๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐๐๏ธ March 16-18๐ Tulsa, OK๐บ @espn & @ESPNPlus ๐ฐ https://t.co/GPrEHacDHCCulmination of the season's work ๐LET'S GO ๐ค#Team100 #Hokies #ALLINALLTHETIME ๐ฆ pic.twitter.com/rUbD8Y6BcQโ Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling) March 13, 2023
The Hokies were on a short list of teams to qualify all 10 wrestlers. With a strong effort and a little luck the Hokies should be eyeing another top 10 finish with a chance at a trophy. Here are the seeds:
Ventresca 27
Latona 6
Crook 15
Henson 4
Andonian 7
Brady 23
Lewis 3
Bolen 7
Smith 21
Catka 22
First round begins at 12 EST. I'll be watching live from Tulsa so thank you in advance for anyone that provides updates throughout the tournament. I'm sure I'll add some extra commentary in between sessions.
Comments
Let's go!
Hokies!
Need to avoid the regular Friday morning session let down
Legit how I feel every Friday morning session ๐
Have fun man, going to the wrestling championships is definitely on my bucket list.
How many All Americans do we need in order to get on the podium? 6+?
5 with a deep run by Lewis and Andonian would probably do it too. A surprise AA couldn't hurt.
If Eddie or Catka or even Brady can start finishing their shots they can AA
If Brady finishes more shots he's going to do some damage. He hasn't had a problem getting in deep.
I can do some damage after I finish my tequila shots too lol! /s
Damage to the toilet doesn't count.
Side note the Men's restroom by our section must have been a women's room at some point. No urinals.
That's called a power bathroom, it's for serious business only
I highly recommend going to the NCAAs. It is a fantastic time every year. It's going to be in Philly in 2025 I think so that would be a great year to go when you don't have to fly. My first was Pittsburgh in 2019 because we could drive to it.
If my depression doesn't hit me like a ten ton brick I'll do the updates
Eddie V will be on deck mat 5 to start things off for the hokies tomorrow
How did you figure that out? I spend day one mat surfing.
Trackwrestling is usually my go to resource to look up may assignments.
Mat Assignments
Someone on tsl said he was gonna be on mat 5 which he is but he's gonna be in the hole which means he'll be the 3rd match on mat 5
I love that wrestling views the National Championship meet as the culmination of a season's work and not the conference championship. Best of luck to the wrestlers, I will be following along here throughout, thanks in advance to Primus and Macho for the updates!
Same here - thanks APrimus and HokieMacho - exciting next few days!
Alright let's get it
2-2 in sudden victory
UPSET VICTORY THE HOKIES!!!
EDDIE V WITH THE TAKEDOWN. 4-2 In sudden victory over the number 6 seed
What a win!!!! let's go Eddie
The WVU guy got an upset win to
Wow, saved on riding time by 3 seconds and then prevented a takedown in OT by a shoelace. Off to a great start.
Ventresca gets the upset in SV 4-2.
Sam Latona up on mat 6
Crook in hole mat 7
Latona with a takedown in sudden victory. 3-1 victory
Latona wins his first match in SV
Through 2 weight classes the Hokies in a tie for 10th with 2 points.
Good grief, that Spencer Lee pin...
Caleb Henson on deck mat 8
Crook loses in SV 3-1
Need to start getting some easy wins so my heart can last longer than session 1๐ฅบ
tough for Crook
Caleb with good riding time, solid take downs , 6-1 Caleb
Henson with a 6-1 win
Henson with the 5-1 decision... 6-1 riding time
Andonian in hole mat 1
Hokies tied for 12th through 4 weight classes
Andonian with a 7-6 decision
too close for comfort on that one
BA wrestles on the wild side! He pulls stuff out of thin air but then gets caught doing it too!
He also looked exhausted most the match
Brady on deck mat 1
Phew
Mekhi Lewis in hole mat 8
God Brady stop giving up when you get taking down late in matches
Lewis please give me a easy match๐ฅบ
Bolen in hole mat 6
Feels like that's the end of mekhi
Mekhi wins but that was worrisome, looks like he may have reinjured his knee. That was a nice scramble at the end, could have easily lost the one.
His knee hasn't been healthy for a while. Looked like it got tweaked at ACCs and the really looked rough at the end there. He's going to have to dig deep to make a run here.
Lewis wins 2-1
I'm gonna have a heart attack ๐ญ
Andy Smith in hole mat 5
Hokies 13th after 7 classes
Really needed some bonus points
Other than the potential Lewis injury, how are we looking? As expected? Thanks for the updates.
Well we got a upset with Eddie V but we loss a tossup with Crook. Wish we got some bonus points but yeah Hokies are doing alright
I would definitely describe their performances as survive and advance. Wouldn't consider anyone looking very impressive so far other than Ventresca. Latona gets a pass because Lamont was a tough draw, returning All American.
