Today, 10 Hokie wrestlers put everything they had into achieving one goal: bringing home a 2nd straight conference championship. At the end of the evening, the Hokies had pulled away from Pitt, the regular-season champions, and UVA to come out on top yet again. Solid performances were turned in by 3rd-place finishers Joey Dance, Chris Moon, Nick Vetterlein and Ty Walz and ACC individual champions Dennis Gustafson, Devin Carter (Outstanding Wrestler), Zach Neibert and Chris Penny. Additionally, Sal Mastriani and Austin Gabel scored valuable team points for the Hokies on their way to 4th place finishes.
It was an extremely entertaining day of wrestling, complete with a few big upsets and, of course, the much-anticipated return of Devin Carter. The Hokies were in good shape after the first round, with Carter and Dance sitting out with byes and the other 8 Hokies advancing to the semis - picking up a few bonus points along the way. Advancing through the semifinals would prove to be a very tough task for the Hokies, as 6 VT wrestlers tasted defeat for the first time, including a minor upset of 2-seed Joey Dance. However, 4 Hokies made it through to the finals, led by Carter. Carter left no doubt as to the health of his hamstring, dispatching his first opponent, Maryland's Shyheim Brown, with 11 takedowns in a 23-8 technical fall.
The rest of the Hokies battled tough in the consolation bracket, with every one of them making it to the 3rd-place match. Dance, Moon, Vetterlein and Walz took care of business, earning huge wins that would put the Hokies in the lead heading into the final round. With the Hokies up 74-64 over Pitt and having 4 finalists to Pitt's 5 (including 2 head-to-head matchups), the contest was very much in doubt. However, all 4 Hokies in the finals won individual ACC titles and Pitt managed to win only one finals match, leaving the Hokies victorious with 87 team points. After a 6-1 victory over Pitt's stud Freshman Edgar Bright, Devin Carter was named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. Not bad for a guy 3 months removed from separating his hamstring from his pelvis. Very much worth noting is the performance of Dennis Gustafson, who made a strong case himself for OW, racking up bonus points in every one of his matches before polishing off his night with a dominating, 11-0 major decision to get the Hokies going in the finals.
In a Hokiesports interview, Carter had this to say about receiving the Outstanding Wrestler award: "Its a nice, sentimental award, but Dennis Gustafson deserves this as much as I do, Carter said. Hes a true freshman who put up bonus points in all three matches and won 11-0 in the finals. Three weeks ago, I thought Id be a spectactor along with everyone else at this event and to do all this, capped by the Outstanding Wrestler award, is just amazing." It's awesome to see the best wrestler on the team giving credit to his teammates. The future is bright for Virginia Tech Wrestling.
A huge congratulations to Coach Dresser and his staff, and the Hokie wrestlers for bringing home a second consecutive ACC title! The Hokies will wrap up their season at the NCAA Championships in a couple weeks in Oklahoma City. 7 Hokies have automatically qualified due to their performance in the ACC tournament, with the remaining 3 awaiting the decision of the selection committee, which will come in the next week.
Your 2014 ACC Wrestling Champions! #HokieProud pic.twitter.com/jn0AZbToJ5— VT Wrestling (@VT_Wrestling) March 9, 2014
Final Team Scores:
Virginia Tech: 87
Pittsburgh: 67
Virginia: 61.5
North Carolina: 38
Maryland: 37.5
NC State: 33.5
Duke: 18
Final results, brackets and more can be found on the ACC Wrestling Championship website.
Comments
Bitchin
Hahaa. Puny little wahoos.
I was glad to read that there were a lot of fans there and it was loud. We have one of the best fan bases in the country in my opinion!
http://www.theacc.com/#!/news-detail/16th-Ranked-Virginia-Tech-Claims-20...
I wonder if Ty Walz can play defensive line...
Watched all the matches today Gustafson and Carter were amazing in there wrestling with Gurtafson being a bit of a surprise with how well he handled the technical parts of wrestling but of course mad props have to go to Carter it takes a special guy to come back 3 moths after surgery and win the ACC title. Great job to all of VT wrestling and I hope we have more success in Oklahoma City!!!!
I think it's important to note that we only had one wrestler seeded #1 (Devin Carter). They did a great job wrestling above their seedings.
First off, I edited the OP to correct a couple inaccuracies and to include Gustafson's beastliness.
The crowd was awesome. Even when one MD fan (who was wearing a MD cape that woulda been pretty cool if he wasn't so obnoxious with it) tried to get a Maryland cheer going, we all just responded HOKIES. And HokieFish is right, for the most part our guys wrestled at or above their seeds. Even the two 2-seeds who didn't make it to the finals at least claimed third.
Also, Gustafson is a beast. I love what Carter said about him and that he called Gustafson up to take pictures with him after Carter won outstanding wrestler.
There was also a point when a Hokie was wrestling a terp and the crowd was chanting turn the turtle!!!!
Woot!
Might be a dumb question but...where were the other ACC schools? Did they not qualify or do they just not have wrestling programs?
