Like eating a good breakfast to start the day, a wrestling team needs a strong start in the lower weight classes to get the momentum rolling in its favor.
Virginia (3-4, 0-1 ACC) got jumpstarted last night by steam-rolling its way through the first five matches of the night en route to a 27-7 victory over James Madison (3-3) at Memorial Gym.
"I really thought like we broke these guys," Cav Coach Lenny Bernstein said. "We were looking at the match like it could go five matches for us, five matches for them."
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The Cavaliers claimed eight of the 10 bouts on the night against the Dukes, losing only the 165 and 174-pound matches. Fifth-year captain Steve Garland led the charge for Virginia, starting the night with a 6-4 decision over Jonathan Huesdash. The Cavs followed Garland's lead by winning at 133, 141, 149, 157 and 165, until Virginia's second year Brian Muir lost 9-2 to Duke Seth Cameron.
In the 149-pound class, fifth-year John Pozniak recorded the Cavaliers' only pin of the night at 2:59 in the match.
Cav second year Don Carlo-Clauss squared off at 157 pounds against Jimmy O'Connor, an opponent Carlo-Clauss had lost to two weeks earlier in the Virginia State Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships. Carlo-Clauss fell behind 0-3 in the second period of the match but clinched a 6-4 victory by reversing O'Connor and taking him straight to his back - a five-point move.
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"I lost to that kid 2-0 at Intercollegiates, so it was nice to come back and get the win," Carlo-Clauss said. "They finished ahead of us at Virginia Intercollegiates, too, so we had to prove we were the better team. We knew that we are always in better shape than them, so we knew that if we kept after them for the whole match they would end up fading."
After Carlo-Clauss' match, Virginia dropped the next two bouts but rebounded with a win from second year Ryan McGrath, recently named ACC Wrestler of the Week. McGrath controlled the match's flow from beginning to end and won 8-3 to clinch the Cavalier victory.
Virginia rounded out the night by claiming the 197 and heavyweight matches. Third-year heavyweight Ryan Painter, who is sharing time with first year Josh Etu, beat D.J. Hockman. The heavyweight match was tight through the first two periods of action until Painter scored a pair of takedowns in the third period. He finished the match with an 8-2 win, ending a successful Cavalier evening.
"We wrestled a hard-nosed match," Bernstein said. "We came from behind in some cases and stretched the score in some cases. Pozniak's pin helped us get some emotion going and the same thing with Don Carlo-Clauss being down 2-0 and getting that five-pointer to win the match"
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