“I felt like if we came out and wrestled good, we had that potential [to win big],” head coach Kevin Dresser said. “They were obviously favored at 133 and 174, the weight classes we lost, but the other eight bouts had a lot of toss-ups on paper. Early in the year, this is good. This is what these guys need. One of the things we’re shooting for this year is consistency and being consistently good and so far we’ve done a pretty good job of that this first month.”
Things opened up at 125 pounds with eighth-ranked Jarrod Garnett dominating No. 7 Matt Snyder, picking up an 11-2 major decision. He used four takedowns and a reversal, plus over a minute of riding time to give Tech a quick 4-0 lead. For Garnett, it was his 100th career victory, making him the seventh member of Tech’s 100-win club in program history. At 133 pounds, Virginia’s George DiCamillo, ranked 17th, got a takedown in the third period to ice a 5-2 victory over Tech’s Erik Spjut.
At 141 pounds, 10th-ranked Zach Neibert got all he could handle from Joe Spisak, but a takedown and back points early, plus riding time, were enough to overcome a later reversal by Spisak as Neibert won 5-3. At 149 pounds, 11th-ranked Nick Brascetta pulled off yet another upset, beating sixth-ranked Derek Valenti 3-2. The two were tied at 1-1 in the third period before Valenti got in deep on a leg. But Brascetta fought it off on the edge of the mat and eventually got Valenti’s ankle and converted it to a takedown for the only offensive points of the match.
At 157 pounds, eighth-ranked Jesse Dong got a takedown in the second period and held on for the 3-0 win over 19th-ranked Jedd Moore to give Tech a 13-3 lead at the halfway mark. Pete Yates, ranked fourth at 165 pounds, fell behind early to ninth-ranked Nick Sulzer, but battled back with a takedown in the first period, rode Sulzer for the whole second period and then got an escape and a takedown late to pick up a 7-2 win.
Virginia got a hard-fought victory at 174 pounds with No. 9 Jon Fausey picking up a 4-2 win despite not scoring any offensive points. Fausey got a penalty point off two Gabel stalls, a pair of escapes and a point for riding time. Gabel, a redshirt freshman, got a takedown with under 20 seconds to go, but couldn’t get the tying points against the ranked Fausey.
Nick Vetterlein controlled the action against 16th-ranked Stephen Doty at 184 pounds, picking up three takedowns en route to the 7-4 upset win. Derrick Borlie fell behind to Zach Nye early on, but used a pair of takedowns in the second period to propel him to a 9-4 win at 197 pounds. Sixth-year senior David Marone used a pair of takedowns to pick up his first win of the season, a 7-1 win over Derek Papagianopoulos at heavyweight.
The Hokies have now won the last seven matches against UVa to take a 37-26-1 lead in a series that dates back to 1922. The last time Virginia beat the Hokies was in 2008 in the ACC dual match. Tech has won 20 of its last 21 ACC dual matches dating back to 2008
The win completes a weekend sweep of Virginia as the volleyball and football teams also won at home this weekend.
Tech (3-1) will be back in action next weekend, taking on No. 18 Pittsburgh Friday night and No. 20 Edinboro on Saturday, both on the road. Several wrestlers will also compete at the Nittany Lion Open, hosted by Penn State.
Results:
125: #8 Jarrod Garnett (VT) maj. dec. #5 Matt Snyder, 11-2
133: #19 George DiCamillo (VA) dec. Erik Spjut, 5-2
141: #7 Zach Neibert (VT) dec. Joe Spisak, 5-3
149: #12 Nick Brascetta (VT) dec. #9 Derek Valenti, 3-2
157: #7 Jesse Dong (VT) dec. Jedd Moore, 3-0
165: #5 Pete Yates (VT) dec. #8 Nick Sulzer, 7-2
174: #8 Jon Fausey (VA) dec. Austin Gabel, 4-2
184: Nick Vetterlein (VT) dec. Stephen Doty, 7-4
197: Derrick Borlie (VT) dec. Zach Nye, 9-4
285: David Marone (VT) dec. Derek Papagianopoulos, 7-1
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now