formato both placed third a year ago, while Gonyer was a runner-up, and the six other starters in the Mountaineers' lineup will be making their SoCon Championship debuts.
A season-ending injury to
Sean Carter (a 2021 SoCon champ) during the Virginia Tech dual on Jan. 13 led to Oakley moving into the lineup at 133. Starting heavyweight
Mason Fiscella also suffered a significant injury in that dual, contributing to Sartorio's heightened role. Askey took over as the full-time starter at 157, in part due to an early injury to
Cody Bond, who won a SoCon title in 2021 and reached the 2022 SoCon final.
Five App State wrestlers have top-33 national rankings within their weight classes in the Division I Coaches Rankings, and five also have top-33 RPIs. There are typically four to five NCAA at-large berths for each weight class — openings that primarily go to ranked wrestlers who don't qualify automatically for the NCAAs.
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Caleb Smith, No. 13 ranking at 125 pounds (No. 14 RPI)
*
Ethan Oakley, No. 24 ranking at 133 pounds
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Jon Jon Millner, No. 9 ranking at 149 pounds (No. 14 RPI)
*
Tommy Askey, No. 26 ranking at 157 pounds (No. 23 RPI)
*
Will Formato, No. 26 ranking at 165 pounds (No. 24 RPI).
*
Will Miller (No. 25 RPI)
The coaches' ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.
SOCON PRE-ALLOCATION OUTLOOK
| Weight Class |
Automatic allotments out of 33 spots nationally |
Automatic SoCon allotments |
SoCon wrestlers ranked in top 33 |
| 125 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 133 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
2 |
3 |
| 141 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 149 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 157 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 165 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 174 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
2 |
1 |
| 184 |
26 of 33 (7 at-large) |
1 |
3 |
| 197 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 285 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
NATIONAL PRE-ALLOCATION OUTLOOK
BY CONFERENCE |
125 |
133 |
141 |
149 |
157 |
165 |
174 |
184 |
197 |
285 |
TOTAL |
| Atlantic Coast Conference |
2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
34 |
| Big 12 Conference |
6 |
5 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
8 |
6 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
64 |
| Big Ten Conference |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
8 |
7 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
88 |
| EIWA |
6 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
45 |
| Mid-American Conference |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
23 |
| Pacific-12 Conference |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
18 |
| Southern Conference |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
| Pre-Allocations |
29 |
28 |
29 |
29 |
28 |
28 |
28 |
26 |
29 |
29 |
284 |
| At-Large |
4 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
46 |
