The Hokies added to their already strong recruiting class with the commitment of another top recruit, Clayton Ulrey.
I am super excited to announce that I will be furthering my academic and athletic career at Virginia Tech! Very thankful for the opportunity. #thisishome #gohokies pic.twitter.com/L5hcRd3XW6— Clayton Ulrey (@clayton_ulrey) September 29, 2019
Ulrey is on an upward trajectory, making the Pennsylvania state finals as a junior, winning the 2019 FloNationals title, and making the Cadet World Freestyle Team. He currently projects to 165/174 in college. After signing a top 5 recruiting class in 2019 the Hokies are looking to sign the #1 class in 2020.
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Comments
We a wrastlin' school now!
I'll take it.
This is awesome.
Robie has done wonders, and the best is yet to come!
He's done a great job, but he also inherited a fantastic program built by Dresser.
So far it looks like Robie has done a great job building on that success and taking it up another notch in recruiting. With an influx of talent like this the Hokies should be back on the podium as a team in the near future.
I feel compelled to mention two things:
1) Robie's decision to increase our program's focus and involvement in freestyle wrestling is paying massive dividends in national recognition and ultimately recruiting. Robie himself wasn't known for freestyle, so he was taking a risk in an area he probably wasn't quite as comfortable with.
2) Jared Frayer has been an absolute home run of a hire as an assistant and this cannot be overstated enough. When Robie made the decision in 1), he needed coaches with legit freestyle chops. Molinaro might have looked like a bigger deal at the time but Frayer has become indispensable to the program.
Dresser had very highly qualified assistants on staff and elevated our wrestling but I feel like Frayer embraced VT on and off the mat and is doing things on a whole other level.
I agree! I just thought it was worth mentioning that Robie didn't inherit a crappy program. Dresser got the ball rolling and Robie has definitely built upon that.
Convincing Frayer to get back in to coaching might have been his most important recruiting win.
Hair game is strong. Finger VT is done properly. Calls us "Virginia Tech" (without the Unviersity part). This kid gets it. Welcome to the family!
Has this statement ever been uttered in the history of Tech sports??
We've gotten the #1 prospect before (Kevin Jones).
Wrestling is a top heavy sport with room for a few more heavy weights. Tech is doing very well to get into mix, the program growth has been phenomenal.
So real talk. I know in wrestling there's a mountain sized divide between the elite teams that contend for a national championship regularly and everybody else.
Realistically, are we building a program that could compete for a team Natty or is that something that just isn't going to happen because of the difference between the haves and have nots?
Not gonna say it's impossible but we still have a lot of ground to cover, realistically to win it you would probably need at least 3-5 individual national champions in a single ncaa tourney and we only got our first overall last year. Robie is keeping the recruiting going and maybe even exceeding so that's really good but still a steep hill to climb
The gulf between us and the B1G powerhouses is ridiculous and we may never bridge it. However, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step and #1 recruiting class would be a hell of a step.
Honestly, this signing was possible due to the whiff on getting Braxton Amos (big recruit, signed with Wisconsin, projected 197lbs/heavy weight). Still a huge get, but the team is thin on heavier weights.
I'm not sure who they have in the future for 197 but Borst in to Catka at heavy weight looks pretty good.
Go Hokies!
I like it.
WE AN OLYMPIC SPORT SCHOOL NOW! *Sobs into coffee*