WVUT Finishes 8th at Builder Invitational, Walters Champion
January 26, 2013
From WVU Tech Wrestling
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The WVU Tech wrestling team collected an eighth place finish out of 21 teams in this weekend's Builder Invitational hosted by The Apprentice School.
The Golden Bear grapplers, who scored 20 points as a team, were led by junior John Walters who was the overall tournament champion in the 149 lb. class. Walters, a Camden, Delaware native, went a perfect 4-0 on the day. In his first match, Walters scored a technical fall at 7:00 over University of Scranton's Ryan Giovanetti en route to a 17-2 victory. During the second bout, the champion received a 14-2 major decision victory over SAU's Nick Sauceda. In the semi-finals, Walters overpowered Ferrum College's Jamie Carr in a 3-0 decision before defeating Carr's teammate Paul Biggs 4-0 in the championship match. Freshman Steve Hurt also participated in the 149 lb. bracket losing in his lone match of the day to MMI's Myles Carlos by pin.
WVU Tech had two Golden Bears in the 157 lb. division of the tournament. Sophomore Chance Smith, who received the “Most Falls in the Least Time” award for the invitational picking up two pins in 3:15, went 3-2 on the day while Conrad Lacey also went 3-2. Smith opened his first match of tournament with an 8-7 decision over Ferrum's Daniel Reynolds. Even though Smith was narrowly defeated 9-7 by the Apprentice School's Sterling Briscoe, he bounced back in the loser's bracket with two straight victories by pin before losing to Apprentice's Chris Kennedy in a close 6-5 decision. During his second victory, Smith recorded a pin over Scranton's Robert Leavy. He also pinned Apprentice's Odis Wesby in his third match of the day.
The second-seeded Conrad Lacey won his first bought over Penn State Beaver's Robert Tempalski with a 14-2 major decision. Lacey dropped his second match to Apprentice's Kennedy before rebounding to pin Ferrum's Tyler Edger in his third scrap. Lacey won his fourth of five matches of the day with an 11-4 decision over William and Mary's Eric Albrecht before being defeated by Apprentice's Briscoe.
The Golden Bears return to action on Friday, February 8 when they host USCAA foe Southern Virginia University at 7 p.m. For up-to-date information on this game and other WVU Tech Athletics, visit http://www.GoldenBearAthletics.com.
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