Possibly the greatest single-season duo in the history of Virginia wrestling just finished a run through the national championship tournament -- and no one seemed to notice.
Scott Moore and Tim Foley finished third and eighth in their respective weight classes, capping off an incredible season and carrying their team to a No. 16 overall ranking.
Moore and Foley have wrestled their last collegiate matches, but each has done enough to leave a lasting legacy with the wrestling program.
They did it in different ways. One did it in a sprint, the other in a marathon. But they both crossed the finish line together, at the national championships, carrying Virginia to its best finish in over 50 years.
Moore had only one year in Charlottesville -- he transferred here after graduating from Penn State with a year of eligibility remaining. He came determined to give all he had for one last chance at a national title. In his last season in State College, he came tantalizingly close -- fourth place at nationals -- after a record-breaking season for Nittany Lion wrestlers with 54 wins. His move to Virginia didn't generate half the amount of buzz as Nick Vander Laan's departure, but it's a trade athletic director Craig Littlepage would probably make 10 times out of 10 in hindsight.
Moore's season was too good to be true going into the NCAA's. Moore opened his Cavalier career with 46 consecutive wins and, with 34 pins, he broke two school records for victories by fall in one year. The single-season mark of 11 came down in just his fourth ever meet in orange and blue, and only two months later he took the career record of 28 along with it.
With every match, the pressure kept building. Every question had to do with the pressure. Every competitor dreamed of being the first one to take out the No. 1 141-pounder in the nation the night before taking the mat against him. After winning his first three in St. Louis, Moore's attempt for a 50th straight win came up short in a heartbreaking 14-2 major decision defeat to No. 5 seed Cliff Moore of Iowa, the eventual national champion.
"After that loss, typical of most wrestlers, I didn't really feel like wrestling anymore," Moore said. "The next day I woke up and realized that all the stress was off me, so I just wrestled the way I normally do, and everything fell into place."
Moore finished No. 3 in the country with an overall record of 51-1 and added an All-American selection to his mantle of 2003-2004 awards, alongside four ACC Wrestler of the Week honors and the ACC's Most Valuable Wrestler award.
Foley did not dominate this year quite like his friend Moore. Rather than making an enormous splash in one year and commandeering national headlines, Foley has been the steady franchise player, the solid presence that has been the face of Virginia wrestling since making his first of three straight appearances at nationals in 2001-02.
At 165 pounds, Foley went into the tournament with a No. 11 seed and came out with a final ranking of No. 8. The biggest honor for Foley came when he also received All-American accolades to join his cohort. As the eighth and ninth All-Americans ever to come through Virginia, Moore and Foley also became the first Cavaliers to earn the honor since Steve Garland in 2000.
"It took a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifice," Foley said on receiving the honor. "It's hard to say [what it means]. I accomplished a very, very hard, large goal. It was very exciting."
Foley's final appearance in a Virginia uniform marked the end of a career that netted a 114-35 record, second all-time for wins by a Cavalier wrestler. He pinned his opponent 13 times in his last season, which was good enough to break the old record, had it not already been shattered by Moore.
This season "will go down as one of the most memorable in Virginia history, just because of the fact that we had the highest finish in almost 50 years," coach Lenny Bernstein said. "Was I satisfied with not winning ACC's? Not really. But what happened at nationals was an incredible achievement."
Read More
Wrestling gets blown out 34-9 on long road trip to Stanford
By Ryan Weiner | 5 hours agoSolid performances from its most reliable trio were not enough for Virginia.
Freshman excellence powers No. 5 men’s tennis past Boise State, No. 19 Alabama
By Thomas Baxter | 13 hours agoVirginia, unlike many other regional hosts, held serve as its quartet's top seed.
No. 1 women’s swimming and diving destroys No. 2 Texas
By Xander Tilock | 16 hours agoOnce again, Virginia has proven to be head and shoulders above other top programs.