And Lamont handily beat Latona 2 years ago in the quarterfinals
And in the 5th place match. Latona did a much better job avoiding the upper body ties and underhook offense.
Bolen with a 3-2 victory
Get that man a scoop of pre-workout before the next round. He looked gassed with 60 seconds left.
Hunter wins but another close one
Hokies tied for 11th after 8 classes.
shoot Andy Smith Lost with a fall
Andy gets caught and gets pinned
Catka on deck mat 1
If I remember correctly Traxler lost to this guy last year.
when does tonight's session start? 7 PM ET?
Yes
Well. I don't know how to feel about that
Summary of Round 1:
125-lb, #27 Eddie Ventresca (VT) def. #6 Stevo Poulin 4-2 in overtime! Next up #11 Patrick McKee of Minnesota
133-lb, #6 Sam Latona (VT) def. #27 Taylor Lamont 3-1 in overtime; Next up #22 Cody Phippen of Air Force
141-lb, #18 Frankie Shahar def. #15 Tom Crook (VT) 3-1 in overtime; Next up #31 Joseph Zargo of Wisconsin (consol)
149-lb, #4 Caleb Henson (VT) def. #29 Dylan Chappell 6-1; Next up #20 Graham Rooks of Indiana
157-lb, #7 Bryce Adonian (VT) def. #26 Peyton Kellar 7-6; Next up #10 Kaden Gfeller of Oklahoma State
165-lb, #10 Carson Kharchla dec. #23 Connor Brady (VT) 2-1.; Next up #26 Brevin Cassella of Binghamton (consol)
174-lb, #3 Mekhi Lewis (VT) def. #30 Jackson Turley 2-1; Next up #19 Troy Fisher of Northwestern
184-lb, #7 Hunter Bolen (VT) def. #26 David Key 3-2; Next up #10 Travis Wittlake of Oklahoma State
197-lb, #12 Zac Braunagel fall over #21 Andy Smith (VT) 03:59; Next up #28 Jacob Koser of Navy (consol)
285-lb, 11 Trent Hillger dec. #22 Hunter Catka (VT); Next up #27 Ben Goldin of Penn (consol)
Great first round match by Ventresca. Did exactly what he needed to do to get a win. Tough second round against McKee. He's a veteran known for losing early and then making a run in consolations to AA. Maybe ventresca can keep up the tradition and send him to consolations. Henson was the only Tech wrestler that looked in control during the first round. It doesn't get any easier so the veterans need to step it up.
6 advancing in the Championship bracket is about par for the course. The match with Crook was always a tossup. Going to need guys getting wins on the back side if Tech is going to push for a trophy.
Yep. Honestly, at this point, we really have to have 5 of the 6 in the championship bracket to keep on advancing too.
But none of those guys in the consolation bracket should go 0-2. Can't have that!
NC State had 8 of their 9 wrestlers advance. Ugh! That ACCT really helped their seeding and hurt ours.
ACC went 3 for 3 at 125 with Trombley, Ventresca, and Wagner pulling upsets. That group was certainly underrated going in to NCAAs.
Okay so my depression decided to hit me so I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see yall tomorrow
Ventresca on deck mat 4
27 Ventresca beats 11 McKee !!! Way to Go Eddie V!!!
Eddie is a bad man. That was a heck of a win!
Sam on deck mat 4
Another Upset for Eddie. Strong Mental game, didn't let the Minnesota coach mind games get to him
Bama Sam with a 2-1 win!
Latona!!!!!
Henson in the hole mat 5
Crook in the hole mat 1
Tough bout for Henson. Too little too late
Crook wins in SV
Henson drops 4-5... shite
It's been a bloodbath for NC State. Orine the only win so far this session. Trombley, Jack, Arington, and Scott all lost.
Shame
Andonian in the hole mat 3
Boom...Near fall for BA
That flip to secure the major decision by BA....chef's kiss
Andonian vs Haines tomorrow will be interesting..
Mekhi about to go in 4
Mekhi wins 5-4 on ride time
Brady on 2
brady on 2
Brady advances 5-0.
Hokies currently 10th.
CB with decision
I definitely do not understand the scoring
Scoring Guide
What happened with Hunter Bolen?
Bolen advanced 6-1
Never mind - I didn't realize it was still going on. Nice dominant win by Bolen
5 in the quarterfinals
Bolen with 6-1 decision!
Hidlay stops the bleeding for NC State. Faison lost in consolations.
And Trumble just got pinned.
Trephan loses to finish off the the day for NC State.
Smith going in 8
Smith drops 6-4.
Big Cat on 5
Catka falls 2-5.
