MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Three Mountaineers claimed wins, as the West Virginia University wrestling team dropped a 24-9 dual to No. 14 Virginia Tech on Wednesday evening, at the WVU Coliseum, in Morgantown.
 
Redshirt freshman Joey Thomas (125), true freshman Luke Martin (141) and redshirt senior Christian Monserrat (149) each won by decision for the Mountaineers (1-4, 1-1 Big 12).
 
"Monserrat wrestled a really solid kid and looked good," first-year coach Tim Flynn said. "He had the grit we needed on top. College wrestling is hard. I don't know if our guys want it to be easy, but it's not going to be. He showed that grit. I have respect for the kid he wrestled. Joe Thomas won in overtime. He finally got out to tie the match, and same thing with Luke. They were in a back-and-forth match as well. Those three wins were all kind of gritty, which was nice."
 
The two teams elected to start the match at 165 pounds, as the Mountaineers wrestled against five straight Hokies ranked inside the top 15 by Intermat. Virginia Tech quickly took advantage of the situation, collecting a pair of bonus-point victories over West Virginia for a 17-0 lead at the break.
 
"When you start the match off losing five in a row, it's tough," Flynn said. "It was really nice to hear the crowd cheer after Joey's win. When you start tacking on losses, it gets quiet, so it was really nice to get a couple wins."
 
Thomas donned a Mountaineer singlet for the first time in his career, grinding out a hard-fought 4-2 decision in sudden victory over Joey Prata at 125 pounds. The two grapplers remained scoreless before Prata used a second-period escape for the 1-0 advantage. Thomas started the final frame on bottom, using a penalty point to knot the score at 1-1 with under a minute remaining. He eventually earned the escape, but Prata had control, adding on the riding time point to push the match into overtime tied at 2-2. Thomas continued to put up a fight, though, scoring a late takedown to put the Mountaineers on the board.
 
Up next, redshirt freshman KJ Fenstermacher moved up one weight class to 133 pounds for the first time this season, dropping a 9-2 decision to Kyle Norstrem.
 
Martin got the Mountaineers back on track with a wild 8-7 decision over Dominic Latona at 141 pounds. Martin scored a trio of takedowns for a 6-5 advantage after three minutes of action. Latona started the second on bottom, notching a reversal for the 7-6 lead entering the final frame. However, Martin countered with a reversal of his own to capture an 8-7 decision over Latona with two bouts remaining.
 
Monserrat added three more to the Mountaineers' total with a win by decision over Ryan Blees at 149 pounds. Striking early with a takedown, Monserrat took a 2-0 lead into the second period. He then started on bottom and scored an escape, putting his lead at 3-0 after five minutes of action. Monserrat started on top in the third and yielded an escape, but it wasn't enough for Blees, as Monserrat added on the point for riding time in winning the 4-1 decision to remain undefeated in dual action.
 
Virginia Tech capped the dual with a 14-2 major decision at 157 pounds for the 24-9 win.
 
Following a holiday break, the Mountaineers head south for several matches, taking on Virginia, Michigan State, North Dakota State and Purdue, as part of the South Beach Duals, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, from Dec. 29-30.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUWrestling on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
 
No. 14 Virginia Tech 24, West Virginia 9
165: No. 8/9/8 Mekhi Lewis (VT) major dec. Nick Kiussis (WVU), 15-2
174: No. 5/5/5 David McFadden (VT) dec. Josh Ramirez (WVU), 8-2
184: No. 7/6/9 Zack Zavatsky (VT) major dec. Hunter DeLong (WVU), 15-6
197: No. 16/16/15 Tom Sleigh (VT) dec. Noah Adams (WVU), 3-1
HWT: No. 6/8/7 Billy Miller (VT) dec. Brandon Ngati (WVU), 4-0
125: Joey Thomas (WVU) dec. Joey Prata (VT), 4-2 [SV-1]
133: Kyle Norstrem (VT) dec. KJ Fenstermacher (WVU), 9-2
141: Luke Martin (WVU) dec. Dominic Latona (VT), 8-7
149: Christian Monserrat (WVU) dec. Ryan Blees (VT), 4-1
157: B.C. LaPrade (VT) major dec. Zachary Moore (WVU), 14-2
 
Rankings are listed as follows: The Open Mat/FloWrestling/Intermat