West Virginia Wrestling

Mountaineers in Preseason Rankings

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (October 21, 2015) – The West Virginia University wrestling team will start the season ranked in the top 25 of the InterMat Division I wrestling rankings, coming in at No. 22 of the tournament rankings released on Oct. 20, 2015.

Additionally, a trio of Mountaineers appear in the top-20 rankings for their respective weights. Zeke Moisey sits at No. 3 at 125 pounds, while Dylan Cottrell is ranked No. 15 at 157 pounds. Jacob A. Smith comes in at No. 10 at 197 pounds.

“We are focused on the season and will continue to build upon this InterMat ranking,” said second-year WVU coach Sammie Henson. “Our goal as a team will be to worry about what we can control.”

The 2015 NCAA runner-up, Moisey (32-14) entered the championships unseeded and upset the No. 15, No. 2 and No. 7 seeds before pinning the No. 6 seed to earn a spot in the NCAA finals and become West Virginia’s first All-American since 2007. The first unseeded wrestler to wrestle in the finals since 2003, Moisey dropped a 9-5 decision to No. 4 seed Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State. The two will square off once again on Nov. 1 at the NWCA All-Star Classic in Atlanta, Georgia. Moisey also ranks fourth at 125 according to FloWrestling is No. 3 on TheOpenMat.com.

Cotrell has yet to don a gold and blue singlet after transferring to West Virginia from Appalachian State last January. As a redshirt freshman for the ASU Mountaineers, Cotrell was the 2014 SoCon Champion at 149 pounds, earning a bid to the 2014 NCAA Championships. Cotrell went 26-3 that season, ranking as high as No. 10 at 149. He is No. 18 in TheOpenMat.com’s preseason rankings and No. 17 on FloWrestling’s list.

A 2015 NCAA qualifier, Smith was the 2015 Big 12 runner-up at 197 pounds. Compiling a 28-13 mark overall and a 15-3 record in duals, Smith also went 2-1 in league action during the regular season. He went 2-2 at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, defeating Virginia’s Zach Nye on a riding time tiebreaker in his first wrestleback match before topping Jeffrey Koepke of Illinois, 8-3.

The Mountaineers open the season on Nov. 8 when they host Drexel, Campbell and Arizona State as part of the Mountaineer Quad. The action starts at 10 a.m. at the WVU Coliseum.

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