WVU to Host Gold-Blue Wrestle-Offs

Friday, October 27

Morgantown, W.Va.

5:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

Gold/Blue Match

Photo by: Steven Prunty

October 26, 2017 02:49 PM | Wrestling

By: Amy Salvatore

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Just over two weeks into preseason practice and one week away from its season-opener, the West Virginia University wrestling team will play host to its inaugural Gold and Blue Wrestle-Offs, Friday evening, inside the Shell Building at 5 p.m.

Friday's event is open to the public. Of note, a live stream will not be available during the match, but fans can follow along on Twitter for live updates.

Fourth-year head coach Sammie Henson and his staff scheduled 10 tentative matchups, with a mixture of established veterans and talented newcomers competing in front of Mountaineer fans for the first time this season.

"This is a great time to have our first-ever wrestle-off in front of our home crowd," Henson said. "With it being MAC Donor Weekend, we felt like this was a perfect opportunity to have as many fans as we could to come out and watch tomorrow's wrestle-off."

The projected card features an appearance by All-American Zeke Moisey at 125 pounds, who took a redshirt last season. Both Moisey and 2017 NCAA qualifier Jacob A. Smith started off the season nationally ranked by a trio of media outlets, appearing in the top 10 of their respective weight classes. Smith appears at No. 6 according to FloWrestling and is ranked seventh via Intermat and Open Mat at 197 pounds. Moisey is ranked No. 8 at his weight of 125 pounds in both Intermat and Open Mat preseason polls. He also is seventh according to FloWrestling.

"I'm looking for big things from Zeke Moisey in his wrestle-off with our starter from last year, Devin Brown," Henson said. "I'm also looking forward to watching Christian Monserrat and Kyler Rea go head-to-head because that should be a really close match as well."

In addition, seven of West Virginia's true freshmen are slated to compete Friday night.

Friday's Probable Matchups:

Bout – Blue vs. Gold (Silver Singlets)
125 – Zeke Moisey vs. Devin Brown
133/141 – Matthew Schmitt vs. Joe Wheeling
149 – Christian Monserrat vs. Kyler Rea
157 – Zachary Moore vs. Ryan Lopez
165 – Nick Kiussis vs. Cade Moisey
165 – Hunter Jones vs. Luke Sorboro
174/184 – Parker Vonegidy vs. Brenden McRill
184 – Hunter DeLong vs. Kyle Rogers
197 – Noah Adams vs. Sean Mullican
HWT – Brandon Ngati vs. David Smith

West Virginia opens the 2017-18 season on Friday, Nov. 3, as the squad heads to Clarion, Pennsylvania, for a neutral site match with Big 12 foe Utah Valley. The match is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET. The Mountaineers will then remain in Pennsylvania for the Clarion Open on Sunday, Nov. 5, starting at 8 a.m. ET.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUWrestling on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.