The Virginia Tech wrestling team got off to a slow start yesterday, in the first day of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. The team started with three straight loses, including 125 pound wrestler and #5 seed, Jarrod Garnett who was upset. The Hokies 165 pound wrestler, Pete Yates was the only guy to advance to the quarterfinals in the championship round. The quarterfinal round begins this morning at 11 AM ET. The only two wrestlers out of the tournament are 133 pound wrestler Erik Spjut and 184 pound wrestler Nick Vetterlein.
Jarrod Garnett (125) picked up a pin in the consolation round and Austin Gabel (174) pulled a big upset in last nights match overt #12 seed, Matt Miller from Navy. Derrick Borlie (197) won his match 8-6 and David Marone (285) picked up a hard fought win in the tiebreaker. Zach Neibert (141), Nick Brascetta (149), and Jesse Dong (157) all fell in the championship round last night. All 8 of the remaining wrestlers will be in action today. For the 7 in the consi round, its win, or go home.
Comments
Yates and Taylor is really going to be the marquee for the day. And Garnett has a long day ahead of him to salvage this tournament.
Just watched Yates in the quarterfinal. Had to go to a second overtime and video replay to get the win, but a win is a win and he becomes just the second All-American for Virginia Tech Wrestling. Taylor will be an absolute tough test tonight and if he wins it doesn't get any easier with Dake presumably in the final.
PETE YATES TO THE SEMIS! Will wrestle Penn State's David Taylor tonight. Semifinals begin at 7 PM.
Pete Yates, All-American! I feel we can get at least one more. Wouldn't surprise me if Dong can earn AA honors, he's looking tough.
Dong, Garnett, and Brascetta I think can pull off AA honors and Neibert has an outside shot as long as he wrestles to his potential which is a little hard after coming back from a knee injury.
I missed the first day of matches, but after watching Garnett here, I can't believe he lost to Parisi.
When watching the match it looked like their styles just clashed. Jarrod struggled with Parisi's length. Got behind early and couldn't catch up.
JARROD GARNETT (125) IS A 2013 ALL AMERICAN!
ZACH NEIBERT (141) IS A 2013 ALL AMERICAN!
NICK BRASCETTA (149) IS A 2013 ALL AMERICAN!
This tournament is going to help VT recruiting a lot. And we have Zach Epperly coming in and that kid will be impressive.
Also have Joey Damce coming in. Will most likely start at 125 right away.
I love the CHS--->VT Kevin Dresser Pipeline.
A little disappointing for Jessie Dong not to get All-American his senior year, when he definitely would have been the best 157 last year had he not injured his shoulder. All in all a team best 10th place finish and 4 All-Americans.
With one of those AA being Neibert, I'm a little surprised they red-shirted Devin Carter to move him to 141 when Spjut was very underwhelming all year at 133. Should be interesting to see how they are employed.
After seeing guys like Garnett and Yates be cornerstones for the program, I'll be interested in seeing how Dresser sets the guys up for next year.
I'm guessing that they redshirted Carter to let some stiff competition get a year ahead of him, guys like Steiber from Ohio St. and Ramos from Iowa. He has also gained some nice experience wrestling internationally. Also, Carter may be around the 141 mark. His twitter name is DevinCarter141.
When healthy, neibert was a ranked wrestler. Why have two all American talents at 141 when there is nothing at 133 is what I'm getting at. Carter was a beast at 133 and probably would have finished high again this year.
8 pounds is a lot to cut for a wrestler that has been wrestling higher.