Smith leads Golden Bears at Purple Raider Open

January 20, 2013

From WVU Tech Wrestling

ALLIANCE, Ohio – The WVU Tech wrestling team continued their season's progression to an appearance in March's NAIA National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa, stopping at the Purple Raider Open this afternoon.

While the meet was not considered a team-scoring event, the squad faced a loaded list of NCAA Division I opponents (such as University of Indiana, Kent State, University of Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State University, Pitt, and Virginia Tech) and host and University of Mount Union (#30-DIII) gaining crucial experience to power through the season's competitions.

The Golden Bears had a slow start to the 2012-13 campaign opening at Mount Union with three wins and fourteen loses. During their second trip to Alliance, the squad accumulated ten wins and seven loses.

Chance Smith led the Golden Bears with a sixth place finish in the 157 lb. class. After a first round bye, Smith went to work pinning Lake Erie College's Jake Brown. In his next match, he continued with a 2-0 decision over Alfred State College's Anthony Carome. After receiving a forfeit victory in the fourth round, Smith won a close 4-3 decision over Tiffin University's Isaac Williams. In fifth round action, Smith was pinned by Virginia Tech's David Bergida. His overall effort

In other action, freshman Dirk Ponchak (165 lb.) improved to 13-3 on the year going 2-1 on the day. Ponchak dominated his first match with a 6-2 decision over Jamestown Community College's Frank Sterlace. The Ohio-native showed great determination in a come from behind overtime victory against Kent State's Michael Crawford before withdrawing from the tournament as a precaution.

USCAA wrestler of the week Conrad Lacey won his first two bouts of the tournament before falling in a tight match against Ashland's Kyle Burns. Lacey pinned Dariush Saghafi in his first victory while earning a 14-2 major decision over Niagara Community College's Mike Caron.

"I was pleased with the development we displayed from the season's opener until today,” declared head coach Samuel Gardner. “The level of competition was much higher today, and we rose to the occasion and wrestled better as a team across the board. Our leg attacks at several weights looked better than they have in sometime and against this step up in competition that is a good thing. We still have some areas to work on in all three positions (neutral, top, and bottom) and need to raise our intensity and level of focus to meet the increasing level of difficulty as we progress through the tournament's later rounds. Overall I'm pleased. We talked about returning to Mt. Union and performing better up and down the line-up, and I think we did that. Now it is time to get back to work and make improvements between now and next week."

The Golden Bears return to action next Saturday, January 26 when they travel to Newport News, Virginia to participate in the Builders Invitational hosted by USCAA rival The Apprentice School. For up-to-date information on this match and other WVU Tech Athletics, visit http://www.GoldenBearAthletics.com.

Purple Raider Open Results for West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)
College 149 ] John Walters's place is unknown and has scored 1.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 ] John Walters (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by decision over Isaac Morrisette (Lake Erie College) (Dec 5]3)
Champ. Round 2 ] Jeremy Landowski (Mercyhurst) won by decision over John Walters (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Dec 5]0)
Cons. Round 2 ] Tyler Johnston (Mount Union) won by decision over John Walters (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Dec 3]2)

College 149 ] Steve Hurt's place is unknown and has scored 0.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 ] Steve Hurt (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) received a bye () (Bye)
Champ. Round 2 ] Eric Wolfe (Notre Dame (Ohio)) won by tech fall over Steve Hurt (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (TF 15]0)
Cons. Round 2 ] Tyler Aldinger (Alfred State College) won by major decision over Steve Hurt (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Maj 9]0)

College 157 ] Chance Smith's place is 6th and has scored 12.50 team points.
Champ. Round 1 ] Kyle Begg (Tiffin University) won by decision over Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Dec 9]5)
Cons. Round 1 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) received a bye () (Bye)
Cons. Round 2 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by pin over Jake Brown (Lake Erie College) (Pin 3:22)
Cons. Round 3 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by decision over Anthony Carome (Alfred State College) (Dec 2]0)
Cons. Round 4 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by forfeit over Conrad Lacey (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (FF)
Cons. Round 5 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by decision over Isaac Williams (Tiffin University) (Dec 4]3)
Cons. Semi ] David Bergida (Virginia Tech) won by pin over Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Pin 4:28)
5th Place Match ] Kyle Burns (Ashland) won by forfeit over Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (FF)

College 157 ] Conrad Lacey's place is unknown and has scored 5.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 ] Conrad Lacey (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by pin over Dariush Saghafi (Unattached) (Pin 4:15)
Champ. Round 2 ] Conrad Lacey (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by major decision over Mike Carson (Niagra Comm Coll) (Maj 14]2)
Quarterfinal ] Kyle Burns (Ashland) won by decision over Conrad Lacey (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (Dec 5]3)
Cons. Round 4 ] Chance Smith (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by forfeit over Conrad Lacey (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (FF)

College 165 ] Dirk Ponchak's place is unknown and has scored 2.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 ] Dirk Ponchak (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won by decision over Frank Sterlace (Jamestown Comm College) (Dec 6]2)
Champ. Round 2 ] Dirk Ponchak (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) won in sudden victory ] 1 over Michael Crawford (Kent State) (SV]1 8]6)
Quarterfinal ] Francis Mizia (Mercyhurst) won by forfeit over Dirk Ponchak (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (FF)
Cons. Round 4 ] Tyler Buckwalter (Kent State) won by forfeit over Dirk Ponchak (West Virginia Tech (W.Va.)) (FF)

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