WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson College men's wrestling team (4-7) battled their way to a 23-19 win over the Muskingum Fighting Muskies.
 
The two teams traded tech falls to open the dual. At the 141-pound weight class, sophomore captain Josh Smith (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra) got the Presidents on the board with a 25-9 win. Smith went on an 18-2 run in the final two periods to clinch the tech fall.
 
Sophomore Nathan Thomas (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown) gave the Presidents an early lead after the 149-pound bout with a hard-fought 5-4 decision. Thomas closed out the bout with a two-point reversal in the final minute to take the win.
 
The Fighting Muskies did not go away easily, winning the next two contested duals and cutting the Presidents' overall lead in the dual to 14-12. Sophomore Vitali Daniels (Scenery Hill, Pa./Bentworth) racked up six unanswered points in the third and final period of the 184-pound bout to extend the Presidents' lead to 17-12. 
 
Muskingum kept it close heading into the final two weight classes. Freshman Jack Viti (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) took on the challenge to bump up to the heavyweight division to wrestle the regionally fifth-ranked wrestler of the division and held him to a major decision. Viti set up junior Brandon Dami (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) to only need a decision to take the overall dual. Dami ended up securing a pin two minutes into the 125-pound match to clinch a 23-19 win.
 
The Presidents look to build off this momentum when they return to the mats to host the Jim White Duals on Saturday (Jan. 17). The event will begin at 10:00 a.m., and W&J will begin at 11:30 a.m.