Despite some early season kinks that still need to be worked out, the Virginia wrestling team was dominant yesterday.
The Cavaliers defeated Liberty 31-9 and George Mason 23-9 Saturday at Memorial Gymnasium. Delaware State, who was expected to compete as well, had to pull out of the meet due to travel issues.
While the Cavaliers did dominate their opponents, the meet clearly demonstrated that there are still things they need to work on for the rest of the season.
"I am pleased with some specific individuals," Virginia coach Steve Garland said. "I am pleased overall, but I think I also saw a lot of things that we need to work on to improve, but that is what this time of the year is for."
One of the wrestlers that was particularly impressive Saturday was sophomore Eric Albright. Albright, who wrestled in the 133 lb. weight class, scored a major decision over Zach McCray 17-3 and defeated Will Powars of George Mason 11-7.
Albright was more pleased with his first match than his second, which was affected by an injury to his head.
"In my first match I sort of dominated, which for only my second time making weight I felt pretty good," Albright said. "I hit my head early in the match, and I might have a little concussion, which affected the way I wrestled my second match, but I still won."
In addition to Albright, Ross Gitomer, Kellon Balum, Drew DiPasquale, Mike Sewell, Rocco Caponi and Kyle Narkiewicz also won both of their matches yesterday.
One of the things that Garland wanted was for the wresters to be aggressive this weekend. While some of the Cavaliers did not accomplish Garland's wishes, the meet also provided an opportunity for the wrestlers to get back into the rhythm.
"When you take this much time off, because wrestling is all about muscle memory, it takes a long time to get back in it," Garland said. "We've been training so hard, but it still doesn't prepare you for the nerves. It's really a different feeling when you wrestle a real match, and I think some of our guys got tired because they felt that feeling."
Garland is glad to have the opening meet out of their way because the Cavaliers travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on Big Ten foes Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin next.
"The good thing is that they got their first big blow out of their system, so that next week when we wrestle in the Big Ten competition, hopefully we are more adjusted for real matches," Garland said.
Even though they have things to improve on, Garland is happy with the outcome.
"At the end of the day, we still won," Garland said. "Winning is obviously the objective."
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