Five Mountaineers Finish First at Journeymen

By Amy Salvatore
November 11, 2018

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Five Mountaineers took first place in their respective pools at the round-robin tournament, as the West Virginia University wrestling team collected 217 points for a seventh-place finish at the 2018 Journeymen MyHouse Collegiate Classic on Sunday, held at Hudson Valley Community College, in Schenectady, New York.

The tournament field featured competition from 17 universities, including six teams ranked inside the College NWCA/USA Today Top-25 Poll: No. 6 Lehigh, No. 8 NC State, No. 15 Rutgers, No. 17 Purdue, No. 20 Lock Haven and No. 21 Wyoming. The one-day event also highlighted competition from a trio of Big 12 Conference opponents.

"We had a really solid day," first-year coach Tim Flynn said. "It was definite improvement from last week, but we still have a lot to work on. We have to get a lot better by next weekend for sure."

Redshirt freshman Joey Thomas (125), redshirt senior Christian Monserrat (149), sophomore Nick Kiussis (165), redshirt freshman Noah Adams (197) and redshirt junior David Smith (HWT) each earned a first-place finish in their respective pools.

Kiussis led the way for the Mountaineers with a 3-0 mark in the 165-pound division. The Brunswick, Ohio, native won all three of his bouts by decision, starting with a 4-0 win over Carl Guess of Appalachian State. He then posted a 5-1 decision over Oklahoma's Jeremy Thomas and closed out the day with a 2-0 decision over Army's Owen Brown.

Additionally, Thomas, Monserrat and Adams each walked away with two wins apiece in their respective divisions.

At 125 pounds, Thomas scored a 6-3 decision over Appalachian State's Andrew Richard before dropping a 7-2 decision to NC State's Charles Lenox. Thomas bounced back in his final match of the day, though, winning by technical fall over Anthony New of The Citadel, 17-2, in 6:19.

Monserrat also tallied two wins by decision, defeating Lehigh's Jimmy Hoffman (10-4) and Utah Valley's Matthew Ontiveros (4-0). Monserrat's only loss of the day came against No. 6 Justin Oliver of NC State, as Oliver earned the 18-3 win by tech. fall.

Adams picked up a win by fall over The Citadel's Sawyer Root, pinning Root 21 seconds into the second period. Adams dropped his next match to Kyle Gentile of Lehigh in a 4-3 decision, but came back strong with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Lehigh's Jake Jakobsen.

Smith dropped a pair of matches before pinning Oklahoma's Jake Boyd in 3:43 for first place.

Of note, nine other Mountaineers competed in a Gold and Blue singlet at the Journeymen MyHouse Collegiate Classic, as true freshmen Caleb Rea and Luke Martin made their Mountaineer debuts on Sunday.

Looking ahead, West Virginia will remain on the road, traveling to Ithaca, New York, to face No. 9 Cornell on Saturday, Nov. 17, in a 1 p.m. matchup. Both squads will meet for just the second time in program history, as the Big Red earned a win over the Mountaineers in their first-ever meeting at the 2014 Journeymen Duals. Of note, Cornell placed ninth at the 2018 NCAA Championships.

West Virginia then returns to the WVU Coliseum to round out the month of November with a 1 p.m. match against No. 14 Northern Iowa, a Big 12 affiliate, on Sunday, Nov. 18. The Panthers own a 3-0 lead in the all-time series, with the last meeting taking place in 1991.

Prior to Sunday's match, the Mountaineers will host a free youth clinic, open to any and all entrants in eighth grade and below. All youth clinic participants will be admitted free to the match, with the match set to begin at 1 p.m. To pre-register, email WVUSportsMarketing@mail.wvu.edu. Additionally, the first 250 youth fans in attendance will receive a free WVU wrestling mask. Autographs also will take place following the match.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUWrestling on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Return to the WV-Mat front page