Virginia Tech is hosting the ACC Wrestling Tournament in Cassel this Saturday. Here is the schedule.
11am - First Round (3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5 matches)
1pm - Semi-finals
3:30pm - Consolation Semi-finals
5pm - Consolation finals
7pm - Finals
All rounds will be on WatchESPN but I encourage anyone near Blacksburg to attend. Tickets are $10 for adults, students and kids under 18 get in for free.
Here is where our guys are seeded - top 2 get a bye into the semi finals:
125-pound class: Joey Prata, No. 3 (2 bids)
133: Korbin Myers, No. 4 (4 bids)
141: Mitch Moore, No. 2 (4 bids)
149: Ryan Blees, No. 4 (4 bids)
157: B.C. LaPrade, No. 3 (4 bids)
165: Mekhi Lewis, No. 1 (4 bids)
174: David McFadden, No. 1 (3 bids)
184, Zack Zavatsky, No. 1 (5 bids)
197: Tom Sleigh, No. 2 (4 bids)
285 (Hwt): Billy Miller, No. 3 (3 bids)
Hokies will be looking to Lewis, McFadden, and Zavatsky for bonus points with Mitch Moore also a potential contributor with his big move style of wrestling. Look for the Hokies to have a good shot at winning if those four can get some extra team points.
The Hokies will be looking to qualify as many wrestlers as possible for the NCAAs. They have a shot at qualifying 9 or 10 with a huge upset. My guess is 8 on an average day and 9 on a good one.
Here are some quick thoughts on each of the wrestlers for Virginia Tech:
-Prata has wrestled pretty well lately since he has seized the starting role but there is a big difference between the top two seeds and everyone else. The ACC only gets two automatic bids at this weight so he will need a huge upset to make the NCAAs.
-Meyers is good enough to win 133 it's just a matter of going out there and wrestling the entire 7 minutes. He beat the #1 seed during the regular season so he has shown he can get it done.
-Mitch Moore has come on strong since pinning his way through the F&M open back at the beginning of the year. He likes to go for some big moves and a lot of back points.
-Ryan Blees has wrestled better in the second half of the season. He definitely has the ability to qualify for the NCAAs, it's just a matter of putting it all together on the mat. Blees needs to have a good day for the Hokies to qualify 9.
-BC has shown flashes this season and missed out on a huge upset against Hidlay of NC State by the smallest of margins. He should qualify barring a catastrophy.
-Lewis probably has the biggest motor on the team and shows it in his style of wrestling. He would be undefeated in dual meets if not for some dubious hands to the face calls against Mizzou. Look for bonus points here. This should be his starting point for becoming a 4 time ACC Champion.
-McFadden has quietly run through the season winning a lot of close matches but never looking like the dynamic wrestler he was last year. He has been getting to his offense more recently and that's very encouraging going in to tournament season.
-Zavatsky has been excellent most of the year. He got controlled by Dean from Cornell but responded with great performances to finish out the dual season. He's been dependable for getting bonus points this season. Look for a rematch of the NC State dual meet in the finals.
-Sleigh was steadily improving this season until a head scratching performance against UNC which may have been injury related. He has looked better since missing a few dual meets to get healthy. He has a good chance to win the title but he is not known for scoring bonus points.
-Miller has been improving as the season has worn on. He didn't wrestle to start the season due to injury and I don't think anyone really understood how much it impacted him until seeing him struggle in matches fans expected him to win. He may be starting to feel like his old self which would be a good sign. He is talented enough to win the title but he did lose to both wrestlers seeded above him during the dual meets.
Overall the Hokies are in prime position to win their third ACC Championship in a row. Special thanks to Nate23VT for posting the tournament info I used to make this post.
Comments
Im really excited to see how McFadden starts his tourney season. IIRC he has struggled at NCAA's and has seemingly been adjusting to the weight change all year. It'll be interesting how he does with rematches and kids wrestling with nothing to lose.
He definitely has not struggled at NCAAs. He finished 6 as a freshmen and last year made it to the semi finals and I believe finished 5th. His weight class is pretty stacked this year though.
I am most excited to see how Mekhi performs at NCAAs.
I can see anywhere from 1st to 5th for Mekhi
I did not recall correctly haha
I think i was basing it on that fact, that he made it to the semi's then "slid" to fifth. Which is still really good. Again, IIRC, 165 was stacked last year.
