Just when their backs were flat to the mat, the Virginia wrestling team pulled itself together and escaped an otherwise lackluster season by placing second at the Virginia Intercollegiate State Wrestling Championships Saturday.
Virginia Tech beat out the Cavaliers by 15.5 points to claim the state championship. The Hokies' coach, Keith Mourlam, was voted Virginia coach of the year and Hokie wrestler Sean Grey of the 141-pound weight class won wrestler of the year honors.
The Cavaliers, however, have no hard feelings about the tournament. After a bitter loss to VMI on Jan. 15, Virginia stood at 1-4; coaches and players alike seemed unsure about their chances at a state championship.
"We were struggling quite a bit," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said. "We had some injuries and our freshmen were a little bit down, so I was concerned that we would have problems if we didn't wrestle up to our abilities."
But the Cavaliers' second-place finish was good enough to prove to Bernstein that the freshmen and the whole team could pull together and change its ways.
The tournament "actually went really well," sophomore Tim Foley said. "I wouldn't say we were satisfied. You can never be satisfied with second place, but I think we were all happy with the outcome. We showed promise where we hadn't before."
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Promise came in the form of strong performances from several of Virginia's freshmen, particularly Paul Dunstan.
Dunstan was one of two Cavaliers and the only freshman to win his weight class at 149 pounds. He defeated Old Dominion's Casey Todd, Adrian Austin of George Mason and Mike Parson from VMI on his way to the top of the class.
The victory was especially meaningful for Dunstan since both Austin and Parson had defeated him in dual match play earlier in the season.
"He beat two kids that had already beat him," Foley said. "You had to feel good about that."
Virginia junior heavyweight Josh Etu also was undefeated in his class.
Foley and teammates Joe Alexander and Jimi Massey all finished second in their weight classes (157, 133, and 184 pounds, respectively).
"Joe Alexander was still not 100 percent off his injury and made the final," Bernstein said. "I didn't know if he'd be able to do that well coming back."
Virginia's comeback came courtesy of several different factors. Perhaps most importantly for morale, as the host school, the Cavaliers had a home "field" advantage.
"Being at home was a big help," Foley said. "A lot of people's parents, even people who were backups, came down. We had a lot of support."
Bernstein speculated that his team came out strong following the VMI loss.
"I really 'expressed' myself, for lack of a better word, after the VMI match," he said. "I don't know if that was a wake-up call for [the team]. I hope it was. That's what I intended for it to be: to see ourselves for what we were."
In team competition, VMI came in third with 73 points, ODU fourth with 61.5, JMU scored 58, GMU ranked sixth with 47 points and Apprentice finished with 14.5 points.
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