WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — App State Wrestling registered 11 finalists at the Wilkes Open on Friday, with four wrestlers winning outright titles and three weight classes featuring all-App State finals that weren't contested.
Chad Bellis (4-0 at 133 pounds),
Kaden Keiser (5-0 at 149 pounds),
Will Miller (5-0 at 165 pounds) and
Carson Floyd (5-0 at 197 pounds) were champions with finals victories.
The weight classes with "no contest" finals between two Mountaineers were 157 pounds (
Jeremiah Price/
Nick Grizales), 184 pounds (
Logan Eller/
Dalton Battle) and heavyweight (
Stephan Monchery/
Levi Andrews).
Bryson Terrell reached the 125 final before finishing as the runner-up.
App State's third-place finishers were
Colby McBride (125),
Jarvis Little (133),
Aldo Hernandez (141) and
Anthony Conetta (157), while
Oren Bost was fourth at 165.
Kai O'Dell placed fifth at 149, and
Brayden Fahrbach was sixth at 141.
The large event included competitors from the Division I, Division II and Division III levels, plus Regional Training Center (RTC) and prep entries. In addition to App State, Division I programs Davidson, Lock Haven, Long Island U., Virginia and Penn State had at least one attached or unattached representative.
Floyd had first-period pins in his first three matches before posting tech falls by scores of 18-3 and 15-0 in his final two victories. Miller followed a first-round tech fall with three major decisions before prevailing 8-5 in the final against Sean Seefeldt, who was representing Penn's RTC.
Keiser had two pins and a tech fall before winning a 4-1 semifinal decision against Davidson's Anderson Heap and posting a 17-5 major decision in the final against Jackson Polo, who was also representing Penn's RTC.
A first-period takedown and near fall by Davidson's John Hager left Bellis facing a 5-0 deficit in his opening match, but a pair of second-period takedowns were critical to his comeback, and he won 11-8 on an overtime takedown 39 seconds into the Sudden Victory period. From there, he won a 5-1 decision, recorded a tech fall in the semifinal round and posted an 11-3 major decision against Davidson's Blake Reihner in the final.
Monchery and Andrews were both 3-0 in the heavyweight division, as Andrews won all three of his matches by fall.
Eller and Battle both went 3-0 at 184 pounds, with Eller erasing a 4-3 deficit in the last 45 seconds of his quarterfinal match by recording a takedown and earning a bonus point for riding time in a 7-4 victory.
Grizales went 4-0 and Price was 3-0 at 157, while Conetta went 3-1 to give App State the top three spots at that weight. Grizales had pins in his first two matches to set up an all-App State semifinal that he won 8-4.
McBride, Little and Hernandez were all 4-1 on Friday. Little overcame an early 6-1 deficit and recorded an overtime takedown to win 10-7 in his quarterfinal match.
The 2024-25 season is presented by Hungry Howie's and Penn Station. App State wrestlers will be back in action at the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 4-5 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
