Takedown Report

Monchery Propels Mountaineers to Dramatic SoCon Wrestling Title

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — App State Wrestling needed a reversal of fortune, and true freshman Stephan Monchery came through in the most clutch way imaginable.  
With the Mountaineers shut out of championship round victories heading into the heavyweight finale but still in position to win the SoCon Championship tournament with one timely triumph, Monchery’s deficit-erasing, trophy-clinching reversal with 14 seconds left gave him a 6-5 decision against The Citadel’s Jonathan Chesser and lifted coach JohnMark Bentley‘s program to its third straight tournament title.  
App State, which was ahead of The Citadel by 3.0 points going into the head-to-head showdown with the Bulldogs, totaled 79.5 team points. With a 3-2 record in championship finals, including two head-to-head wins over the Mountaineers, The Citadel finished with 73.5 points to place second in a tight team race that included third-place Campbell (71.5 points) and Chattanooga (66.0 points) entering the final day with a chance to win.  
Eight of App State’s 10 starters earned a top-three finish, with finalists Kaden Keiser (149), Will Miller (165) and Luke Uliano (174) being runners-up in their weight classes. Chad Bellis (133), Jeremiah Price (157), Logan Eller (184) and Carson Floyd (197) all had hands raised to conclude third-place matches. Aldo Hernandez (141) pulled an upset in his opening-round match Friday, and Bryson Terrell (125) collected a pin on the first day. 
Of the Mountaineers’ four finals matches, the first three were App State losses with the only takedown of each match breaking a 1-1 tie in the final minute of the third period or overtime. The second-seeded Monchery didn’t know the team stakes when he took the mat against the fifth-seeded Chesser, who returned from injury to make his season debut in mid-February and beat the top-seeded heavyweight in the semifinal round. 
After a scoreless first period, Monchery quickly followed an escape to open the second period with a takedown for a 4-0 lead. Chesser executed his second escape of the match early in the third period from the down position and took a 5-4 lead on a takedown with 49 seconds remaining, but Monchery’s clutch two-point reversal 35 seconds later (with him being close to near fall points) flipped the match.  
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.  
Displaced from its flooded locker room leading up to the season because of damage from Hurricane Helene, a group that started freshmen at five of 10 weights after losing two top-16 NCAA finishers to P4 programs via the transfer portal and having two other SoCon champions with NCAA experience suffer season-ending injuries in the first dual delivered the program’s 13th SoCon tournament title and 28^th overall SoCon title.  
Under Bentley, the Mountaineers have won their fifth SoCon tournament title after earning a share of an eighth regular season title in his 16 seasons. For several wrestlers, the next step is hoping for an at-large berth to the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, as Monchery clinched the only automatic bid.  
Keiser and top-seeded Carson DesRosier entered overtime of the 149 final tied at 1-all, and DesRosier won on a takedown 16 seconds into the Sudden Victory period. … more at … https://appstatesports.com/news/2025/3/8/monchery-propels-mountaineers-to-dramatic-socon-wrestling-title.aspx

March 13, 2025 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized