After winning a showdown of ranked 149-pound wrestlers in the final of the Mountaineer Invitational, App State’s Cody Bond has been named SoCon Wrestler of the Week.

It was Bond’s first tournament victory since he suffered a season-ending injury last year and overcame additional injuries to return for a seventh year at App State with bigger goals in mind.

Now ranked 20th by FloWrestling and 25th by Intermat, Bond went 3-0 last weekend, closing the tournament with a 5-4 decision against 31st-ranked Michael Gioffre from Virginia. Bond trailed 4-1 entering the third period before getting an escape, delivering a three-point takedown with 33 seconds left and riding out the remainder of the match.

In the semifinal round, Bond allowed an early takedown against Virginia’s Erik Roggie and followed a first-period escape with a takedown. With the score tied at 4-all entering the second period, Bond executed a reversal and stayed on top for nearly 90 seconds before allowing a tying reversal with 23 seconds left in the period. The riding time ended up serving as the tiebreaking point at the end of the match.

Bond opened the tournament with a 20-5 tech fall and improved his career record to 57-32 with his run to a title.