The West Liberty University wrestling program continues to wake up the echoes as former WLU All-American Mitch Smith enters his fourth season at the controls.
Smith’s squad made its presence felt at the national level a year ago. His Hilltoppers muscled their way into the NWCA Top 25 for the first time since 2012, rising as high as No. 16 midway through the season, and rode a pair of national qualifiers to a 23rd place finish at the NCAA Division II Nationals.
Junior All-American Darius Bunch was ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the season, giving the program its first No. 1-ranked wrestler since Coach Smith accomplished the feat in 2009 and 2010.
Smith’s wrestlers continued to impress in the classroom, as well. Five Hilltoppers were honored as 2018 NWCA All-Academic Team members with graduate student Tanner Sutton one of only a dozen NCAA Division II wrestlers nationwide to post a perfect 4.00 GPA.
The future is bright for Coach Smith and his squad with nine of the 10 wrestlers who started in last year’s regional tournament back in the fold for the 2018-19 campaign.
Smith returned to his alma mater in April 2015 after three seasons as the founding head coach for the NCAA Division II wrestling program at Alderson-Broaddus (W.Va.) University.
Among the highlights of Smith's tenure at A-B were a team championship in the 2015 Southern Virginia Invitational, a fourth-place finish in the 2015 West Virginia Intercollegiate Championships and a Top 20 spot in the NWCA All-Academic Team rankings. Four A-B wrestlers earned NWCA All-Academic Team honors in his final season.
The Hilltopper head coach was a West Virginia high school mat legend at Ripley High School, winning three state championships and putting together a dazzling 195-3 record for the Vikings. He also won a pair of USA Wrestling national freestyle titles before heading off to NCAA Division I Hofstra (N.Y.) University to begin his collegiate wrestling career.
After two seasons at Hofstra, Smith transferred to West Liberty for his final two years and earned back-to-back NCAA Division II All-America honors in 2009 and 2010. He was ranked No. 1 in the nation at his weight at some point in each of those two years with the Hilltoppers and finished his West Liberty career with an impressive 58-9 record.
Smith remained on the WLU campus for two seasons as an assistant wrestling coach before accepting the head coaching position at Alderson-Broaddus in May 2012.
Mitch and his wife, Cortney, reside in West Liberty.