8 Hokies make day 2
Disappointed finish for Smith and Catka. Both guys got to the legs but did abysmal jobs trying to finish shots. Gave up a bunch of points off their own attempts.
Hokies in 10th going into Day 2
It's Friday morning.
About an hour away from the competition continuing
Virginia Tech wrestling twitter page has got a separate link for each of the 8 mats to make it easier to stream all 8 mats at once
tough match for eddie v losing to cronin in SV
bama sam coming up on mat 6 against arujau
Both wrestled pretty good matches just not enough to win๐
So proud of Eddie, really fought hard against these top seeds, took this one to OT. He should get a higher ranking next year.
As for Sam Latona, he's up there, he was getting take downs in the first period. Feel for him too, he was in it till the end.
Keep rooting for our guys
Andonian, Bolen, Lewis still left
SV TAKEDOWN FOR HENSON
BA up 6-1 early!
BA in a war 7-6 going into the 3rd
Lame. I think that challenge was a mistake. BA had all the momentum and it let the penn st kid regroup.
Damn. BA goes down on Ride Time
How the fuck was that a pin when Andonians wasn't. Fucking bullshit
I got my hopes up with Bryce having such a lead
It was too early though like a 2-0 lead in soccer
I think he got tired eventually and lost with the PIN
from a novice wrestling fan that seemed like a quick call on BA's pin yet when he had Haines in the 1st round on his back and his shoulders looked like they were down they didn't call that a pin...?
That was a quick call. Typical home cooking for Penn State.
what happened with Lewis, I had to step away
Won 2-0. Was up 1-0 going into the 3rd and rode him the entire period.
Awesome and thank you. I think we made the top 10 so far
His finger is definitely messed up. Add that on to his hurt knee.
Bolen drops to Hidlay; moving into consolations tonight
Connor Brady lost and ends his tournament
Henson wins his second match of the session, revenge over Zapf of Penn.
Hokies have 6 remaining in the tournament. Lewis in the semifinals with a new hand injury. Ventresca, Latona, Henson, Andonian, and Bolen in to the blood round. It's win or go home with AA honors on the line.
Seems like Mekhi has been battling injury all year. I always get nervous when a guy gets in on the knees.
If nc state didn't have all them bonus point wins in round 1 they be doing worse than us points wise
EV with 3-1 win.... pending coach's challenge
Eddie Ventresca = All American as a Freshman!!!!!
Bama Sam owned Philippi the whole match 5- 1 - Sam is All American!!!!
Caleb Henson = All American!!!!
These Hokies are CALIENTE! Let's go BA, HB
And Mekhi needs to do those things only he can do.
Hokies looking good so far!!
Bryce with the pin!!!! All American Baby!!!!
That was insane. My heart stopped beating 5 times. Congratulations BA-AA.
What a start to the session! Let's go Mekhi!!
What's the team score? We had to have made up a lot of ground.
Up to 8th. 4.5 points above Nc state ๐ค
1 pt after the Ed Scott win
Hunter should be coming up next on mat 1.
Yanni showed in the 3rd round against Van Ness why he is #1... power wrestling
Sidenote in case y'all missed it Spencer Lee got pinned by Ramos and Dayton fix lost to Vito Arujau.
I think the ref screwed bolen. He squared up to him with a minute left in the 3rd and ref said they were out when they were still clearly in
Well that sucked, ugh
EDIT: BA pinned trying for the late escape vs NCSU Ed Scott
Andonian hasn't wrestled a smart tournament. He's also has gotten tired every match he's been in
I think not being able to wrestle most of the season hurt Andonian in the long run
His high risk, high reward style of wrestling seems to be his downfall
High risk high reward. Tech is ride or die with Andonian and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tail of two halves for this session. Strong start and then tough down the stretch. Ventresca, Latona, and Andonian will all wrestle for 7th. Henson and Lewis will wrestle to see if they are in the 3rd or 5th place match. 5 All Americans is very good. Couldn't be happier for Ventresca and Henson to get it done as a Freshman.
Damn straight. After this morning I thought we were gonna get 2-3 All Americans. I'm proud of the guys๐ฅ
I cannot find the team scores anywhere. WTF?
Finally!
Team Results
1. Penn State: 116.5
2. Iowa: 77
3. Cornell: 64
4. Ohio State: 62
5. Missouri: 55
6. Michigan: 51
6. Nebraska: 51
8. Iowa State: 44
9. NC State: 41
10. Virginia Tech: 40.5
Just beat NCSU!
Look at the dif between 1 and 2!
