Hokies' Wrestlers Ready to be "Selfish" in NCAA Tournament, Rebound from Lackluster ACC Finish

In sports, it's rare to hear any player preach the virtues of selfishness.

Yet the common platitudes about the lack of an "I" in "team" don't hold quite as true in individual sports like wrestling.

"We have to be as selfish as we possibly can," said Hokies' sophomore heavyweight Ty Walz.

That's not just coming from one player; that's the message Tech's wrestling squad is hearing from its coach after a disappointing showing at the ACC tournament earlier this month.

"You have to be selfish out there, it's a one man show, a one man team," said head coach Kevin Dresser. "If you live and die for everyone else, it sucks the energy out of you."

After winning the ACC's regular season dual meet title, and the league's last two postseason crowns, the team had higher hopes than a third place finish in this year's conference tournament.

Walz seems to think some of that disappointment stems from the team caring too much about each other, an interesting reversal from the mentality of other team sports.

"We got caught up in how the team was doing, we let ourselves affect each other," Walz said. "Seeing the other guys lose definitely affected me."

While the team was still able to achieve some individual success, the Hokies now find themselves heading to St. Louis for the NCAA tournament in a very different situation than last year.

"We were complacent, unexcited, uninspired," Dresser said. "When that happens in six weights out of 10, you've got to blame the coach. Hopefully it's a wake up call for us."

Three Hokies were able to claim individual titles at the meet, but that was small consolation for the team's overall performance.

"It was bittersweet because even though I had individual success, everyone else was gloomy," said redshirt senior Devin Carter. "I've spent lots of time invested in this team, so watching them underperform hurt. It definitely rained on my parade a bit."

The team's broader issues obscure yet another historic outing by Carter, who managed to claim the title at 141 pounds. That win was his fourth ACC crown, making him just the ninth wrestler to ever achieve that feat in league history and the third to collect those titles in multiple weight classes.

"It's definitely still nice to go on the record books like that," Carter said.

Redshirt junior Nick Brascetta collected his third ACC title as well, this time at 157 pounds, while Joey Dance grabbed his first conference championship at 125 pounds to cap off an impressive sophomore campaign.

"I'm pretty happy with it, especially finishing with just two losses all year," Dance said. "It's been a fun run."

Those results do bring Dresser some measure of satisfaction, and he hopes to use their strong performances as a lesson to others.

"They had great tourneys, and I was quick to point that out to the rest of the team," Dresser said. "I want others to see how you should wrestle as a favorite."

But beyond that trio's success, the team found few moral victories. Both Sal Mastriani and Ty Walz fell in their first matches of the tournament, despite each one being seeded second in their respective weight classes.

"I wasn't myself, I was tight," Walz said. "I wrestled to win by two, and that's not my game. I know you need to wrestle to win by eight or 10, win by a much larger margin."

After a series of other disappointing showings at the tournament, the team heads into the NCAAs with chips firmly affixed to their shoulders.

"The coaches are preaching it, having a chip on your shoulder," Carter said. "We proved we were the top dog in the regular season and went in with a target on our backs, but we got complacent. Now it's a wake up call."

The NCAA's seeding committee added further fuel to the team's competitive fire as it set the tournament's brackets.

While eight Hokies were able to qualify for the tourney, their seeds were often lower than they might've anticipated. Carter in particular has some cause to take issue with his seeding, checking in at number four, even though he hasn't lost since December.

That puts him on the same side of the bracket as OSU's dominant Logan Stieber, a wrestler that's won the last three national titles at the weight class and bested Carter last year in the finals of the Las Vegas Invitational and in the NCAA championship bout.

But, like any coach ahead of a big tournament, Dresser emphasizes that the team can't stress over factors it can't control.

"The tournament is crazy, there's always controversy over the seeing, you just have to be ready for anything," Dresser said. "It's about you react when something unexpected happens, and we can only control how ready we are for that."

While Carter's lower seed might fall in the category of the "unexpected," Dresser doesn't see it as an obstacle that can stop his 141-pound star from earning an elusive national title.

"It's his last hurrah, and I think he gets it," Dresser said.

Carter should have no trouble preparing for his first matchup, Kent State's Tyler Small, considering this will be his third match against him. Carter recalls earning a major decision against him as a freshman, then pinning him last year before his early injury.

"It's hard to beat any guy three times, but I feel like with my style I can control the match," Carter said. "It gives me a mental advantage, I think."

Walz and Dance also share the good fortune of starting off with wrestlers they've seen before. Dance gets the benefit of an immediate rematch with Pittsburgh's Dom Forys, who he just bested by fall in the ACC tourney.

"For some reason before they did the brackets, I had a feeling I'd see him again," Dance said. "He's a freshman, but he's tough, it should be a good match."

Walz last met the Buckeyes' Nick Tavanello back in November, earning a 6-4 win to seal Tech's match win against OSU, but he says the two have plenty of history given their similar Ohio roots.

"I've seen him maybe 15 times over my wrestling career," Walz said. "We wrestled in the state finals my senior year, and then I wrestled him last year. We were actually joking about it once the brackets came out. So I definitely know what to expect."

Walz's first win over Tavanello and the team's victory over the Buckeyes might seem like a distant memory at this point, but the squad is hoping to recapture some of the fire they found in the early part of the season to improve upon last year's eighth place NCAA finish.

"We need to get back to the team we were when we beat Ohio State and pushed Penn State to the last minute," Walz said.

Part of that will likely come from Dresser's emphasis that no one is expecting much from Tech this time around.

"We're not in the conversation to be a top five, top 10 teams right now, and we need to embrace that underdog role," Dresser said. "When we do that, normally we do well, and we certainly hope that happens again."

If Dresser's squad can manage a third straight top 10 national finish, or even crown an individual champ for the first time in school history, then suddenly the memories of that sour ACC finish will fade away.

"No one remembers all that if you're an All-American, or if you take top 10," Dance said. "We're trying to win a trophy, which we've never had, and that would be a huge step for us."