The Virginia wrestling team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 26-13 victory over Binghamton in the Cavs' home opener at Memorial Gymnasium Friday. The Cavaliers dropped the evening's first match before reeling off six straight wins to take the dual meet.
"It was a big match for us to get a win in," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said. "It is good for our confidence to stay undefeated and win our first home match."
Two days later, the Cavaliers contended in the highly competitive Penn State Open, a tournament featuring 400 wrestlers throughout the 10 weight classes. Virginia sophomore Josh Etu, who competed in the 2000 World University Wrestling Championships in Tokyo a month ago, put together a flawless 5-0 run to win the heavyweight championship. Don Carlo-Clauss (157 lbs.) and Ryan McGrath (184) finished fourth in their respective classes. McGrath is redshirting this season for the Cavs and therefore competed unattached at the tournament.
Against Binghamton (0-1) Friday, Etu did not fare so well, beginning the meet for Virginia with a 9-8 loss to Dmitry Lisenekov. The Bearcats took a 3-0 lead, their only lead of the night, but Cav freshman Ryan Stewart got the ball rolling, both emotionally and physically for the home team by squeaking out a 5-4 victory at 125, tying the match at 3-3.
"Ryan came into the season not expecting to start," Bernstein said. "But he's been wrestling well and got a big win to start the streak off for us tonight."
Cavalier redshirt freshman Joe Alexander followed with a victory at 133, before sophomore Bob Seidel boosted the Virginia lead to 12-6 by winning the most emotionally intense match of the night. In only two minutes and four seconds, Seidel slammed Binghamton's Travis Granger to the mat and got the pin at 141.
"I just shot in and got into an upper-body lock with him," Seidel said. "Right when I felt him turning into to me, I caught him off balance and hip-tossed him. He landed on his back and I was able to get the quick pin."
Wins for the Cavaliers followed by P.J. Bory (149), Carlo-Clauss (157) and Brian Muir (165). Bory and Carlo-Clauss each posted a victory by major decision while Muir recorded a pin 6:05 into the bout, giving Virginia a 26-3 lead that clinched the match for the Cavs.
Virginia junior Greg Francesca, who regularly wrestles at 165, bumped up to 174 with redshirt freshman Kevin Collier out and kicked off the Cavs' meet-ending three-match losing streak. Freshmen Scott Mania lost at 184 and Zack Freday swallowed a double-overtime loss at 197.
"There were a couple of close matches at the end of the match that I think could have gone either way," Bernstein said. "Greg Francesca was giving up 10 pounds, which made a big difference in the match"
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