Hokies Wrestling 2020: #7 Virginia Tech (8-1) AT Virginia (7-3)

Match Information
Location: John Paul Jones Arena - Charlottesville, VA
Day & Time: 31 JAN 20 at 7:00pm
Viewing: ACCN and in-person (tickets $10)
Updates: Twitter @HokiesWrestling, and Trackwrestling

The Opponent: University of Virginia Cavaliers

2018-2019 Season and Now

The University of Virginia dual record last year was an abysmal 12-10 (1-4 ACC), finishing 5th in the conference's regular season standings and last in the ACC tournament. Last year's match was very lopsided with Virginia Tech winning 30-6. The Hoos only won two bouts, both being the heavier weights of 197lbs and 285lbs, while four Hokies scored bonus points.

The 2019-2020 Virginia squad has seem to have turned a corner. They have a healthy mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen throughout the lineup. Their squad consists of only two ranked wrestlers though: 125lbs Jack Mueller (#2) and 197lbs Jay Aiello (#9). For their dual record, they are currently 7-3 (0-1 ACC), but their schedule has not been overly daunting. Two of their losses have come against top 10 opponents of Arizona State (#8) and North Carolina State (#5). There other loss was against Rider in the finals of the Virginia Duals. They have no wins against ranked opponents this year.

Coach: Steve Garland

Coach Garland going into his 14th season at the University of Virginia and it has been his only head coaching experience to date. Prior to UVA, he was a coaching assistant at Cornell for six years. His coaching record is 158-87 where his best years were in the early 2010s. He has personally coached 11 All-Americans, but none that have won a NCAA championship title. Coach Garland's squad has been crowned the ACC Champion only twice, 2010 and 2015.

Steve Garland is a 2000 alumnus of the University of Virginia. In his final year of competition, he earned All-American status and was a NCAA Championship runner up at the 125lbs weight class. His 91 career wins is second all-time for UVA, I could not find how may career losses he had besides.

The Line-Up

125lbs: #2 Jack Mueller (SR, Dallas TX)
Mueller is the 2019 runner up for the 125lbs weight class of NCAA Championship and the returning ACC Champion. The two time All-American burned his redshirt in 2019 while adjusting to the weight cut from 133lbs, which he wrestled at in 2018. For his last season, he is currently 9-0, but has only wrestled in four duals. His overall record is 81-13.

133lbs: Louie Hayes (r-JR, Orland Park IL)
Hayes has bumped up from 125lbs where he had wrestled at for the past two year. He qualified for the NCAA tournament once in 2018. This will be the first time Hayes has faced Gerardi. Hayes has only faced Korbin Meyers and he has lost each of the three matches. His season record is 16-8 and his career records stands at 84-39

141lbs: Brian Courtney (r-SO, Sayre PA)
Courtney has also bumped up in weight since the 2018-2019 season, to 141lbs. He was the starter at 133lbs last year until Hayes made the bump. He is currently 15-9 on the season but has only wrestled one top-25 wrestler in his weight class, which was last week in a loss to Tariq Wilson. His career record is 44-21.

149lbs: Denton Spencer (r-SO, Waverly GA)
Specner is a freshman transfer from Gardner-Webb that made the jump in 2018. He was a former 141lber until this year. He is 15-9 so far, but has not faced a top 25 opponent yet. He does lead the Cavalier squad with 10 falls. His career record is 58-25.

157lbs: Justin McCoy (r-FR, New PA)
McCoy is fringe rank wrestlers and has gone through a gauntlet of opponents this season. He has faced six of the top 10 wrestlers in his weight class, but has lost each match. McCoy is coming off an impressive redshirt year, going 25-3. His record for 2019-2020 is 15-9.

165lbs: Krystian Kinsley (r-FR, Havelock NC) or Sam Martino (r-JR, Colonial Heights VA)
UVA is in a bind as former 165lbs starter, and NCAA qualifier, Cameron Coy sustained an injury in late November. The current starter is Krystian Kinsley based on relevancy of wrestling in the past three duals. He is 6-10 this season and has a career record of 13-18 if you add his redshirt record.

Sam Martino was the 165lbs starter at the beginning of the season, but has lost his spot. He was never the first choice of a replacement, as the redshirting Jake Keating became injured at the start of January. Though it is possible for Martino to resume his role. His record was 9-8 for 2019-2020 and his career record was 54-55.

174lbs: Victor Marcelli (r-FR, Massillon OH)
Marcelli is the new starter at 174lbs after dropping from the 184lbs weight class during his redshirt year. Last year's starter, Robert Patrick, is now taking redshirt as the two Wahoos swap development schedules. Marcelli did face VT's Hunter Bolen in 2018-2019 where he lost 12-0. Marcelli's current record is 10-9 and his redshirt record was 21-6.