My bad 1st to 5th at the Ncaas
Inject that spladle for the pin against Marinelli from Iowa in to my veins!
Classic!
Also don't forget that McFadden tore his ACL in the first round of the NCAA tournament his freshman year and still made the run to All American.
My body is ready
Let's go!
Hokies!
Way to get us started Prata
Prata with the decision. Moving on to Fausz of NCST.
Myers with the major. On to Phillipi, who he does have a win over.
Major decision by Korbin Myers... looked strong
Heading that Way around 2:30.. Watching all to the End..
Blees with the tough ride out to win, LaPrade with the major.
I forgot how awful NCST fans are.
UNC has picked up a lot of bonus points in the first round, hopefully it won't matter latter.
Miller with the pin!
Everyone makes it through the first round.
Yes!!!! Way to get the bonus points Billy!
Is there an updating bracket online somewhere?
Brackets
http://theacc.com/documents/2019/3/4/2019_ACC_Wrestling_Championship_Bra...
Yo anybody on this thread is at Cassell right now?
Prata drops a tough one to Fausz.
Myers drops one in 2OT.
Moore with the decision, moving on to the finals.
Blees drops one to FInesilver.
LaPrade falls in 4 OT. Tough one.
Tough loss, hope that doesn't hurt us in the long run.
Mekhi goes to the finals. Strong showing, got a little sloppy near the end though.
McFadden gets the major. On to the finals. Started really strong then slowed way down. I wonder if this a strategy akin to parking the bus or a weight thing?
ZZ on the finals! I think he let up a little after Ness' injury.
Refs gave away the match. Tough one for Sleigh.
I can't believe he called that, but by the book I think it was the right call. Sleigh was the defender and circled out of bounds. Hate that it was against NCSU.
With Miller falling, that match could have very well decided this tourney. I think that's the right call with 30+ secs left, but under 10, you're deciding the match, and as a ref, you shouldn't do that.
Miller falls, another BS match.
I don't know a lot about wrestling but if Thomas didn't run out of bounds before the takedown, Miller wins. Instead the refs call it OOB with 4 seconds left.
First we lost to McDonald for going oob then we lose to Thomas because he's allowed to?
I think the meat of the disparity is that the Tech guys weren't taking many shots/being aggressive.
It really sucks that the refs on that mat weren't being consistent, and they took the results into their hands instead of letting the guys wrestle to decide it.
Refs fucking things up for us. What else is new?
4 Tech wrestlers in the finals, the consi's will be big. We need big performances from those guys.
How many does NCSU have in the finals?
They have 6. I think they should probably win at least 2, and 2 out of the remaining 4 I would consider toss ups.
After semis the team score is:
NC State 63.5
VT 45
Next round will be for 2.5 points and then 2 more points if they get 3rd place. Big round coming up for our lightweights if we want to close the gap.
Prata and Myers advance to coni finals. Myers with the tech.
Blees with the tech! On to the consi finals.
Injury default puts B.C in the consi finals.
Looking BAD for the GOOD guys. This is the one sport I expect us to be conference champs!
Any other expert analysis you want to share? The ACC has good wrestlers and NC State has a very good team. It's always going to be a battle to win.
I was reviewing the earlier bracket results and found a good many very early entries into the wrestle backs. I have reviewed a ton of them over the years and saw that we were at a disadvantage.
Yes I do expect annual champs. Dresser / Robie have built that kind of program. This expectation was not founded on your personal opinion concerning the quality of ACC wrestling.
I will catch up with the championship round this evening.
Sleigh holds on to advance to the consi finals.
Billy with the major to get to the consi finals.
Prata and Myers both take 3rd. Pretty good showing for both today.
Blees loses to Oliver. Really need to win any head to heads with NCST.
B.C takes third.
Billy takes third over NCST. Big pickup.
Sleigh with the pin to take third! Great way to end the consi's.
That was about 4 seconds between Big Time Billy's win and Sleigh's pin... crowd sounded great
What time do the final start?
7 pm
Up above it says finals start at 7
Ah. Lack of reading comprehension skills will get after ya. Thanks.
After the consi's
NCST: 84.5 - 6 in the finals
VT: 77 - 4 in the finals
Tech basically needs to win all their final matches and have NCST drop most of theirs. Not impossible, but improbable.
Someone wanna run down how scoring works (team scoring, not match scoring)?
Each win in the finals is worth 3 points. +0.5 for a major, 1 for a tech and 2 for a pin.
gonna feel bad if we lose by 2 or less for stupid point losses.
who was the unsportsmanlike penalty against?
