PROVIDENCE, R. I. – The Washington & Jefferson College wrestling team wrapped up its season Friday by competing at the 2025 NCAA Championships. The two-day end of season event is being hosted by Johnson & Wales at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
A trio of sophomores,
Taylor Smith (Mifflintown, Pa./Juniata),
Casey Smith (Mifflintown, Pa./Juniata) and
Christian McChesney (Greensburg, Pa./Greensburg-Salem), represented W&J at the event.
This marked the first time three PAC wrestlers have advanced to Nationals since 2020. This also represents the fourth time in W&J history that the program qualified three wrestlers for the national tournament in the same season (2002, 2014, 2019).
Taylor Smith, appearing for the second-straight year at the event, showed promise. He opened the day for W&J with a championship round victory.
Taylor Smith bested seventh-seeded Daniel Uribe of Wabash by a 5-4 triumph by decision in the 149-pound bracket. Unfortunately, he suffered a 4-2 loss by decision in the second round to Elijah Cyr of Castleton. After receiving a bye in the consolation round two,
Taylor Smith dropped a narrow 6-5 decision to Michael Conklin of The College of New Jersey, which eliminated him from competition.
Casey Smith finished with a 1-2 record while competing in the 157-pound bracket.
Casey Smith opened the day with a championship round one loss by 4-0 decision to the No. 2 seeded Peter Kane from Williams, who entered the day unbeaten for the season. In the second round of the consolation bracket, he picked up a win by major decision (17-7) over Jason Rezac of Alveria to advance in consolations. He fell by an 8-1 margin to get eliminated in the third round of consolations to Darian Estevez of the University of Chicago.
Casey Smith competed at NCAAs for the first time.
Making his first appearance at nationals, McChesney finished the day 0-2 in the 285-pound heavyweight bracket. McChesney was bested in the first round of the championship bracket by Robby Bates of North Central (Ill.) by tech fall (TF 5:00, 18-0). McChesney later dropped a decision by fall to Adolfo Betancur of host Johnson & Wales in 3:19.
Led by head coach
Sonnie Blanco, W&J wraps up its 2024-25 season, which saw the program capture its eighth Presidents' Athletic Conference title.
