Edinboro Preview
This one will be a little sparse, but the Edinboro Open is looking rough for our guys so ill bang out a preview instead. VT should win this one through attriation, but there are sone excellent indiviudal matchups, particularly 149 and 184 (and 157 if Brascetta wrestles for us).
125 #3/3 Joey Dance vs. Sean Russell -
Russell is from the same cut as joey's Pitt opponent, and i expect a similar result. Got overzealous on Friday predicting the major and joey taught me a lesson. I see Dance by decision here, Russell is a good wrestler though and it will be tight til the third.
Tech 3-0
133 Dennis Gustafson vs. Anthony Rivera -
This match really scares me because the bottom could fall out for dennis here. Its pretty clear now that he has no faith or confidence in that repaired knee getting torqued outwards and as a result he's bailing super early on whizzers. DiCamillo and Forys previously exploited that to utli TD periods. Rivera is the type of wrestler the pre-injury Dennis would chew up and spit out. Worried he just has healed mentally to trust the knee. Will still pick dennis by decision, but there are warning flags.
Tech 6-0
141 #10/8 Solomon Chishko vs. Tyler Vath -
Picking against Solomon right now is just stupid. He dominated a very good Racciato and made it seem like a walk in the park. He will do the same to Vath, the question is does he reach the major? I tend to think he pulls out an 8 pt decision here, giving the hokies a major.
Tech 10-0
149 Sal Mastriani vs. #14/12 Pat Lugo -
Im really excited for this one. Its a statement match for mastriani, as his form has returned in the last month and he seems finally recovered from his high ankle sprain. He's riding like a monster, breaking guys in half both riding legs and pull in that ankle for the bow and arrow. If he can thread the legs during TDs like he did on friday night, Woo Boy! I've also coincidentally seen lugo's last 2 matches and he's struggling hard, giving up a bad loss to Neff of Loch Haven. This one has upset written all over it, and I'm calling my shot like the Bambino, Mastriani by decision.
Tech 13-0
157 Jake Spengler vs. #15/8 Austin Matthews -
Really disappointed that Nick will probably scratch here leaving spengler to take his place. This would have been the headline matchup for me, as i think Matthews is pretty underranked. Spengler did well in backup duty friday night, but Matthews is a class above. Edinboro by decision here, but this could turn into a major especially if Spengler makes a poor position move.
Tech 13-3
165 #13/11 David McFadden vs. Casey Fuller -
This one is a ground hog day type match. True freshman vs. Redshirt Senior, and i dont like my gut feeling. For comparison, Fuller beat Wiercioch 4-3 while Dave just dropped that 7-6 decision. McFaddens the better wrestler here, but I'm not sure the final score will reflect that. Boro by decision, in another 1 pt match where McFadden doesnt get going until too late.
Tech 13-6
174 #5/3 Zach Epperly vs. Patrick Jennings OR Ty Schoffstall -
I'm gonna assume we see Jennings (Cause if Schoffstall goes, its gonna be another pin for Epp). Even Jennings should be an easy win for Epp. Looking Tech by major here.
Tech 17-6
184 #14/14 Zack Zavatsky vs. #2/2 Vic Avery -
Headline match of the night and this is gonna be a dandy. Avery will likely be a national finalist favorite in a month, and Zavatsky is peaking right about now. He looked very good against bruce, controlling that match the entire way. I think Zavatsky comes up a TD short, but this will be 7 minutes of fun, Boro by decision.
Tech 17-9
197 #12/7 Jared Haught vs. Vince Pickett -
How bout that version of Jared Haught? That was fun to watch against a very good veteran in Bonnacorrsi. Jared beat Pickett 10-0 in his RS year, and has only improved since then. Should be Tech by major here.
Tech 21-9
285 #3/3 Ty Walz vs. Billy Miller -
So this is another scary upset potential here. Walz, for as much action as he mustered against Solomon of Pitt, is in a bit of a Rut right now. And Miller is a very good freshman, with a 21-6 mark. Expect this to be another 3-2 decision. I'll take the good guys though, leading to the undefeated Gwiaz Walz matchup.
Tech 24-9
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Zavatsky in OT! Huge win for him.
Kind of surprised by Spengler's decision making on the mat - tracking he was probably trying to go for TDs and maybe get back points going into the third period, but I would have figured the better choice would be to wrestle defensively and avoid the major decision.
I expect Zavatsky to probably jump up to the top 10 possibly top 8 with the dominant win over Avery. I don't envy Christian Pyles, the guy who does Flo's college rankings, right now 184 just exploded this weekend with #1 Gabe Dean getting mauled by the #16 guy in the country. #3 Blake Stauffer, a guy Zavatsky beat in Vegas, was beaten by Avery yesterday and now Avery just getting controlled by Zavatsky. Talk about a rankings shitstorm.
Good solid performance, now this sets up the big one next weekend
Shouldn't we be seeing the Hokies climbing in the rankings again, now that we've convincingly beaten 3 ranked teams in our last 5 duals?
Could see us creep as high as 8/9. And NCSU win next week puts us top 5
9 should be the minimum, with Ohio State, the current holder of that spot getting smacked around by PSU this weekend.
