The Virginia men's wrestling team honored all of its graduating members before winning last night's meet over ACC rival Maryland, 18-16.
The win helped the Cavaliers pull themselves up to .500 in the ACC. Now, Virginia can hope to take some confidence into the ACC championships March 9.
Seniors Don Carlo Clauss (25-13) and Brian Muir (16-12) won their matches. Senior Ryan Painter also won his match in the heavyweight class with a 5-4 decision in the first match of the night.
"I'm sure it felt good for Painter," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said.
John Weidman (23-5) of Maryland lost to Clauss in an overtime meet, 4-2.
"It was a big win for Don," Bernstein said. "He was wrestling at 157 pounds a few weeks ago and I think this will give him some confidence at the 165-pound weight class."
Muir gave the Cavaliers their eighteenth point of the meet, capping off Virginia's scoring. From there, the Cavaliers held on to the lead on the way to their 18-16 victory, capturing a final ACC win in regular-season competition.
Despite the senior-day atmosphere, Cavalier seniors Jimi Massey (18-7) and Bob Seidel (8-12) both lost their matches. Massey lost in a lopsided 6-1 match against the Terps' Jake Stork, who is 28-6 this season.
Massey had beaten Stork in last year's ACC championships, but was ill during last night's match.
"Massey and Stork have been wrestling each other for a few years now, but nothing has been that lopsided," Bernstein said.
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Seidel fell to Maryland's best wrestler, Brandon York (35-5) in a close, low scoring match.
Despite minor injuries during their matches, freshmen Byron Dunlap and Paul Dunstan put up a combined 22 points to beat their opponents. Dunlap (13-14) had little trouble in defeating Maryland's Mike Lupa, 10-2. With Dunlap winning 8-0, Lupa twisted his knee, but continued to wrestle after his knee brace was adjusted.
Dunstan, meanwhile, appeared to lose a tooth during his match against Maryland's Adam James in the 149-pound weight class. Dunstan continued to wrestle and ended up taking the match, 12-9.
Virginia's fate was decided by junior Andrew DeMartino (7-16) who struggled against the pin in his 5-3 loss to Maryland's Bob Vorhies (12-15). Although DeMartino posted a loss, by avoiding the pin, he kept Virginia on top of Maryland.
"Andy has made huge improvement," Bernstein said. "At the beginning of the year nobody would have thought that he would be starting now."
The victory over Maryland puts Virginia at 2-2 in the ACC and will give the team much needed confidence going into the ACC championships.
Virginia believes it can be a real sleeper and surprise a few people at the ACC championships.
"I feel like we've got two weeks of training coming up and I think that will be good for us," said junior wrestler Tim Foley (21-8). Foley beat the Terrapins' John Antonelli (13-12) in the 157-pound weight class.
Dunlap said he thought that the team looked good and tough.
"I think it's a good step," Dunlap said. "We wrestled tough, and now we know what we need to work on for the ACC championships."
Last night's win puts Virginia solidly in the middle of the ACC standings, up from second-to-last place going into the meet.
"It means a lot to us to be .500," said Foley. "We've had a lot of peaks and valleys, and it's good to know that we're taking a win into the ACC tournament."
Last night's meet was Virginia's final dual meet of the season, bringing their record to 4-9 overall. The Cavaliers will travel to a quad meet with American, East Michigan and Bucknell in Washington, D.C. Sunday.
For now, though, every Cavalier wrestler is looking ahead to the ACC championships.
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