Athletics
Mousaw ’24 Leads Grapplers with 11 Pins
Braxton Lewis ’26 capped an impressive rookie season by winning three straight matches at 165 pounds at the Southern Conference Championships.—Photo courtesy VMI Keydets.
The VMI wrestling team started the season strong and had several noteworthy performances at the Southern Conference Championships March 4, 2023.
The Keydets began the year 5-0 with identical 53-0 wins over three opponents: Southern Virginia, Fairmont State, and Shenandoah Universities in Cormack Hall. VMI also defeated ACC member Duke University 28-9 Dec. 4, 2022.
Braxton Lewis ’26 took third and two other Keydets placed fourth at the 2023 SoCon meet in Boone, North Carolina.
Lewis capped an impressive rookie season by winning three-straight matches at 165 pounds after dropping his first contest of the day. He had a major decision victory over his foe from The Citadel and followed with two decision victories to take third. Lewis entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed, and his win in the consolation semifinals was against the No. 3 seed. He finishes the season 26-11. Ryan Vigil ’26 and Job Chishko ’23 each took fourth place. Vigil seeded fourth and won two decision victories at 149 pounds, including a 10-3 win over the No. 5 seed.
Chishko, the No. 5 seed, opened the day by soundly defeating the fourth-seeded wrestler 16-1 by a technical fall in 4:53. He won 7-5 in the consolation semifinals and was defeated narrowly 3-1 in the third-place match by the No. 2 seed.
Josh Evans ’25 won a match by pin at 285, and Freddy Junko ’24 won a match at 141, as did Jon Hoover ’23 at 174.
Tyler Mousaw ’24 led the team in 2022–23 with 11 pins and finished 21-13 at 197 pounds. Evans had an 18-16 record at the season’s end, while Hoover was 14-13.
