Team Camp #2: Lincolnton HS – Brent Gates Wrestlers (Overnight Stay)

Named the SoCon Coach of the Year seven times in his first 15 seasons as head coach and a four-time national coach of the year finalist, JohnMark Bentley helped lead the 24th-ranked Mountaineers to a SoCon Championship tournament title in 2024.

Hired as the head coach in 2009, Bentley’s career dual record stands at 144-79-1 with seven SoCon regular-season titles, including five outright, unbeaten championships following the 2023-24 season. In June 2024, he signed a contract extension through the 2028-29 season.

While attracting some of the nation’s top teams to Boone, the Mountaineers have consistently wrestled in front of standing-room-only crowds at Varsity Gym, with more than 1,200 people attending the first dual of the 2021-22 season and several crowds right at the current capacity of 1,000 over the last few seasons.

The No. 24 national ranking and SoCon tournament title followed a 2022-23 season in which App State swept a pair of SoCon titles and finished with a No. 20 national team ranking. In winning the tournament title in 2024, the Mountaineers had five individual champions, six finalists, eight top-three finishes and 10 top-four finishes while amassing 114.0 team points.

Following the 2024 SoCon Championship tournament, Bentley was named SoCon Coach of the Year and a NWCA national coach of the year finalist.

Under Bentley’s direction, in the past 10 seasons, App State’s 66-6 conference record ranks No. 3 among the best league records in Division I wrestling, behind just Cornell and Penn State. In the last nine seasons, Bentley’s program is 84-9 against non-Power Five Conference opponents with 12 victories against teams from Power Five leagues: Duke (2015-16), Indiana (2015-16), No. 15 Oregon State (2016-17), No. 25 North Carolina (2016-17), Duke (2016-17), Duke (2018-19), Duke (2019-20), Duke (2021-22), No. 21 North Carolina (2022-23), Duke (2022-23), No. 21 North Carolina (2023-24) and Duke (2023-24).

App State produced five NCAA Championship qualifiers in 2024, bringing the total to 29 over the last five seasons. Ten of the nation’s 11 NCAA qualifiers from N.C. high schools over three seasons from 2020-22 came from App State, with three more in 2023 and two more in 2024.

Since Bentley became coach, App State has had 61 NCAA qualifiers and five All-America finishes. Those were Jon Jon Millner (back-to-back in 2021-22), Denzel Dejournette (heavyweight) in 2017, Kyle Blevins (165 pounds) in 2012 and Austin Trotman (184 pounds) in 2012.

The program has a national-best 17 dual shutouts since the calendar flipped to 2020, including two during the 2023-24 season.  The Mountaineers posted five dual team shutouts a