ASHEVILLE, N.C. — App State Wrestling, the league's regular season co-champion, is the only program with a top-five seed at all 10 weights for the SoCon Championship tournament that begins Friday and concludes Saturday at UNC Asheville's Kimmel Arena.
App State went 7-1 in SoCon duals to earn a regular season co-championship, the eighth regular season title under the direction of head coach
JohnMark Bentley. Now, the Mountaineers will attempt to win the SoCon Championship tournament for the third straight year and the fifth time under Bentley.
A clear-bag policy will be in effect at Kimmel Arena, and
parking is free with a vehicle registration at this link. The championship will be streamed on ESPN+.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
With a pair of top seeds from its program, Bellarmine will compete in its first conference championship since joining the Southern Conference in 2020, meaning there are nine entries per weight instead of eight. With a bigger field, this year's tournament is now a two-day event, starting Friday at noon with pigtail round matches between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds at each weight.
Friday's schedule (3 mats)
Noon — Pig Tails
12:30 p.m. — Quarterfinals
3 p.m. — Consolation First Round
3:30 p.m. — Consolation Quarterfinals
5 p.m. — Semifinals
7:30 p.m. — Consolation Semifinals
Saturday's schedule (1 mat)
Noon — Consolation Finals
2:30 p.m. — Championship Finals
4:30 p.m. — True 2nd Place Matches
SEEDING OUTLOOK
Ranked App State wrestlers
Will Miller (No. 7 nationally at 165 pounds) and
Luke Uliano (No. 28 nationally at 174 pounds) earned No. 1 seeds after posting 8-0 records in SoCon duals during the regular season.
App State's No. 2 seeds are
Jeremiah Price (7-1 at 157 pounds),
Carson Floyd (No. 32 nationally, 6-1 league record at 197 pounds) and
Stephan Monchery (7-1 at heavyweight), while
Kaden Keiser (6-2 at 149 pounds) received a No. 3 seed.
The Mountaineers have a trio of No. 4 seeds in
Bryson Terrell (5-3 at 125 pounds),
Chad Bellis (3-4 at 133 pounds) and
Logan Eller (4-3 at 184 pounds), while
Aldo Hernandez is seeded fifth at 141 pounds after going 3-4 in league duals.
NCAA ALLOCATION BREAKDOWN
Each champion in the 10 weight classes in Asheville will qualify automatically for the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia. According to the NCAA pre-allocations announced last week, the SoCon's second-place finishers at 133 pounds, 141 pounds and 197 pounds have also been pre-allocated to qualify automatically.
Miller (19-1 overall at 165 pounds) and Uliano (21-7 overall at 174 pounds) are both within weight classes with one pre-allocation but two ranked wrestlers, as The Citadel's Thomas Snipes is ranked No. 31 at 165 and Chattanooga's Sergio Desiante is ranked No. 23 at 174.
Floyd (25-7 overall) is one of three SoCon wrestlers with a top-33 ranking at 197 pounds. He split matches during the regular season with the other two, beating The Citadel's Patrick Brophy (No. 24) and losing to Campbell's Levi Hopkins (No. 27). That means at least one of those three ranked wrestlers will have to rely on an at-large berth to compete at the NCAAs — if the runner-up in a weight class with two pre-allocations hasn't faced the third-place finisher during the course of the conference tournament, they would square off after the finals in a "true second-place match" to determine the second automatic berth.
Wrestlers not earning automatic berths will have to hope for at-large berths — there are between four to six at-large berths at each weight, including four apiece at 174 and 197 pounds. That gives wrestlers (primarily ranked ones) who don't earn NCAA automatic berths chances to reach Philadelphia, in the cases of upsets and bid-stealing wins from unranked wrestlers at conference tournaments.
The SoCon has no wrestlers in the NCAA Coaches' Rankings at 157 pounds, 184 pounds or in the heavyweight division, while the 149-pound class has one wrestler ranked No. 33 by the coaches. He went 4-4 in league duals and is the No. 4 seed, while three other wrestlers had only one or two losses in league duals, so that level of parity could make for some entertaining storylines in Asheville.
The pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of the three standards (win percentage, coaches ranking and RPI ranking) while never going below the base of .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches ranking and top 30 RPI ranking until reaching the maximum of 29 wrestlers per weight class. For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class.
There are eight Division I wrestling leagues. The Big Ten, for instance, will get as many as 10 automatic qualifiers in three different weight classes and at least seven automatic qualifiers in every other weight class.
