Point Park men’s wrestling earned three placements after competing in its first-ever conference championship on Saturday in Glenville, W. Va.

The Mountain East Conference Wrestling Championship featured five Point Park wrestlers, all of whom are true freshmen.

Freshman Preston Chandler led the way with a fourth-place finish in the 133-pound division. He went 2-2 on the day.

“Preston is one of the hardest working guys on the team,” coach Zach Mizer said. “It’s not easy being an 18/19-year-old wrestling 22/23-year-olds on a regular basis at every tournament.”

The recruit from Caldwell, Oh. made waves in his first collegiate conference championship, beating out the four and six seeds as a seven seed in his bracket.

“I was a little nervous going into it,” Chandler said. “However we have been to tough tournaments all year to prepare us, so we weren’t treating this one any differently.”

Chandler faced a first-round loss by fall before making a run in the wrestlebacks.

“You have to have short-term memory when it comes to wrestling tournaments, so I tried to forget about it and focus on winning the next one,” Chandler said.

Chandler turned around to capture a dynamic win by takedown versus Salem’s Fabian Rivera, succeeded by a medical forfeit in the following round.  Chandler fell in the third-place match.

“The highlight of my weekend was watching him pin the Salem kid,” Mizer said. “He puts in so much work and effort, it’s awesome to see when it starts to pay off.”

Liam Hein and Charles Perkins placed sixth in the 149-pound and 174-pound divisions, respectively. Perkins earned an impressive second-round win, 13-5.

Aiden Burford did not place in the 141 bracket after going winless in two matches. Jake Kandis did not place either, going 0-2.

Coach Mizer led his team through Point Park’s first conference championship in wrestling.

“There are a lot of growing pains in a brand new program in their first year of competition, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead these young men, and I’m hoping the experience will light a fire under them that will continue for the remainder of the season,” Mizer said.

Mizer was hired in May 2024 to spearhead the program’s inaugural season. He had a full academic year to recruit and develop a team before its first season of competition during the 2025-26 season.

He recruited a 10-man roster of true freshmen entering the season.

“Coach Mizer has us focus a lot on fixing the small details, which makes all the difference at the collegiate level,” Chandler said.

Mizer previously served as head coach at Lyon College, a former NAIA institution in Arkansas. Saturday’s competition was his first MEC championship as well.

“It was definitely a great experience,” Mizer said. “The [MEC] is absolutely loaded with amazing competition and the fact that our guys, all true freshmen, went out there and competed hard the entire tournament is something that I was especially proud of.”

West Liberty combined for 150 points to win the championship, as the team recorded five first-place finishes and had 10 wrestlers finish in the top three spots in their brackets.

“I think, or hope, [Point Park’s team] learned that anything could happen at a conference championship,” Mizer said. “We saw the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the country lose this weekend. That’s how deep our conference is, and I hope it’s going to give them that belief moving forward that ‘if they can do it, why can’t I?’”

As a team, the Pioneers placed seventh in the conference, tying Davis & Elkins for the final spot with 22.5 points.

The Pioneers will travel to West Virginia to face Davis & Elkins in a dual meet on Friday.

“Just seeing how good some of these teams are shows that there is still a lot of work to be done, but we competed and have guys that can have a lot of success in the MEC,” Mizer said.

The season concludes on March 14 with the NCWA Mideast championship. Beyond that, Mizer will move into his first offseason with a full team behind him.

“With the season winding down, I’m just hoping to see the continued effort in the practice room,” Mizer said. “I hope this weekend and experience will help to motivate them over the offseason to continue to put in work and improve so that next season we will have more placers and more success.”