And oklahoma losing too. Think 8 is our landing spot
New rankings are out, and as you predicted, we're up to #8. Now we just need to beat the 'Pack and see how high we can climb.
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/wrestling/d1
Single vote behind oklahoma for the #7 spot too
I haven't examined the match ups yet. Has anyone looked at our chances of beating NC State?
Edit: I just did a quick rundown. I got us winning 16-15
125: Dance is clearly the better wrestler then Fausz IMO MD 4-0 Hokies
133: I'm picking Gustafson here in a close one probably 7-0 Hokies
141: Probably match of the meet #1 Jack is a great wrestler but Chishko has done pretty fantastic recently 7-3 Hokies
149: Mastriani is always a toss up 7-6 Hokies
157: Match of the Meet #2: Brascetta and Gantt, should be a good one I'm going with Brascetta 10-6 Hokies
165: Will McFadden come up big against another quality opponent? 10-9 Hokies
174: Epperley has come back strong since being out of the lineup I think he gets a major decision if not more here 14-9 Hokies
184: Zavatsky has really impressed me recently 17-9 Hokies
197: Haught by decision 20-9 Hokies
HWT: Will be a fun one probably the match I am most looking forward too. I think Gwiz gets a MD. 20-13 Hokies
I think the Hokies are heavily favored at 125 and 174 and NCSU at HWT. 141, 149, 157, and 165 are the big swing matches (ironically in the middle of the match assuming the match starts at 125). I give the slight edge to the Hokies at 184 and 197. I think NCSU will have to win 3 of the 4 swing matches to win not inducing bonus points because that's too difficult to account for. Bonus points will also play a big part in the duel, I think 125 and 174 have high chances of bonus points for the Hokies and HWT has a good chance at bonus points for NCSU.
Check your score again...doesn't add up with your predictions
125:Joey Dance: He'll have Sean Fausz who's coming off an upset over Tim Lambert of Nebraska, but Joey is a man on a mission this year and I see him picking up a major. 4-0 Hokies.
133: Dennis Gustafson: This is definitely a swing match in the dual where if Dennis comes out and puts up points like he did against Edinboro it'll be very tough for Morris to get back into the match. Morris though can be a hammer on top and slow the match down to a pace where he's going to be dangerous. Give me Gus by decision. 7-0 Hokies.
141: Soloman Chishko: This'll be a litmus test to see just where Chishko is in the country and how high he can possibly get on the podium in March. Kevin Jack is the #3 guy in the country and for good reason he doesn't have those out of no where loses and can put you in plenty of uncomfortable positions. I suspect Devin Carter to be in Chishko's ear all week but I'll take Jack by decision. 7-3 Hokies.
149: Sal Mastriani: This is another swing match where you have two middle of the road wrestlers that are just going to leave everything they have on the mat. Sal should win but he has a tendency to drop some weird matches but I think he takes this one. 10-3 Hokies.
157: Nick Brascetta: I think this is the match where we find out just how healthy Brascetta is and if he has the gas tank to close out some close matches down the stretch after being dinged up. Gantt is going to push the pace the entire 7 minutes but I see Brascetta's counter offense winning him this match. 13-3 Hokies.
165: David McFadden: Max Roshkopf is a giant human being to only be 165 pounds and he's going to want to beat on and wear down McFadden the entire match while getting to his offense. The only way I see David coming out on top is if he brings the offense to Roshkopf but he'll have to create space and capitalize which he hasn't been doing a lot this month. 13-6 Hokies.
174: Zach Epperly: there are only two guys in the country I see Epperly struggling with and Nicky Hall isn't one. I expect Zach to dominate this match and possibly bring in some bonus points. 17-6 Hokies.
184: Zach Zavatsky: Renda has beaten Zach before and while that was in high school coupled with the way Zavatsky is wrestling currently this shouldn't be a close match. 21-6 Hokies.
197: Jared Haught: Jared is wrestling Michael Boykin who has a very similar style to what we've seen from Haught this year except he tends to keep matches with anyone close especially guys close to his level. Expect an exciting yet low scoring possibly one takedown match. 24-6 Hokies.
285: Ty Walz: While I love the way Walz wrestles it's unfortunate because Gwizz does it better. Ty is clearly in the top 3 wrestlers at 285 but Gwizz is head and shoulders better than anyone at the weight, hold for Snyder I want to see more before I make that claim about him, and will dominate this match. 24-10 Hokies
That's how I have the match going down but I can easily see how it could be 19-15 NC State. We have a few people I would consider locks in Dance, Epperly, and Zavatsky but that's why they wrestle the match and not go by the rankings beside the name.
I hope you're right with the 24-10. That would be awesome. The 157 match worries me. I just don't know if Brascetta is healthy enough to hang right now. And I feel like Sal is 50/50 here lately
18-12 for me but thats a homer prediction. Likely to be 15-15, and a single MD wins the match if i had to guess. PReview is written, but ill hold off for rankings before posting
I had 9 decisions with Epperly getting a major for us and the team win.