With Obstacles Around Each Corner, Wrestling Continues Championship Success

By Bret Strelow | App State Athletics

As the SoCon Championship tournament neared its conclusion, there was an uneasy feeling that seemed familiar.

Five months earlier, in App State Wrestling's first team dual of the 2024-25 season, the Mountaineers lost two standouts who had been league champions (Sean Carter and Tomas Brooker) to season-ending injuries. 

The long-term outlook appeared bleak that night following a loss at NC State, but head coach JohnMark Bentley's program showed resilience in earning a share of the SoCon's regular season title and putting itself in position to possibly win the SoCon tournament title in Asheville.

Things had taken a very unfortunate turn, though.

Four App State wrestlers qualified for weight-class finals, but the first three were Mountaineer losses with the only takedown of each match breaking a 1-1 tie in the final minute of the third period or overtime. 

Amazingly, App State still had a chance to secure the team title heading into the final point-producing match of the tournament. All it needed was a timely victory from true freshman heavyweight Stephan Monchery, who had started the season with a 6-6 record.

No sweat, right? Monchery came through, but not without a fitting amount of drama exhibited and adversity overcome.

After taking an early lead but falling behind 5-4 on a final-minute takedown by upperclassman John Chesser from The Citadel, Monchery needed an escape to tie the match. He did one better, executing a two-point reversal to reposition himself on top of Chesser with 14 seconds left.

A go-ahead, pop-out reversal from Chesser occurred just after time expired, and the Mountaineers were able to start celebrating once a lengthy review concluded with no point awarded to him.
It was an incredible way to clinch a team title that had required months of growth and plenty of perseverance to achieve.

A reversal of fortune, in the truest sense.

"Nothing was given to us this year," Bentley said. "We had to fight and claw for every single that we got, and I think that's the thing I'm most proud of."

Bentley is no stranger to championship-level success, as his teams in Boone have won eight SoCon regular-season titles and five tournament titles.

The two collected during the 2024-25 season will be hard to forget, given how Bentley has characterized the year as one in which nothing was ever easy.

Displaced from its flooded locker room leading up to the season because of damage from Hurricane Helene in late September, forcing team members to carry their gear around and either go home or visit the Mark E. Ricks Athletics Complex for post-practice showers, the group ended up starting freshmen at five of 10 weights after losing two top-16 NCAA finishers from 2023-24 to Power 5 programs via the transfer portal and then losing the two other accomplished starters at NC State.

Taking the mat again one week later in a renovated Varsity Gym, with new premium seating, a new videoboard and a new competition mat in place for the first time, the new-look Mountaineers learned some hard lessons in a lopsided loss to No. 19 West Virginia.

The results at the prestigious Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational weren't particularly strong, either, but three freshmen recorded bonus-point victories as App State opened the SoCon schedule with a dominant win at VMI.

Perhaps the most complete, focused team performance occurred in the next SoCon dual on Jan. 12, when the Mountaineers prevailed at nine of 10 weights and won 31-3 at The Citadel. The same Bulldogs finished 6-2 in SoCon duals, beat regular-season co-champion Campbell and nearly seized the SoCon Championship tournament title away from App State before settling for second place with three individual champs and three head-to-head rematch wins over the Mountaineers in Asheville.

Close wins over Bellarmine and Chattanooga were also key during a year in which the separation between the title-winning teams and other aspiring contenders was smaller than ever in the SoCon.

Whether it was veterans like Will Miller and Luke Uliano setting the pace with bonus-point statements and wins in high-profile showdowns, or their younger teammates handling the challenge of being first-time starters, the Mountaineers turned a nerve-wracking finish into a satisfying coronation.

"It's such an honor to coach here at Appalachian State," Bentley said. "It's such a great environment with great history and tradition. I feel blessed and thankful and just want to thank all our supporters who that stayed behind us this year even when things weren't good. There were people behind us supporting us and encouraging us and showing up at our matches.

"It's just a really special place here at App State."