The Virginia wrestling team will hit the ground running this weekend at the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, competing in its first set of dual meets this season.
The Cavaliers started their season off on a high note last weekend at the Michigan State Open, where seven Virginia wrestlers placed. This weekend, they face highly-touted Big Ten schools head-on; Virginia will take part in its first three individual matches of the season against Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan State Saturday.
Expectations are high, as the Cavaliers achieved an unusual NCAA preseason ranking, coming in at No. 23. The competition is also stiff, as both No. 9 Illinois and No. 13 Wisconsin harbor legitimate NCAA-title hopes. Michigan State also received votes in the preseason poll. These early tests are indicative of the team’s rugged schedule, but the Virginia wrestlers remain optimistic.
“It’s exciting,” senior Rocco Caponi said. “Everyone on the team is a true competitor. The harder the competition, the more we are going to enjoy it. It gives you really good motivation to train.”
With the high ranking and tough schedule — regarded as the most competitive in program history — also comes pressure to live up to the hype, something Virginia wrestlers may be unaccustomed to. This is the first time the wrestling program has ever been ranked in the USA Today/InterMat poll. Still, the team is not shying away and has high expectations.
“It’s always good to get a high ranking, I’m proud of the team for that,” Caponi said. “One of the main goals is to win an ACC title this year. We came real close last year. The other main goal is to get every person to NCAAs this year.”
Coach Steve Garland also expressed optimism regarding the team’s goals.
“[Expectations] are very high,” Garland said. “This is my third season and we have been building something from the ground up ... This year we set our standards even higher, so now we are ranked 23rd. We are jumping for joy but at the end of day we have to have results. That is my only focus this year.”
Those results will be hard to come by, so the team has been working extremely hard. This increased intensity, along with the grueling schedule, poses possible health issues.
“Our biggest challenge this year will be dealing with injuries,” Garland said. “We have kicked up preseason. You always want to improve or else you are moving backwards. We made preseason harder, we made the schedule harder and we made the practices harder.”
Hopefully, these measures will be beneficial. The team feels it is right on the edge of becoming an elite program.
“We will see,” Garland said. “We are [going to] see what we are really made of. Last year, we were beating good, solid teams, but we weren’t beating great teams. This year, my goal is to beat these great teams.”
This stress on beating the best has the team excitedly looking forward to the fight for the ACC Championship and, ultimately, putting in a good showing at the NCAA Championship meet.
“The biggest challenge is going to be the NCAAs because you get the best wrestlers there,” Caponi said.
Garland is putting a lot of emphasis on how his team fares in these final challenges.
“We get our best guys in the best matches possible against the best in the country, so the preparation for the end of the year is there,” Garland said. “At the end of the year, come NCAAs, it’s ‘I better place or it’s not good enough.’”
For Garland and his team, all roads lead to the NCAAs.
“I don’t care what our record is during the year,” Garland said. “To me all that matters is getting All-Americans and hopefully a national championship.”
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 9 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 14 hours agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | 16 hours agoPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
