It was a busy Sunday for the Hokie wrestlers, as they faced Gardner-Webb and 23rd-ranked North Dakota State in back-to-back dual meets. The Hokies walked away with victories over the Runnin' Bulldogs and the Bison by respective scores of 36-4 and 33-7. In between the Hokies' duals, the Bison beat G-W by a score of 38-8.
The Hokies first rolled straight through the G-W lineup, with the only blemish coming from a 10-0 major decision by 20th-ranked Austin Trott over David Bergida. Joey Dance got the action started, picking up a major decision before Kevin Norstrem (#18) and Jerry Ronnau won by decision. Next up was the nation's #2 wrestler at 149, Devin Carter, who took down Ryan Mosley at will en route to a 19-7 major decision. Next, Sal Mastriani, filling in for the injured Nick Brascetta (#6), scored a pin 50 seconds into the 2nd period. Tech finished up the dual with four straight victories, including technical falls by #13 Zach Epperly and Jared Haught. Austin Gabel and #12 Ty Walz chipped in decisions to wrap up the scoring.
The Tech-NDSU dual featured three matchups of ranked wrestlers, with the Hokies coming out on the winning end in all three bouts. Joey Dance got the dual started off right with a 6-3 decision over #13 Josh Rodriguez. Kevin Norstrem was up 6-1 before winning by injury default before Jerry Ronnau fell 14-1 to #20 Mitch Bengtson. Ronnau fought hard to stay off his back and avoid the technical fall to save the Hokies a couple of team points. Carter did his Carter thing, scoring several takedowns before finishing with a pin with 24 seconds remaining in the 2nd period. Mastriani continued his strong night with a major decision and Chad Strube won an exciting match by a score of 7-2. After that decision, the Hokies faced the meat of the Bisons' lineup and responded perfectly. #13 Zach Epperly won 6-3 over #14 Kurtis Julson before Austin Gabel lost a hard-fought decision to #13 Hayden Zillmer 3-2. Haught picked up his second tech fall of the night before Ty Walz finished the night off by beating #10 Evan Knutson 3-2 (technically an upset, but I refuse to call it as such, as Walz was clearly the better wrestler, pushed the action, and soundly beat his quality opponent).
It was a great night for Hokie wrestling, but now the team faces the daunting task of hosting #4 Ohio State this upcoming Sunday at 2pm in Cassell. OSU is an outstanding program and every bit deserving of their lofty ranking. The Hokies will have their hands full, and the dual meet will likely be decided by a handful of excellent matchups. The dual will be broadcast by ESPN and will include commentary by legendary collegiate and Olympic wrestler and coach Dan Gable.
Comments
Congrats to them for the excellent victories! Which ESPN is it going to be broadcast on?
Not sure yet. Once I hear anything I'll put it up.
The Ocho no doubt
What is Brascetta's injury?
He hurt his elbow at the Hokie Open. He'll miss the OSU dual, but should be back a week or two after. According to Dresser, OSU will also be without a top-5 guy, so it pretty much evens out. Next Sunday should be a lot of fun to watch.
One of the Steiber brothers?
Off the top of my head I couldn't tell you. Dresser mentioned it during a little social between the duals.
I know Hunter Stieber and Bo Jordan missed the Ohio Dual Friday with some "lingering injuries" so I'm thinking it may be one of them if not both. They're both top 5 guys at their weights but with just how deep Ohio State is right now, think 2001 Miami Hurricanes deep, it's not going to hurt much.
Ah, I think it was Jordan. I know Dresser mentioned him. If he's not injured it's because he's a kid who has been, "teching and pinning everybody. No one has gone 7 minutes with him yet this year." At any rate, I think it'll be either Dance or Norstrem who will have to take a crack at that next weekend.
Saw an interview of Dresser talking about the OSU dual over on flowrestling he mentioned that both Hunter and Bo will probably be out along with Brascetta missing it for us.
Oh holy shit chad strube is starting?! I know that guy!
He's currently splitting time with David Bergida (Bergida got the first match of the day). He's got an interesting and funky style though. Absolutely loves to vine and is very high-risk, high-reward when it comes to riding on top. Thought he was gonna pin himself at a couple points and if memory serves he got reversed once as well when he didn't keep his hips high. He's a good scrambler though and a lot of fun to watch.
