Wrestling | 1/15/2022 8:34:00 PM

    NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – Jonah Smith won the 149-pound championship here Saturday to lead 10 West Liberty placers at the 2022 Spartan Mat Classic hosted by Manchester (Ind.) University.
    A sophomore from Findlay, Ohio competing in his first collegiate season, Smith carved quite an impressive swath through the 149-pound division with four consecutive technical falls. Making that accomplishment even more impressive was the fact that only one of his opponents survived the bonus point blitz long enough to make it to through the first period.
    The Ohio native capped his championship run in style by breezing to a 16-1 technical fall against Huntingdon's David Burgess in the finals. The match was stopped at 2:39 of the first period when Smith's lead reached 15 points.
    "This was a good day of competition for the rest of our team," head coach Danny Irwin said. "We picked up where we left off on Thursday night (a 29-9 dual meet romp past No. 11 Ashland) and went right back after the next set of points.
    "Jonah was a perfect example. He really lit up the scoreboard today and added to what has been an awesome rookie campaign."
    While Smith was WLU's only champion on the day, there were plenty of Hilltoppers who put in a good day's work. Also advancing to the finals for Coach Danny Irwin's Hilltoppers was Blake Miller, who settled for runner-up honors in the 157-pound weight class. Alec Cook was third at 157 with Drake Kendrex taking third in the 174-pound division.
    Three Hilltopper grapplers – Breagan Pearson (149), Greg Brusco (157) and Chance Morgan (174) – placed fourth at their respective weights with Jamie Kilmer (5th at 285), Carter Winegardner (6th at 149) and Andrew Shelek (8th at 141) rounding out the West Liberty place-winners.
    "We have a big opportunity ahead of us next week with our triangular against Notre Dame (Ohio) and Glenville State at Notre Dame," Irwin said. "For one thing, we've never beaten Notre Dame in a dual so we are definitely looking forward to getting another shot at them up at their place."
    That triangular is set for a 5 p.m. start inside Murphy Gym on the campus of Notre Dame (Ohio).