"It was a big day for our program," Virginia head coach Steve Garland said. "I told our guys afterwards that they did something special. It's amazing how young we are to do something like that. I've been involved with Virginia wrestling for several years - first as a player then as a coach - and I've never seen a string of dual meets like we had today. For years we've heard that we are an up-and-coming program, but today we showed that we're here."
Virginia (5-0) opened the day with a narrow 16-15 victory over the Boilermakers. The match went back-and-forth and was ultimately decided on a major-decision win by 11th-ranked Eric Albright (Jr., York, Pa.) over Matt Hemry (9-1). The other nine matches were decided by decisions. Each team won five matches total.
In the second match, Virginia romped, 29-10, over Michigan State. The Cavaliers won seven of the 10 bouts against the Spartans, highlighted by falls by Rocco Caponi (Jr., Uniontown, Ohio) and Danny Gonsor (Fr., Cleveland, Ohio).
Caponi, the ACC's reigning Wrestler of the Week and ranked as high as No. 9 nationally, won both of his matches at 184 pounds to improve to 8-0 this year. He defeated A.J. Kissel (4-3) of Purdue and pinned Michigan State's Nick Palmierie.
"We competed so hard and with so much energy," Garland said. "It's only one day and we have a long way to go, but I want our guys to be happy with what they pulled off. But it's great that we have high standards and aren't satisfied yet."
The two leagues split the six matches. Last year the Big Ten swept nine matches in the ACC/Big Ten Clash.
Virginia heads to Troy, N.Y., next Saturday to compete in the Northeast Duals. The Cavaliers once again will be challenged, taking on Lehigh at 10 a.m., No. 8 Cornell at 2:30 p.m. and No. 5 Michigan at 4:30 p.m.
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