Mekhi Lewis

Mekhi Kevin Lewis (born April 29, 1999) is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler. In freestyle, he was the 2018 Junior World Champion and the US National runner-up in 2019. As a folkstyle wrestler, Lewis is an NCAA Division I champion and ACC champion out of Virginia Tech and three-time NJSIAA champion as a high schooler.

Folkstyle

Lewis began wrestling when he was five or six years old.

He attended Bound Brook High School in New Jersey and went on to win two NJSIAA titles during his high school wrestling years. He was also on the football varsity team.

When he was a high school senior, Lewis committed to Virginia Tech.

Lewis chose to redshirt and competed unattached and compiled a record of 28 wins and 2 losses, winning multiple open tournaments such as the Hokie, Wolfpack, Storm, Appalachian, and Edinboro Opens. He also placed fourth at the Southern Scuffle.

As a freshman, Lewis posted a record of 21 wins and 2 losses (13-1 in duals), won the Hokie Open and placed second at the Cliff Keen Invitational during regular season. Post-regular season, he won an ACC title and entered the NCAA championships as the eighth-seeded wrestler at 165 pounds. He opened the tournament with a fall and decision before facing top-seeded Alex Marinelli, whom he also defeated by decision. He then defeated fourth-seeded Evan Wick, making it to the final against second-seeded Vincenzo Joseph. He beat Joseph to become the first Hokie ever to win an NCAA individual championship. After the tournament, he earned the Most Outstanding Wrestler award.

In 2019-2020 Lewis did not compete as an NCAA athlete. As a 2018 junior world champion and 2019 NCAA champion, he met two of the four criteria to be eligible for an Olympic redshirt, focusing on freestyle and retaining his eligibility as a sophomore.

In 2020-2021, Lewis compiled an 8–1 record during regular season, suffering his only loss via injury, which forced him to forfeit out of the ACC Championships.

Freestyle career

Lewis never competed consistently in freestyle, having attended just two tournaments (US Open and WTT) before his appearance at the 2018 World Championships, being this tournament his first international competition ever. He went on to defeat all of his four opponents (two by technical fall), claiming gold.

After taking an Olympic redshirt for 2019-2020, Lewis was nominated to compete at the Intercontinental Cup as his first senior freestyle competition. He defeated three opponents on his way to the semifinals, where he was downed on points and thrown to the third-place match. He also lost the bronze-medal match, placing fifth.

He then competed at the Bill Farrell Memorial in an attempt to earn a qualification ticket for the Olympic Trials. He defeated two opponents by technical fall and was subsequently matched with Vincenzo Joseph, whom he had defeated earlier that year at the NCAA championship final. He lost on points and was thrown to the consolation brackets. He beat Logan Massa and Thomas Gantt to earn a shot at the bronze medal. In the third-place match, he was defeated by three-time NCAA Division III champion Nazar Kulchytskyy.

In his next attempt to qualify for the Olympic Trials, he competed at the US Nationals. He dominated on his way to the finals with two technical fall victories, an 8-0 victory, and a decision. At the finals, he faced Bill Farrell Memorial opponent Logan Massa and was defeated on points, earning runner-up honors and a run at the Olympic Trials.

Lewis was scheduled to compete at the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials on April 4 at State College, Pennsylvania. However, the event was postponed for 2021 along with the Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving all the qualifiers unable to compete.

After being unable to compete for almost one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis represented the SERTC in the FloWrestling: RTC Cup at 74 kilograms during December 4–5. In the first round against the Ohio RTC, he lost 9-2 to Carson Kharchla, but went on to close the day with a technical fall over Jevon Balfour. In the second day, he was defeated by two-time NCAA Division I All-American Evan Wick, before picking up another technical fall over Balfour and helping the team to make the finals, where he lost to 2020 US national champion Logan Massa in a rematch.

