BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – National champion Ty McGeary was honored as the Mountain East Conference Co-Wrestler of the Year while West Liberty University teammate Khyvon Grace walked away with MEC Freshman of the Year honors on Wednesday when the league wrestling coaches announced the major award winners from the 2022-23 season.

    The Hilltopper duo were key performers for Coach Danny Irwin's wrestling juggernaut, which rolled to its third consecutive Mountain East Conference and NCAA Division II Super Region Three championships on its way to a third straight Top 10 finish at the NCAA Division II Nationals.

    A junior 184-pounder from McDonald, Pa. and West Allegheny High School, McGeary used a takedown in sudden-victory overtime to defeat Logan Hall of Lander (S.C.) at the NCAA D2 Nationals in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to become West Liberty's 11th individual national champion.

    Honored at Nationals as the most dominant NCAA Division II Wrestler of the 2022-23 season, it was the perfect exclamation point to a 28-1 season for the two-time All-American. Nationally-ranked throughout the season, he won championships at the Findlay Open, MEC Tournament and John Summa Invitational with his only loss coming to the nation's No. 4-ranked wrestler in the Super Region 3 final.

    McGeary shared MEC Wrestler of the Year honors with Glenville State's Gavin Quiocho, a national champion at 133 pounds who finished the season with a sparkling 40-5 record

    Grace, a 141-pound workhorse freshman from Coraopolis, Pa. and Cornell High School, was an easy choice for MEC Freshman of the Year after posting an impressive 30-9 record in his first collegiate season. Grace exploded onto the conference scene with an impressive run to the 141-pound title at the MEC Championships and went on to add a title at the John Summa Invitational in February.

    He came up one win shy of qualifying for the NCAA D2 Nationals at Cedar Rapids despite a strong performance at the Super Region 3 event in Tiffin, Ohio. Grace breezed through his first two matches with a technical fall and 5-0 shutout only to come up short in the championship semifinal. He rebounded with a pin to earn a shot at Cedar Rapids but dropped a 5-2 decision in the third-place match.

    Glenville State's Dylan Cottrell and Fairmont State's Gennaro Bonaventura shared MEC Coach of the Year honors.