Hokies Wrestling: Rankings and this weekends Tournaments

Hokies as a team are ranked 18th, 7th and 8th in the different ranking platforms. All ten Hokies primary guys in each weight class are now ranked on Intermat and only Ethen Miller is not ranked on FloWrestling. I expect his exclusion from Flo rankings is that he has been out with an injury this season. It does not appear he is healthy yet as Dibella is wrestling in the Patriot Open this weekend and Hokies had no entry in the 157 class at Cliff Keen Invitational.

This weekend the Hokies will wrestle in the Patriot Open at George Mason and on Sunday at the Cliff Keen Invitational. They will have ten wrestlers in seven weight classes at the Patriot Open and six wrestlers in six weight classes at Cliff Keen.

If you are in Northern Virginia there are tickets for the Patriot Open at the door but read below.
Admission for all George Mason students and faculty is free with valid and current college
ID. General admission is $15 for adults, $5.00 for HS students, pre-HS free. Some seating is
available, bring folding chairs.

Event is at George Mason University Fieldhouse
4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030

Here are the entries.

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Comments

If you are in Northern Virginia there are tickets for the Patriot Open at the door but read below.
Admission for all George Mason students and faculty is free with valid and current college
ID. General admission is $15 for adults, $5.00 for HS students, pre-HS free. Some seating is
available, bring folding chairs.

Event is at George Mason University Fieldhouse
4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Cliff Keen Invitational is in Vegas. If you happen to be there tickets can be found here.

https://cklvwrestle.com/tickets/

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Excited to see Dillon Campbell and Colin Gaj in Vegas and to see if Sonny can keep his momentum up at the patriot open

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Gaj and Gorman in action at Cliff Keen. Will try to post results. Can't try to follow live.

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

"Gaj" is a very uncommon last name. Given that he is from eastern PA, I wonder if I am related to him? Would not be shocked.

Recovering scientist working in business consulting

Gaj with the 10-2 Major Decision

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Mac Church up now too

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Gorman got pummeled a bit. 15-4 Major loss

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Round of 32
Church got the pin in first match
Weader lost 7-1 in first match.
Farrell won 19-4 Tech Fall in 1st match.

Round of 16
Campbell 11-1 Major Decision
Gaj lost 5-1 to #4 Jaxon Joy
Church lost in SV 4-1 after review awarded Taylor takedown in final seconds of SV
Ferrell lost 8-0

Consolations
Gorman lost 8-6 in Consolation and his tourney is over
Gaj won 21-6 Tech Fall
Weader won 7-4
Church won 14-4 Major Decision
Ferrell won 2-0 with escape and a Riding Time point for riding entire 3rd.

One in the Quarterfinals and four alive in Consolation

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Campbell won his QF 1-0. Faces the 7 seed Larkin. Who put on a masterclass of scrambling in his QF match. I do not like the matchup

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

That's one way to win a match. Gaj gets a first period takedown and wins 3-2 after getting ridden for 4 minutes 🤣

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Gaj wins 3-2 to stay in it

Drinking...Will let you finish the results tonight. I am headed to bed.

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Weader loss 4-2 and his tournament is over

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Chruch lost 8-2 and is eliminated

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Ferrell won by 14-4 Major decision and advances

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

On things I thought i wouldn't post tonight. Colin Gaj Majors number three in the country at 149 11-2👀

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

With that win. Gaj locks up a top 8 finsh

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Ferrell loses to the number 2 seed 7-1 and is eliminated. And that's the day wrapped up.

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Collin Gaj with a 7th place finsh with a pin over the number 24 wrestler

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

That's excellent.

This is going to be great for the ACC.

Dillon Campbell finished 4th at Cliff Keen

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Patriot Open going much better for Hokies than Cliff Keen

Patriot Open Update

Into the Quarters
141 | Tom Crook TECH FALL Anthony Basile (GMU), 19-4 2:17
174 | Sergio Desiante TECH FALL Gavin Cole (NAPS), 20-5 4:36
184 | Gunner Garelli DEC Christopher Mance (DRXL), 5-4
197 | Sonny Sasso FALL Anthony Bradley (MARY), 11-0 3:00

Consolations
149 |
Chris Bacchioni loss via maj dec Kaden Cassidy (GMU), 0-9
Chris Bacchioni FALL Jonah Lugo (NASSAU), 6-0 0:58
184 | Glean Gonzalez loss via maj dec Malachi Duvall, 0-10

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Into the Semifinals
- Sergio Desiante! 12-1 MAJOR DEC over Elliot Humphries (PRTC)!
- Sonny Sasso with another FALL! 3-0 1:59 over Hunter Adams (App St).
- Gunner Garelli 7-3 DEC over Jonathan Hoffman (NASSAU)!
- 141 | Tampa Tom into the semis with a 19-3 4:22 TECH FALL over Matthew Martino (PRINCE)!

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Into the Finals
Tampa Tom with a 5-2 DEC over Elijah Cortez! He'll have Cornell's Vincent Cornella in the finals!
Sergio Desiante with an 8-1 DEC and he's into the finals!
Sonny Sasso with the 9-3 DEC and headed to the finals!

Dropped to 3rd/4th
Garelli leading 3-1 but gets caught in a cradle to drop his bout by fall. He'll wrestle for third!

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Crook falls 10-4 in finals. Finished 2nd
Desiante falls 4-2. Also 2nd

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Sasso gets taken down early in the match. But he is able to move into a crab position and is able to keep moving into Correa. To the point where he is able to collect a leg and a head. And he locks in the cradle for the reversal and puts Correa on his shoulder for the pin. 197 pound GMU open champion 😤

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Good tournament for Sasso. Shows off more of his potential. If he's wrestling like that in March he'll be dangerous.

Garelli falls 10-7 and finishes 4th to close out the Patriot Open

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

New rankings are out. Gaj is now ranked at 149 instead of Noah Nininger. He is 15th on flowrestling and 19th on intermat. Now I have a theory. Since Noah's best win is at 157. Do we have him bulk up during the winter break to be the full time 157. Especially if Miller isn't fully healthy when January comes around. Or do we have him try to cut too 141 and challenge Crook?

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily

Gaj actually wrestled up at 157 for National Duals. I am not a fan of the rankings insisting on only ranking a single wrestler per school per class. Rank them as you see them, let the mat sort it out. Frankly it hurts the backup if they are forced into starter role late in the season.

Rob Peterson
VTCC
Charlie/Hotel Company
Class of 1999

Gaj wrestled one match at 149 at the national Dual. It was against NC state. Against Koy Buesgens. And even though he lost 4-1. It was his best match of the weekend. And when he was 157 he looked very outmatched. Like he was severely undersized at 157. And on the flipside. Noah Nininger had one match at 157 at the national dual. He faced Jackson Arrington in the nc state dual. And he won 8-7. And Jackson was top 10 when Noah won that match. So tbh. He would have a higher ranking at 157 than he would at 149 because of that win plus he didn't look undersized at all

The taste is so divine
A chemical come alive
Welcome to your vice
Good luck with life
'Cause you can't
You can't
You can't kill me that easily