Hokies Win 2nd Straight ACC Wrestling Title

By: TechHokie13 on March 8, 2014, 10:10 PM | 23 comments

Today, 10 Hokie wrestlers put everything they had into achieving one goal: bringing home a 2nd straight conference championship. At the end of the evening, the Hokies had pulled away from Pitt, the regular-season champions, and UVA to come out on top yet again. Solid performances were turned in by 3rd-place finishers Joey Dance, Chris Moon, Nick Vetterlein and Ty Walz and ACC individual champions Dennis Gustafson, Devin Carter (Outstanding Wrestler), Zach Neibert and Chris Penny. Additionally, Sal Mastriani and Austin Gabel scored valuable team points for the Hokies on their way to 4th place finishes.

It was an extremely entertaining day of wrestling, complete with a few big upsets and, of course, the much-anticipated return of Devin Carter. The Hokies were in good shape after the first round, with Carter and Dance sitting out with byes and the other 8 Hokies advancing to the semis - picking up a few bonus points along the way. Advancing through the semifinals would prove to be a very tough task for the Hokies, as 6 VT wrestlers tasted defeat for the first time, including a minor upset of 2-seed Joey Dance. However, 4 Hokies made it through to the finals, led by Carter. Carter left no doubt as to the health of his hamstring, dispatching his first opponent, Maryland's Shyheim Brown, with 11 takedowns in a 23-8 technical fall.

The rest of the Hokies battled tough in the consolation bracket, with every one of them making it to the 3rd-place match. Dance, Moon, Vetterlein and Walz took care of business, earning huge wins that would put the Hokies in the lead heading into the final round. With the Hokies up 74-64 over Pitt and having 4 finalists to Pitt's 5 (including 2 head-to-head matchups), the contest was very much in doubt. However, all 4 Hokies in the finals won individual ACC titles and Pitt managed to win only one finals match, leaving the Hokies victorious with 87 team points. After a 6-1 victory over Pitt's stud Freshman Edgar Bright, Devin Carter was named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. Not bad for a guy 3 months removed from separating his hamstring from his pelvis. Very much worth noting is the performance of Dennis Gustafson, who made a strong case himself for OW, racking up bonus points in every one of his matches before polishing off his night with a dominating, 11-0 major decision to get the Hokies going in the finals.

In a Hokiesports interview, Carter had this to say about receiving the Outstanding Wrestler award: "Its a nice, sentimental award, but Dennis Gustafson deserves this as much as I do, Carter said. Hes a true freshman who put up bonus points in all three matches and won 11-0 in the finals. Three weeks ago, I thought Id be a spectactor along with everyone else at this event and to do all this, capped by the Outstanding Wrestler award, is just amazing." It's awesome to see the best wrestler on the team giving credit to his teammates. The future is bright for Virginia Tech Wrestling.

A huge congratulations to Coach Dresser and his staff, and the Hokie wrestlers for bringing home a second consecutive ACC title! The Hokies will wrap up their season at the NCAA Championships in a couple weeks in Oklahoma City. 7 Hokies have automatically qualified due to their performance in the ACC tournament, with the remaining 3 awaiting the decision of the selection committee, which will come in the next week.