Freestyle record

Senior Freestyle Matches
Res.	Record	Opponent	Score	Date	Event	Location
FloWrestling RTC Cup as NJRTC
Loss	13-8	Logan Massa	2-3	December 4–5, 2020	FloWrestling RTC Cup	Austin, Texas
Win	13-7	Jevon Balfour	TF 17-6
Loss	12-7	Evan Wick	5-11
Win	12-6	Jevon Balfour	TF 12-2
Loss	11-6	Carson Kharchla	2-9
2019 US Nationals at 74 kg
Loss	11-5	Logan Massa	4-6	December 22, 2019	2019 Senior Nationals - US Olympic Trials Qualifier	Ford Worth, Texas
Win	11-4	Thomas Gantt	3-1
Win	10-4	Chance Marsteller	Injury (8-0)
Win	9-4	Elroy Perkin	TF 10-0
Win	8-4	Jaison White	TF 10-0
2019 Bill Farrell Memorial 4th at 74kg
Loss	7-4	Nazar Kulchytskyy	3-9	November 16, 2019	2019 Bill Farrell Memorial International Open	New York, New York
Win	7-3	Thomas Gantt	5-1
Win	6-3	Logan Massa	7-1
Loss	5-3	Vincenzo Joseph	1-4
Win	5-2	Jakub Sykora	TF 11-0
Win	4-2	James Hunsberger	TF 10-0
2019 Continental Cup 5th at 74kg
Loss	3-2	Gadzhimurad Alikhmaev	2-6	October 14, 2019	2019 Intercontinental Wrestling Cup	Khasavyurt, Russia
Loss	3-1	Magoma Dibirgadzhiev	3-5
Win	3-0	Alibek Akbaev	7-0
Win	2-0	Dan Vallimont	4-1
Win	1-0	Davit Gevorgyan	3-2

Junior freestyle record

Junior freestyle results
Res.	Record	Opponent	Score	Date	Event	Location
2018 World Championship at 74 kg
Win	11-2	Abubakar Abakarov	5-1	September 23, 2018	2018 Junior World Wrestling Championships	Trnava, Slovakia
Win	10-2	Bat-Erdene Byambasuren	TF 12-1
Win	9-2	Matthew Bartlett	Fall
Win	8-2	Erik Reinbok	TF 10-0
2018 US World Team Trials at 74 kg
Win	7-2	Alex Marinelli	6-5	May 19, 2018	2018 US Junior World Team Trials	Rochester, Minnesota
Win	6-2	Travis Wittlake	6-1
Win	5-2	Hayden Hastings	8-6
2018 US Open 5th at 74 kg
Win	4-2	Tyler Dow	15-8	April 27, 2018	2018 US Open Junior Wrestling Championships	Las Vegas, Nevada
Loss	3-2	Kaleb Romero	6-11
Loss	3-1	Jeremiah Moody	7-9
Win	3-0	Jarrett Jacques	8-4
Win	2-0	Tanner Skidgel	TF 10-0
Win	1-0	Devin Bahr	5-0

NCAA record

NCAA Championship Matches
Res.	Record	Opponent	Score	Date	Event
2021 NCAA Championships DNP at 165 lbs
Loss	7–1	Zach Hartman	MFOR	March 18–20, 2021	2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Win	7–0	Tanner Skidgel	3–2
Win	6–0	Brian Meyer	8–3
2019 NCAA Championships at 165 lbs
Win	5–0	Vincenzo Joseph	7–1	March 23, 2019	2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Win	4–0	Evan Wick	5–2
Win	3–0	Alex Marinelli	3–1
Win	2–0	Cael McCormick	4–1
Win	1–0	Cam Coy	Fall

Stats

Season	Year	School	Rank	Weigh Class	Record	Win	Bonus
2021	Sophomore	Virginia Tech	#2	165	8–2	80.00%	50.00%
2019	Freshman		#8 (1st)		28–2	93.33%	43.33%
Career					35–2	90.00%	42.50%

Collegiate awards and records

Freestyle awards and honors