Wrestling begins 2023-24 campaign at Southeast Open

For the second consecutive year, the West Virginia University wrestling team kick-starts its season at the Southeast Open on Saturday, Nov. 4. Tournament action is set to start at 9 a.m. ET inside the Cregger Center on the campus of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.

Fans can stream all the action live on FloWrestling. Live scoring and interactive brackets are also available through FloArena.

“We are fired up and looking forward finally to watching some wrestling,” sixth-year head coach Tim Flynn said. “You get so used to seeing the team wrestle each other leading up to the first event that we get super excited when the time finally comes for our guys to compete against someone else from another school.”

Flynn and his staff are bringing 30 wrestlers, including seven unattached, to take part in the program’s fourth appearance at the annual event. WVU’s last appearance came at the start of the 2022-23 season, where the Gold and Blue came out of the tournament with 15 top-six finishes.

Teams joining WVU in Salem include No. 5 Virginia Tech and No. 20 Oregon State, as well as Appalachian State (19), Maryland (11), and Campbell (9), who each received votes in the first NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll. American, Chattanooga, Davidson, Franklin & Marshall, Morgan State, Ohio, VMI, Virginia and Utah Valley complete the list of Division I programs attending.

Division II Limestone University and Tiffin University, Division III Roanoke College, and Life University of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) will also be competing, along with a variety of unaffiliated participants as well.

In the polls, the Mountaineers garnered 17 votes in the NWCA Preseason Poll while eight members of the squad enter the season ranked in FloWrestling’s top-33 of their respective weight classes. The list includes redshirt senior Michael Wolfgram (No. 17-HWT), seniors Peyton Hall (No. 14-165 pounds), Caleb Dowling (No. 25-157) and Sam Hillegas (No. 29-149), redshirt juniors Austin Cooley (No. 20-197) and Dennis Robin (No. 27-184), redshirt sophomore Jordan Titus (No. 19-141) and redshirt freshman Brody Conley (No. 31-174).

Below is the full list of Mountaineers competing on Saturday by weight class:

Attached

125 pounds

Mason Mills (freshman/sophomore division)

Jett Strickenberger

133 pounds

Garhett Dickenson (freshman/sophomore division)

141 pounds

Blake Boyers

No. 19 Jordan Titus

149 pounds

Michael Dolan