The numbers....they never work out?
Without bonus points by Tech, NCST needs 2 matches to clinch the title. Hidlay should win, everyone else on NCST could be beat, but it probably won't shake out that way.
For the finals do they use both mats at the same time or just 1 mat. I've had mat 1 cast to my tv and mat 2 playing on my computer all day.
I've never actually watched the ACC tourney before, but NCAA uses one mat. And that makes sense, the stakes are higher.
I believe it is a single mat. Probably Mat 1
great, thanks
Single Mat with spotlights probably.
ESM for intros!
Mueller (uva) defeats Fauz (NCS) @ 125 no points there for NCS. I miss Joey!
Yes, Pack loses another one!
No points for NCS @ 133!
Come on Mitch!
That was a killr. Mitch will be a beast!
Honestly thought he was gonna win it right at the end.
That's how you stall to win. Tough one for Moore.
Frustrating they allowed Morris to stall for 3 mins before a call.
Great win for Lewis.
However, that's all she wrote for the team race. Few iffy calls and two team points and it could have been a different result.
Another title for McFadden. He looked like his old self tonight. A lil cocky guy, I've never heard him talk before haha
#3 for ZZ. He looked dominate all day.
That was a nice stretch of wrestling to watch - Lewis, McFadden & Zavatsky... pretty cool ZZ won his last match in front of the home crowd.
I wish we could have won but we wrestled to seed in every weight except 197, where we finished 3 instead of 2, and 133, where we finished 3 instead of 4.
I'm sure anyone who followed today feels like we left a lot of chances on the table at nearly every weight class:
- 133, 2-1 TB-1 loss to Phillipi
- 141, finals loss to Morris
- 149, losses to Finesilver and Oliver
- 157, 4-3 TB-4 loss to Rahmani
- 165, short of MD by 1 pt
- 184, short of MD by 1 pt
- 197, losing to NCST on a stall point
- 285, 10-9 loss to Thomas
After some reflection, there were positives to take away from each weight classes too.
- 125, fought back to take 3rd
- 133, scored a MD, TF, and avenged a regular season loss
- 141, avenged a regular season loss, closed the gap from a regular season loss in the finals
- 149, scored a TF and qualified for NCAAs
- 157, scored a MD and fought back for 3rd
- 165, won ACCs as a freshman
- 174, scored a MD and looked more confident
- 184, controlled entire match against two NCAA qualifiers
- 197, avenged a regular season loss with a pin
- 285, scored a pin, MD, and closed the gap on a regular season loss (who went on to take 1st)
I hope we come out and fight hard at NCAAs because most of our guys are capable of finishing as All Americans, and several could challenge for national champion, if they bring their A game.
This still pisses me off after a night to sleep on it. Tech wrestler gets driven out of bounds with no time left: stall call and 1 point loss. Pitt wrestler is up by 1 point and runs out of bounds while getting taken down: refs stop the action and bail him out.
I agree with your assessment of McFadden and ZZ. I think that might have been the best David has wrestled all year. Hopefully they both get good draws to (at least) reach the semifinals.
So who actually qualifies for NCAAs, and what is the ceiling (ie Is this another year where it's numerically impossible to finish higher than x place as a team?)
As of RN everyone besides Prata is on to the NCAA's. Prata could still earn an at large bid. He had a good ACC tourney, but 125 is a loaded weightclass and he had a so-so reg season. I don't think he makes it this year.
Tech isn't going to place in the top 3, the disparity of talent is too much. However, 4-10 isn't out of the question. Tech is a good tourney team, and if everyone performs slightly better than their rankings, we have a shot at a good finish. I'm thinking ZZ has a chance to make it to the finals and Mekhi. Mekhi will depend if he get puts on the same side of the bracket as Joseph of PSU. I expect another top 10 finish and would be stoked with a top 5.
The ACC is so bad at 125. I don't see how Prata gets an at large since he didn't get a win against any of the really good wrestlers he faced, just tight losses.
I'm not sure how the tournament performance will affect Myers' seeding at NCAAs. Needed to make finals to give it a decent bump. I would assume Sleigh saw his stock drop some more since he couldn't get it done. He's had a rough last few weeks. Miller had a prime opportunity to boost his seed way up with a win and didn't get it done either but the loss probably doesn't hurt him much.
I'm with you Slice concerning where we will finish.