Overall a great job no matter what with 5 AA as I was thinking 4 was probably where we were at going in but was hoping for at least one finalist between ml, ba, Henson. Would have loved ML to get another shot at Penn state guy but given his knee and then finger issues seemed to really hamper his offense as his defense was pretty top notch especially his riding. BA is always the highlight reel style that is awesome when it works but leaves you very susceptible to be caught in a bad position. Latona had a really good run to another AA, Ventresca finally showed what he is capable of after that rough patch mid season, and Henson battled back nicely so far, seems sky's the limit for him being a true freshman. Brady also seemed to really improve the past couple of tournaments and if he can get a little better on offensive he would probably jump into contention. Crook did a solid job as a true freshman so no complaints there. Smith and catka were a little disappointing but those weights are usually low scoring matches where if they just can manage one takedown that is all that is needed. Bolen was the most disappointing after he wanted to comeback due to bad run last year, but Kane is just a bad match up for him and I think he honestly was better against Hiliday. I think we still control our destiny as to finishing above NCST which is always a big thing since they always seem to have our number at the conference tournament. The future looks bright, especially if ML and BA return, but Robbie and staff have done an excellent job.
Caleb Henson will be coming up on mat 4 vs Shayne Van Ness
Henson wrestled tough but loses 3-5... will battle for 5th later this morning
Khi looked good taking out 5th seed... will wrestle for 3rd place
Eddie V coimng up on mat 3
Bama Sam vs Orine will be on mat 2
Way to Go Sam Latona decision 3-1 over orine for 7th place!
Seconds later Eddie Victory secures 7th place with a gutsy battle over WVU
BA on 3 against Lewan
Airdonian puts hellacious move on defensive minded Lewan to win 7th place... thought he broke the dudes leg for a moment but got 4 swipes out of it --- Way to Go BA
Great job so far with the guys finishing on odd numbers. Got two more to go.
Henson looking fast and dangerous. He wins by MD over the orange Murin for 5th.
Shed those tears Caleb you deserve it - major decision over Iowa's Max Murin to claim 5th place his freshman year
Mekhi loses in rideouts to finish 4th. He has had an amazing career becoming the face of Virginia Tech Wrestling and elevating the program to the next level.
Virginia Tech will finish above NC State in the standings. Never in doubt.
What place are we sitting?
Hokies have a top 10 finish locked up. They are currently 9th. Iowa State will jump to 9th if David Carr wins his finals match vs Keegan O'Toole.
I propose that in all wrestling posts/threads that they only be referred to as NC Stall.
NCStallU
Top 10 - let's go Hokies. glad to have had Mekhi on the team.
Already looking forward to next year. Great work by our guys
For Mekhi to wrestle on what I think is a torn acl or meniscus (just speculating) for the last 2 months and going out there making the semi finals of the toughest tournament in college wrestling and then wrestling another 2 matches cause he wanted to help the team finish as high as possible. I'm gonna miss Mekhi alot๐ฅบ
MCL sprain all year is what Robie said. Tweaked hamstring during ACC finals. Broke his finger in the first round of NCAAs.
I appreciate all the updates. Been a great end to a not so quite great season.
I thought it was a good season. Only disappointment was the acc tournament
Well the pitt match but in the end we got 5 All Americans. I'm through the moon rn for these guys๐ฅ
Agreed! Awesome season
I think it was a good season too. And to cap it off with the heart these guys showed coming out this morning about 12 hours after last night's matches to face 2 more top quality opponents was admirable. With the exception of the Pitt match they put on an impressive season. Definitely building the fan support with a record crowd of 5,000 plus showing up to watch us beat the wolfpups. With 2 freshman in the group of 5 earning AA and recruiting on the upswing I can't wait for next season.
Finals starts at 157 tonight. Finishing with Yianni's match for his 4th championship.
And with Keegan O'Toole's victory over David Carr the Hokies will finish 9th this year!
what is our best ever finish / expected this year?
We have finished third before.
Fourth
We beat NCSU!
I think this year has the most AA's since the 3rd place year. That team was stacked. Looking at the rankings, alot of the top wrestlers in the country benefited from the extra COVID year and our out of eligibility. We should be loaded with top 10 individual rankings next season. Mekhi is probably done, but he has 1 (maybe 2, COVID, olympic redshirt?) left.
PLUS. some great young guys coming in. Robie's assistant coaches are all stars. I hope they are as happy as possible at VT.
Andonion is as slick a wrestler as I've seen. If he stays healthy, he'll have a legit shot next year. Can get himself into some tough spots for sure, which is obviously dangerous in a big tourney. If this was a freestyle tournament (back exposure), it would be insane to watch.
Henson had a great tourny. His quarterfinals match, was a little fluky. He had alot of winning to do from there to get to 5th. Happy for him to shake that off and beat the 14th, 7th, 5th and 6th ranking wrestlers to take 5th. He should be top 3 next season.