MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (March 13, 2024) – The West Virginia University wrestling team’s five NCAA qualifiers have been seeded for the 2024 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, as announced by the NCAA on Wednesday night.
West Virginia sends half or more of its starting lineup to the national tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011 and 2012 and continues the trend of qualifying four or more in every season throughout head coach Tim Flynn’s tenure from 2019 to now.
Senior Peyton Hall (165), junior Jett Strickenberger (125), redshirt sophomore Jordan Titus (141), redshirt freshman Brody Conley (174) and true freshman Ty Watters (149) are the five that will represent West Virginia at the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, Missouri. Hall, Strickenberger, Conley and Watters earned automatic bids, while Titus was awarded one of 47 at-large berths granted to the Big 12 by the NCAA committee on Tuesday.
Watters, who is the first Mountaineer to qualify at 149 pounds since 2014, leads the way as the No. 5 seed heading into his NCAA Championships debut after becoming the first true freshman in program history to win a Big 12 Championship, as well as claim a conference title since Brandon Rader took home the EWL championship as a true freshman at 141 pounds in 2006.
Like Watters, Hall landed in the top 10 at 165 pounds as the No. 9 seed. Joining Hall in making another trip to the annual postseason event is Titus as the No. 13 seed at 141 pounds.
Additionally, the duo of Strickenberger and Conley both make their debuts at the national tournament. Strickenberger checks in at No. 19 at 125 pounds, while Conley rounds out the Mountaineers at No. 20 at 174 pounds.
Mountaineer Matchups
125: No. 19 Jett Strickenberger vs. No. 14 Nico Provo (Stanford)
141: No. 13 Jordan Titus vs. No. 20 Tom Crook (Virginia Tech)
149: No. 5 Ty Watters vs. No. 28 Logan Gioffre (Missouri)
165: No. 9 Peyton Hall vs. No. 24 Stoney Buell (Purdue)
174: No. 20 Brody Conley vs. No. 13 Justin McCoy (Virginia)
The opening round of the three-day extravaganza kicks off at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 21. Fans can catch the first session on ESPNU, prior to switching over to ESPN for the second session at 7 p.m.