SOCON PRE-ALLOCATION OUTLOOK
| Weight Class |
Automatic allotments out of 33 spots nationally |
Automatic SoCon allotments |
SoCon wrestlers ranked in top 33 by coaches |
| 125 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 133 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
2 |
2 |
| 141 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
2 |
3 |
| 149 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 157 |
27 of 33 (6 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 165 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 174 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 184 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 197 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
2 |
3 |
| 285 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
NATIONAL PRE-ALLOCATION OUTLOOK
| Conference |
125 |
133 |
141 |
149 |
157 |
165 |
174 |
184 |
197 |
285 |
Total |
| Atlantic Coast Conference |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
38 |
| Big 12 Conference |
7 |
6 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
61 |
| Big Ten Conference |
9 |
10 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
8 |
10 |
10 |
87 |
| EIWA |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
22 |
| Ivy League |
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
26 |
| Mid-American Conference |
1 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
23 |
| Pacific-12 Conference |
2 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
17 |
| Southern Conference |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
13 |
| Pre-Allocations |
29 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
27 |
29 |
29 |
28 |
29 |
29 |
287 |
| At-Large |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
43 |
After all the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 43 at-large qualifiers, who will be announced on March 11. Brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. on March 12.
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 CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDS
125 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1 Anthony Molton, Campbell
#2 Gylon Sims, The Citadel
#3 Jack Parker, Bellarmine
#4
Bryson Terrell, App State
#5 Tyson Lane, Gardner-Webb
#6 Tyler Tice, Chattanooga
#7 Luke Passarelli, Davidson
#8 Brayden Adams, Presbyterian
#9 Waylon Rogers, VMI
133 (2 NCAA allocations)
#1 T.K. Davis, Gardner-Webb
#2 Blake Boarman, Chattanooga
#3 Logan Heil, Campbell
#4
Chad Bellis, App State
#5 Trayce Eckman, Bellarmine
#6 George Rosas, The Citadel
#7 TJ Rodier, Presbyterian
#8 Hale Robinson, Davidson
#9 Kyle Gibson, VMI
141 (2 NCAA allocations)
#1 Shannon Hanna, Campbell
#2 Todd Carter, Gardner-Webb
#3 Eli Knight, Chattanooga
#4 AJ Rallo, Bellarmine
#5
Aldo Hernandez, App State
#6 Tyson Sherlock, Davidson
#7 Ryan Luna, Presbyterian
#8 Thomas Termini, The Citadel
#9 Wayne Rold, VMI
149 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1 Carson DesRosier, The Citadel
#2 Patrick Jordon, VMI
#3
Kaden Keiser, App State
#4 Wynton Denkins, Campbell
#5 Zac Cowan, Bellarmine
#6 Dayne Dalrymple, Chattanooga
#7 Tyler-Xavier McKnight, Davidson
#8 Joey Giordano, Gardner-Webb
#9 Elijah Holiday, Presbyterian
157 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1 Noah Castillo, Chattanooga
#2
Jeremiah Price, App State
#3 Chris Earnest, Campbell
#4 Drew Pepin, Gardner-Webb
#5 Tyler Badgett, The Citadel
#6 Anderson Heap, Davidson
#7 Jeb Prechtel, Bellarmine
#8 Ray Cmil, VMI
#9 Jamison Colongione, Presbyterian
165 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1
Will Miller, App State
#2 Thomas Snipes, The Citadel
#3 Domonic Baker, Campbell
#4 Cole Nance, Bellarmine
#5 Bryce Griffin, Davidson
#6 Jackson Hurst, Chattanooga
#7 Logan Chambers, VMI
#8 Tyler Brignola, Gardner-Webb
#9 Josh Roe, Presbyterian
174 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1
Luke Uliano, App State
#2 Sergio Desiante, Chattanooga
#3 Grant O'Dell, Bellarmine
#4 Benjy Haubert, The Citadel
#5 Riley Augustine, Campbell
#6 Marc Koch, Davidson
#7 Andrew Wilson, Gardner-Webb
#8 Luke Hart, VMI
#9 Nathan Furman, Presbyterian
184 (1 NCAA allocation)
#1 Devan Hendricks, Bellarmine
#2 Braxton Lewis, VMI
#3 Kamdyn Munro, Chattanooga
#4
Logan Eller, App State
#5 Caleb Roe, Presbyterian
#6 Micah Dicarlo, The Citadel
#7 Jackson Potts, Gardner-Webb
#8 Brett Sanderlin, Davidson
#9 Brant Cracraft, Campbell
197 (2 NCAA allocations)
#1 Levi Hopkins, Campbell
#2
Carson Floyd, App State
#3 Patrick Brophy, The Citadel
#4 Andrew Liber, Bellarmine
#5 Toby Schoffstall, VMI
#6 Josh McCutchen, Gardner-Webb
#7 Logan Webster, Chattanooga
#8 Savoy New, Davidson
#9 Toler Hornick, Presbyterian
HWT (1 NCAA allocation)
#1 Daulton Mayer, Bellarmine
#2
Stephan Monchery, App State
#3 Josh Evans, VMI
#4 Landon Sargent, Campbell
#5 Jonathan Chesser, The Citadel
#6 Ethan Vergara, Chattanooga
#7 Peyton McComas, Gardner-Webb
#8 Morvens Saint-Jean, Presbyterian
#9 DJ Spring, II, Davidson
