LOUISVILLE, Ky. — App State Wrestling's longest road trip for a dual this season has arrived, as the Mountaineers are traveling more than six hours to face SoCon foe Bellarmine in Louisville on Friday night at 7 p.m.
The dual between the Mountaineers (4-3, 3-0 SoCon) and Knights (1-2, 0-1 SoCon) will be streamed on ESPN+.
App State is currently tied with Campbell for first place in the league standings after starting its league schedule with road victories against VMI (40-6) and The Citadel (31-3), then winning 42-0 at home against Presbyterian. Bellarmine, in its first year as a full-fledged SoCon member that is eligible to compete in the conference championship tournament, will be participating in only its fourth dual of the season.
Bellarmine welcomed a record-setting crowd of 2,285 to a home dual in Knights Hall against Iowa on Nov. 15, followed that 49-0 loss with a 25-14 home win against Kent State two days later and didn't have another dual until facing Campbell in Buies Creek last Friday.
Half of the 10 matches in Campbell's 29-10 victory were decided by three points or less, including an overtime victory from Bellarmine's Grant O'Dell at 174 pounds. The Knights' other two victories were a 9-5 decision at 141 pounds from AJ Rallo, who earned SoCon Wrestler of the Week honors for defeating No. 21 Shannon Hanna, and a 12-2 major decision at 184 pounds from Devan Hendricks.
Andrew Liber lost 4-1 to No. 25 Levi Hopkins at 197 pounds, while the Camels prevailed by two points at both 133 pounds and 149 pounds, so the Knights are a talented team. They went 4-4 in SoCon duals last year with an 18-16 win against Chattanooga.
Earlier this week, App State picked up its national-leading 18th dual shutout since 2020 even without two of its four ranked starters in the lineup.
Will Miller (No. 7 at 165 pounds),
Luke Uliano (No. 28 at 174 pounds),
Carson Floyd (No. 28 at 197 pounds) and
Chad Bellis (No. 33 at 133 pounds) are among the Mountaineers' probable starters for Friday, and redshirt sophomore
Kaden Keiser has been on an impressive run at 149 pounds with a 14-3 record in his last 17 matches. That run includes four pins and four tech falls.
Four redshirt freshmen and one true freshman make up the rest of App State's probable lineup. They are a combined 12-2 in SoCon duals to this point.
The 2024-25 season is presented by Hungry Howie's and Penn Station.
