Wrestling Starting Lineup

While it's just now entering the boom or bust portion of the season for our beloved Hokies Football team, something about this colder weather is just getting my juices flowing for another successful sport here at Virginia Tech. I'm talking about, if you couldn't tell by the title, our highly successful wrestling team. Now for those of you who do not know the wrestling team is currently the two-time defending ACC champions and coming off back to back top 10 finishes at NCAA's.

Now I have no inside information, however from what I've heard about this team, and what I know of the sport I expect it to look something like this:

125: Joey Dance; Dance is a kid that can wrestle with anyone, and coming off a 4th place finish at NCAA's, where he wrestled out of his skin, is someone I fully expect to contribute similarly this year. Now last year he had a typical true freshman season with some ups and downs losing to some guys he should have beaten(See the ACC Tournament) and beating people were thought to be a tier above him. I would put a season prediction for him as an ACC Champion and definitely a All-American. He's just that talented.

133: Kevin Norstrem; Norstrem redshirted last year and was incredibly solid in the open tournaments he went to. He also is replacing last years starter Dennis Gustafson, an ACC champion, who to my knowledge is going to be redshirting while growing into the 141 slot next year. For the season, I see Norstrem being solid contributor with an outside chance to take home the ACC and making some noise at NCAA's.

141: Here comes the wildcard, Solomon Chishko; Chishko was a consensus top 15 recruit in the class of 2013 and can change a lot of how this season is going to go at this weight for us. I don't say that in a bad way or a good way but 141 nationwide is a deep weight with very little room for error at NCAAs. As for the ACC I look for him to contend I'm not as confident to say that he'll be on top of the podium, but anything 1-4 would not surprise me.

149: Devin Carter; This guy. 3x ACC Champion, 2x All-American, National finalist, not to mention tore his F@#$%^& hamstring in December and returned to win ACC's and place 2nd at NCAA's. TOUGH AS NAILS! He's winning ACC's and honestly with 149 being such a fluid weight, and this is my honest to God prediction, win NCAA's.

157: Nick Brascetta; As a RSJr, he's already accomplished so much compared to past Virginia Tech wrestlers as a returning All-American. Brascetta is coming off a redshirt where he moved up from 149 is primed to take over the ACC at 157 and possibly be top 5 in the country come March.

165: Chris Moon; Moon is someone that when he's on is probably top 10 in the country, but when he's off will literally put you to sleep with how slow matches can be. Unfortunately this weight doesn't bode well for us Hokies at the ACC's as Nick Sulzer from UVA is probably going to be in the top three in the country at this weight. Prediction wise 2nd at ACC's, Blood round at NCAA's-Low All-American.

174: Zach Epperly; This is the guy I can not wait to see compete. Epperly has the bloodlines to be successful here at Tech. His brother Matt is a 2x ACC Champion and honestly Zach is marginally better. He's going to challenge for an ACC title right away and chances are he is one of those freshman that comes to NCAA's and makes a name for himself.

184: Austin Gabel; Gabel is someone that is not fun to watch when you go to a wrestling match. With that being said, he gets his hand raised and that's all that really matters in the end. My prediction for him is he'll be an NCAA qualifier and could possibly challenge to be an ACC finalist.

197: Jared Haught or David Reck; This is the weakest weight we have outside of 141. Both are coming off redshirts where they were both very successful. The prediction here is, there isn't one I do know though that Coach Robie and Coach Dresser are going to put out the best wrestler and I'm going to trust their much better judgment.

285: Ty Walz; Ty Walz is a man. If you don't believe me there is a meme somewhere on this forum that will prove that. Coming off a very productive year where he reached the NCAA tournament and placed 3rd at ACC's I'm looking for him to improve both of those becoming a ACC finalist, GWiz the 285 from NCSU is the returning national champion, and possibly become an All-American this year.

Looking at this team it's a very real chance come March we see a lot of the same. Pitt, LOLUVA, and NCSU are going to be the biggest threats to the current dominance of our team, but nothing about this team is weak like in years past. Team prediction: Three-peat ACC Champions and possibly a top 8 finish at NCAA's.