WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson men's wrestling team (2-5) split two home duals with a 44-10 win over the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets (1-1) and a 23-15 defeat to the Mount Union Purple Raiders (4-3).
 
W&J 44, Waynesburg 10
W&J opened up the dual with two technical fall victories in the opening two matches. Junior Brandon Dami (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) set the tone for the dual with a 16-0 win in the 125-pound weight class. Additionally, sophomore captain Josh Smith (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra) won his 141-pound weight class match, 19-1.
 
Freshman Joey Gardner (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) extended the W&J lead to 34-0 with a pin at the 1:46 mark in the opening period of the 157-pound match. The Yellow Jackets got their first points of the dual at the 174-pound match with a 13-2 win by major decision.
 
Junior Vitali Daniels (Scenery Hill, Pa./Bentworth) swung the momentum back in the Presidents' favor in the 184-pound match with a win by fall. Daniels pinned his opponent with 24 seconds remaining in the second period. At the 197-pound weight class, freshman Jack Viti (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) added to the W&J lead with a 13-2 major decision as the Presidents went on to take the dual, 44-10.
 
W&J 15, Mount Union 23
Dami picked up where he left off after the first dual and opened the scoring for W&J by pinning his opponent 27 seconds before the end of the second period. The Purple Raiders got themselves on the board with four points in the 133-pound bout.
 
Smith battled his way to a 10-3 decision at the 141-pound weight class to extend the W&J lead to 9-4. Mount Union got three points back in the 149-pound bout. Gardner wrestled his way to a 7-2 decision in the 157-pound bout to increase the Presidents' advantage to 12-7. The Purple Raiders responded by taking the next two matches to flip the team score.
 
Daniels was down early but scored six unanswered points to win the 184-pound match 6-3, giving W&J the overall lead back, 15-14. Mount Union flipped the last two matches to take the overall dual win 15-23.
 
The Presidents travel up north for the Ohio Northern Invitational on Saturday (Dec. 6). The tournament will begin at 9:00 a.m.