I was at the match and that second Gabel match shouldn't have been a loss. There was a missed stall call for the last minute of the match which would have at least tied up the match and put it into overtime. FWIW Trott from Gardener-Webb is a fantastic wrestler that got loads of back points in all of his matches today. Overall a great job by the VT wrestling team, if you get a chance definitely go see them in action.
The lack of a stall call was disappointing, but it wasn't a cut-and-dry call to make. Not enough movement (Zillmer wasn't going backwards or anything) and the lack of a committed shot by Gabel makes that a tough call to make.
I agree 100% about Trott though. I'm looking forward to seeing him in a couple bigger tournaments this year. I'm thinking #20 might even bee a bit too low of a ranking. Dude is a stud on top and can pile on back points like it's his job.
That just seems to be Gabel's shtick which is unfortunately because his defense is ridiculous. He comes up and expect a boring 3-2, 5-3 match. That being said I want to see how well he can hang with Kenny Courts's offense next Sunday. And yeah 20 seems too low for the kid 165 from his results today he definitely looks better than that but cracking the top 10 there is going to be tough at the weight. Also why no Chris Moon at 165? I don't think I've seen him wrestle at all this year.
Yeah, that'll be a fun matchup to watch for sure. As for Moon, I have no idea. I was also wondering where Gustafson has been. He's listed at 141, so is he injured or redshirting this year or something?
The plan from my understanding was to redshirt Gustafson let him grow into 141 and let Chishko go 141 with Devin moving up to 149. Now it appears Mastriani is moving down to 149 and Carter to 141 redshirting both Gustafson and Chishko who will probably bump up to 149.
That makes sense. Gustafson is a fun one to watch, but I've been very impressed with Sal so far. A pin in the first dual didn't hurt.
Carter isn't moving back down. He is staying at 149. The word I heard today is that Logan Stieber is moving up to 149 for this duel meet so he can face Carter again.
Dresser has already said that Carter is in the process of moving down to 141. However in the NCAA he has to move down a weight in steps (he can not go from 149 to 141 match by match).
Precisely. Carter will be down to 141 (he weighed in at 146.8 on Sunday, IIRC) just in time for the Hokies to go to Vegas, which I believe is the week after the OSU match.
Gus and Moon are both dealing with shoulder issues.
That's really unfortunate. Those guys were both clutch at the ACC's last year.
TechHokie, is the VT team ranked? I know they have had several strong finishes the last couple years and I assumed they would start the year ranked? Coach Dresser has really done great things with this program and I hope the athletic department gives him the support he wants to keep the foot on the gas with this program rather than look for greener pastures. I know there is never a lot of fan support for wrestling (I never went to a match when I was a student) but I like the match they scheduled in the new arts center for drawing more interest to the team.
Yes, as a team they are ranked #12 (I'm not sure by who... I want to say InterMat. Don't quote me on that one). I was actually fairly pleased with how many people came out on a Sunday evening to watch a couple wrestling matches against non-conference opponents. If you get the chance, I would strongly recommend you get to Blacksburg for the OSU dual. That one's gonna be huge, and it would be great to show some support for the program on national TV.
I think Babcock is going to keep Dresser around for a while. Dresser seems to be very happy here and he knows he can be very successful. I'd be surprised if he packed up and left any time soon. It helps that not many college wrestling programs are going to shell out big bucks to draw a successful coach away from another program.
And there are to be three matches at the PAC this year
YES!!
Details and tickets available HERE!
It's sure to be a great night for all 3 events. Really looking forward to those.
Great article TechHokie13. I'm really glad to see the wraslin' team getting some love on TKP!
Whatever became of the heavyweight from Christiansburg who left VT for Ohio State? I don't recall his name but it seems like he was the equivalent of signing the #1 football recruit.
Cody Gardner? He never exactly lived up to the hype which is a shame the kid was a stud.
That's him. Thanks.
I know this thread is oldddd but that name just randomly popped in my head. Growing up in the "Timesland" I read about that dude all the time in high school. Guy was a monster.
Just googled him, turns out he died in December of 2016. Overdose. Sad man.