LEXINGTON, Va. - VMI had four third-place finishers while three Keydets placed fourth at the 73rd Annual Southern Conference Wrestling Championships, held at Davidson's Baker Sports Complex Saturday.
Keydet sophomores David Yost (141 lbs.) and Joe Munno (157 lbs.) each placed third in their weight class, as did freshman Evan Dill (174 lbs.) and junior Josh Wine (285 lbs.), who fell short in his bid to win a third straight SoCon title at heavyweight. Redshirt junior John Pope (125 lbs.), senior Michael Long (149 lbs.) and freshman Conor Black (165 lbs.), meanwhile, accounted for VMI's three fourth-place finishes on the day.
UNC Greensboro won the team title, with eight of their 10 competitors placing in the top three in their weight class. The Spartans' 81.5 points just beat out The Citadel's 74 points and Appalachian State's 71.5 points. Chattanooga placed fourth with 43 points after going 5-0 in SoCon duals this season, just ahead of VMI's 37 points and Davidson's 21.
Wine suffered a loss in his first match of the day, dropping a 3-1 decision to UNCG's Peter Sturgeon in the Championship Semifinals. Wine bounced back with a major decision over Davidson's Charlie Wolff and a 9-2 decision against Chattanooga's Tom Minwell to earn his third-place finish.
Yost began his run with an 8-0 major decision over ASU's Chris Collura before dropping a 3-1 decision to top-seeded Vitaly Radsky of Davidson. In the consolation bracket, Yost beat Chattanooga's Jeremy Sandoval, 8-6, to reach the final, where he deposed The Citadel's Nick LaFevre, 4-1 to claim third place.
Munno dropped his first-round bout, 14-7, to ASU's Chip Powell, but found his footing in the consolations. There, he defeated UNCG's top-seeded Travis Sheehy, 8-6, before claiming a medical forfeit win against top-seeded Josh Condon of Chattanooga in the third-place bout.
Dill, meanwhile, posted a strong day as a late replacement for VMI in the 174-pound bracket. After going 0-4 in SoCon duals this season, Dill opened his run with a 9-0 major decision of Davidson's Jorge Estrada. Dill was then pinned by top-seeded Byron Sigmon of UNC Greensboro, but bounced back with a 7-6 win over Chattanooga's Alex Hudson. In the Consolation Final, the Warren, N.J. native avenged a 9-6 loss earlier this season to ASU's Carter Downs, earning a 6-5 win and his first career tournament placing.
After Pope won his consolation match, 3-2 over The Citadel's Richard Alarcon, the redshirt junior pushed the third-place match to sudden victory, where he lost a 5-3 decision to top-seeded Demetrius Johnson of Chattanooga. Long went 2-2 in the 149-pound bracket, losing a 6-0 decision to The Citadel's Derek Royster in the Consolation Final, while Black posted a 13-1 major decision over Davidson's Tyler Mullen, reversing a major decision result from earlier this season against the Wildcat, before falling 3-1 in the third-place bout to The Citadel's Pierre Frazile.
