Glenville State University's Nick Johnson, pictured here preparing to wrestle a match earlier this season inside Parkersburg's Memorial Fieldhouse, repeated as the 197-pound Mountain East Conference champion during Saturday's tournament held inside the Waco Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

GLENVILLE — The West Liberty wrestling program of head coach Danny Irwin crowned five individual champions here Saturday inside the Waco Center during the Mountain East Conference tournament to deny host Glenville State a three-peat after the Hilltoppers emerged with a 150-139.5 victory.

The Pioneers of head man Dylan Cottrell had a trio of championship match victories and the first came at 125 where No. 9 Colton Drousias and No. 15 Logan Davis of WLU clashed in a rematch of last year’s final. Drousias was able to repeat after securing an 11-3 major decision.

No. 2 Nick Johnson of the Pioneers also repeated as the 197-pound champion after he blanked Wheeling’s Jaxon Burcher, 7-0, in the championship final.

The G-men received their other top of the podium effort at heavyweight where No. 8 Pioneer Colby Whitehill squared off against No. 13 Gavin Harper, but the Wheeling wrestler was unable to produce any offense in a 4-0 setback.

Glenville State’s Ethan Hardy, who was top-ranked in Division II at 141, was doubled up 4-2 in the finals by No. 6 Colton Stoneking of Fairmont State. The Fighting Falcon was the MEC Wrestler of the Year last winter.

Also reaching the finals for the Pioneers were 157-pounder Jimmie Bailes, 174-pounder Ethan Lopez and 184-pounder Max Borton, who came up short 11-7 to West Liberty’s Oliver Byerly. Lopez faced WLU’s Carter Winegardner, who was runner-up at 174 last year, but the Pioneer lost a 3-2 sudden victory decision. Bailes came up short 6-1 against No. 9 Hilltopper Nico Taddy.

Joining Taddy, Winegardner and Byerly as MEC champions for the Hilltoppers were 149-pounder Anthony Wood (3-0 dec. versus Frostburg State’s Gage Heilbrun) and 165-pounder Jordan Watters, who pinned Salem’s Seth Thomas in 4:16.

Coach Irwin’s program nearly finished with six champions, but 133-pounder James Armstrong Jr. fell 10-9 to No. 2 Tanner Halling of Frostburg State.

A pair of Pioneers, Moses Eads (149) and Connor Holm (165), won their respective consolation finals matches to place third.

Frostburg State (107), Fairmont State (87.5) and Wheeling (75) comprised the rest of the top five team scores. Fighting Falcon 184-pounder Cooper Durst, a former state champ at Ripley, finished third.