184lbs: Michael Battista (r-SO, Ashland VA)
This is Battista's first time as a starter for the Cavaliers. He does not have a lot of collegiate experience since he had a major injury in February of 2018. He took a over a year to recover, and returned to action in March of 2019 . His record this year is 14-16 and his career numbers are 23-32.

197lbs: #9 Jay Aiello (r-JR, Chantilly VA)
Aiello is UVA's other ranked wrestler and has been a starter at 197lbs for the past two years. He is currently 21-4 on the year, with once win coming against the top 15 (he really has two, but the last was an injury forfeit from Nick Reenan of NC State). His career record 77-39 and made his first NCAA tournament last year.

HVY: Quinn Miller (r-SO, Lilburn GA)
Miller is another Cavalier wrestler that is just outside of rankings. His 2019 season was cut short due to injuries , but now returns to his starting spot. This season he is 16-4, while three of those losses were against top 15 opponents. For his career, he 34-17 and surprising has yet to wrestle against a Virginia Tech grappler.

Match Thoughts

To the casual fans, they may not realize this year's Hokie team is rebuilding. There were known talent holes at 174lbs and 197lbs. The real 197lber is actually wrestling at heavyweight. The 133lbs and 149lbs weight classes were question marks due to a redshirt freshman getting his first start and the former starter returning from injury. And lastly a servicable back up at 125lbs is starting due to an injury of the former 133lb wrestler. Last week was a huge disappointment and "coming back down to Earth" match. This wrestling team is synonymous with our basketball squad; they had been punching above their weight class and now opponents are figuring them out.

While many fans will cry out that UNC wrestlers stalled the entire time, there is only some half-truth in that assessment. North Carolina easily dictated the pace of every match. Their strategy was focused on sprawl and reshots off the Virginia Tech offense or letting Virginia Tech get deep in a shot and out-funking them (Prata, Andonian, McFadden). UNC wrestlers were also not aggressive, many of them ceded ground by letting Virginia Tech wrestlers get danger close to their reach (LaPrade). Once UNC scored points, they could back off and force the Hokies to be more risky and dig themselves in a hole. This has been a kryptonite for many of our wrestlers (Prada, M. Moore, Hughes, Smeltzer, even Bolen) as they do not have an arsenal of moves to rely on when they are down.

To the stalling critique, a referee will rarely give a warning to wrestlers that has converted a take down when they didn't initiate the shot. Also the Tar Heels did have two weeks to prepare and scout Virginia Tech, while the Hokies had only five days from their bout with Cornell. Scouting is done for folk wrestling, but rarely there's enough time, finding media can be tough, and wrestling matches are very unique so it's hard to pick up on intricacies of techniques.

Virginia Tech goes into its match against UVA with six ranked wrestlers still: #13 Joey Prata (125lbs), #18 Mitch Moore (141lbs), #18 BC LaPrade (157lbs), #5 David McFadden (165lbs), #2 Hunter Bolen (184lbs), and #18 John Borst. I'm absolutely shocked to see Prata and Moore still ranked when they both have the worst win percentage, for a ranked wrestler, in their respective weight class. McFadden is also lucky to no have dropped below the top 5.

Predictions

125: #2 Mueller maj dec. #13 Prata (4-0 UVA)
133: Hayes dec. Gerardi (7-0 UVA)
141: #18 M. Moore dec Courtney (7-3 UVA)
149: Andonian dec Spencer (7-6 UVA)
157: #19 LaPrade dec. McCoy (6-9 VT)
165: #5 McFadden maj dec. Kinsley (6-13 VT)
174: Marcelli dec. Hughes (9-13 VT)
184: #2 Bolen maj. dec. Battista (9-17 VT)
197: #9 Aiello maj dec. Smeltzer (13-17 VT)
285: #17 Borst dec Miller (13-20 VT)

Once again, Virginia Tech is the better team on paper, but it won't be comfortable win. I'm being optimistic with Andonian and LaPrade, but pessimistic with Hughes, for the three toss-up matches. Andonian has the better fire power and is a more funky grappler, but its known that you can roll through his shots. UVA's Spencer is a pinning machine, so the more shots Andonian takes, the higher the chance he gets stuck on his back, LaPrade is gonna be in a tough match since McCoy is also known as upset potential. I think LaPrade is gonna come out hungry though because of his last loss. Las match to key on is Borst versus Miller. No shocker that Borst is wrestling against a much bigger opponent, so it will be seen if he can fire off the shots or go into turtle mode. There can not be enough emphasis on getting a win, for the wrestlers that lost last week. The mindset needs to be getting a first or second place seed for the ACC Tournament.