West Virginia All-American Watters to Miss Remainder of 2024-25 Season

During the broadcast of Iowa State’s 24-18 win over West Virginia, the WVU broadcast team mentioned that Mountaineer All-American 149 lber Ty Watters would miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season due to an injury. InterMat has followed up to confirm that this is accurate information. 

Watters is a sophomore who went 30-6 last year as a true freshman and won a Big 12 title before finishing fourth in the nation in Kansas City. The Big 12 championship provided Watters with the fifth seed at his first NCAA Tournament. Watters advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals before running into the eventual national champion, Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech. In his next match, Watters pinned 2021 All-American Jaden Abas (Stanford) to solidify his own All-American status. Watters majored Casey Swiderski (Iowa State) and pinned Kyle Parco (Arizona State), before falling in the third-place match. 

The fourth-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Tournament helped WVU to a 17th place finish which was the program’s best showing at nationals since 2004. He and Peyton Hall became the first Mountaineer teammates to make the podium in the same year since 2005. 

Watters started the 2024-25 season with a title at the Southeast Open - defeating returning All-American Lachlan McNeil (North Carolina) in the process. In his only two dual appearances this year, Watters posted tech falls - one of which came over #16 Sammy Alvarez (Rider). 

In his last appearance in 2024, Watters fell to #2 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) at the NWCA/All-Star Classic exhibition. 

Since Watters only competed in three events, one would assume he would be able to use a medical redshirt for the 2024-25 campaign. 

In his absence, veteran Sam Hillegas has stepped into the WVU lineup and won two of his first three dual appearances. Tonight, Hillegas was beaten by the Cyclones Paniro Johnson, who competed at 149 lbs for the first time this season.