Miami, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Wake Forest, and Syracuse do not have wrestling programs. Its mostly that "northern schools" (except Syracuse) that have wrestling programs. Syracuse not having a wrestling program is interesting as New York State has a very good wrestling tradition. Compare this to the Big 10 who have all of the schools (I believe) with wrestling programs but the Midwest is also home to the best wrestlers (see the past NCAA champions).
Now, to be accurate, Clemson does have a "wrasslin" team that competes as a Coastal Chamionship Wrestling farm team, and last year they barely lost in the regional finals to a deceptively tough Girl Scout troop 202.
And Georgia Tech wrestles every year with understanding the limitations of what, actually, they can do.
Only 7 schools currently have a wrestling program and it goes back down to 6 with Maryland leaving. With them gone and a roster that is going to be scary good next year, we have a shot at a three peat. Biggest threats are Pitt and UVA.
Since I don't feel like making a new thread, I'll just put this here to show where the program is at.
When Kevin Dresser arrived, he took the team to nationals and placed 81st. This past year they placed 8th. Dresser was courted by a number of national programs this offseason and turned down multiple offers including one from West Virginia (5 year, $1mill contract). Whit gave him a raise, but it hasn't been published yet. Tony Robie has turned down or not applied for many head coaching gigs (good chance he comes back next year, but there is one job he is looking at right now) to stay in Blacksburg as the top assistant and David Hoffman turned down the top assistant position at Rutgers to keep refining his coaching skills in Blacksburg.
With all the coaches back and a pretty deep and solid lineup, a three peat in the ACC is likely and Dresser is hoping for a top 5 finish at Nationals. With the recent addition of Penn State to the schedule as well as continuing a series with Ohio State, this team is certainly going to challenge itself to reach that goal.
Keeping Coach Dresser for the long haul is an absolute must. He has the team primed to be a national power the likes of which Tech hasn't been able to say since the recruiting class Coach Brands would've brought in the year he left for Iowa. As for the solid, deep, line up you mention I completely agree. At 125 they return an All-American in Joey Dance who should only get better going into his true sophomore season; however' unless he upsets someone I don't see him placing higher than his fourth place finish next year, 125 is just too deep nationally. At 133, Dennis Gustafson returns, but I can see him redshirting next year allowing another solid freshmen Kevin Norstrem man the spot. This is because unfortunately Devin Carter leaves after next year and will allow Gustafson to either grow into the 141 spot or Norstrem to get starting caliber experience as he grows into the 141 spot and meanwhile maintaining a year of eligibility for Gustafson. At 141, we have Devin Carter who barring some ugly injury will be top 4 in the country. I say top four because really Logan Steiber, the guy who beat Devin in the finals returns and I don't see him losing then there is a tier that includes Mitchell Port of Edinboro, Devin Carter, and Zain Retherford of Penn State. Put me down as someone flipping their wig to see the possible Retherford-Carter match in December. At 149, we lose former AA and round of twelve participant, Zach Neibert usually that would hurt a team greatly, and it will hurt Tech just not as bad as you think because from what I saw this year Sal Mastriani is was an undersized 157 meaning I can logically see him taking over at 149 or Soloman Chisko, a consensus top 15 recruit nationally, will man that spot. 157, is safe Nick Brascetta will be there and he's a two time ACC champion and returning All-American, albeit at 149, he had a solid redshirt year and looks to be ready to take over the ACC once again next year. At 165, Chris Moon he's solid and has been since the day he stepped foot on campus, but, for as solid as he is, he drops some matches you can't explain and wins some he shouldn't even score in. At 174, this is the weight I'm most excited about, Zach Epperly this is the young man I see becoming the first national champion at Virginia Tech. Epperly has the bloodlines, his older brother Matt wrestled for the Hokies and won two ACC championships, but he also enters at a very open weight a lot of the talent in this weight class this year were either upperclassmen or they graduated. How far he'll go though in the NCAA tournament next year you'll get a preview when Tech wrestles Pitt and PSU, assuming Matt Brown, returning AA's at the weight. At 184, I see Austin Gabel here I don't know if he's had a probably with weight or not but if he does moving up I hope will help get started offensively sadly he's kind of a boring match but he gets his hand raised, most of the time, and that's all that matters. Also look out for Zach Zavatsky here he's a top 100 recruit nationally and could see some serious mat time. At 197, David Reck or Jared Haught this is the only weight that is up in the air for me so I'm going to trust the ever so brilliant Caoch Dresser's decision. At 285, Ty Walz is a manly man, I see him challenging not only for an ACC title next year but also a place on the podium. I agree with you hokiejoe11, a 3-peat is very possible but look for PITT, LOLUVA, and NCSU to be in the race, especially with Maryland leaving. And that top 5 finish at NCAA's? Only two of the afore mentioned guys are seniors. Virginia Tech wrestling is going to be good and deep for the next few years and could very well bring home the first National Team title.
Absolutely agree about Norstrem starting at 133 with Gus redshirting. I think that was the plan all along. I can't wait to see Epperly this year. I think we have 8 home match this year so that's something to look forward to in November and February.
Thanks for all the inside info hokiejoe. Glad Dresser got a raise
Love it! Penn State this year!
can they use this as the theme song when they come out and wrestle:
I know this was back in March, but I'm going to raise a glass for my old boy Bill Brill, anyway.
Here's to VT ACC championships!