Wrestling

#8 Tech to face test in North Carolina this weekend

BLACKSBURG - The eighth-ranked Hokies head out on the road this weekend to close the regular season, facing No. 3 NC State on Friday and Duke in a quick turnaround on Saturday.

Tech enters the weekend fresh off three consecutive undefeated weekends, downing 17th-ranked Pitt 28-7 and Edinboro 29-7. The Hokies will face an undefeated Wolfpack squad that boasts eight ranked grapplers in their starting lineup. Highlight matches between No. 4 Nick Brasctta and No. 5 Tommy Gantt at 157 pounds and No. 3 Ty Walz and top-ranked Nick Griazdowski at heavyweight will lead the NWCA’s Match of the Week at 7 p.m. on Friday. The match between VT and NC State will decide the ACC dual meet championship, in a meeting of undefeated programs in league competition.

The Hokies will close out ACC competition against the Blue Devils at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Duke is coming off a 21-17 upset of 13th-ranked North Carolina and will close out the home portion of their schedule with the match against the Hokies.

Watch Live
Friday’s match will be streamed live at GoPack.com and can be viewed here. Fans can tune in to Saturday’s match here, with the link available at the start of the match. Fans are also invited to follow along on Twitter at @VT_Wrestling.

Below are the probables for Virginia Tech and their opponents, as submitted by the respective coaching staffs.

#10 Virginia Tech (13-2, 3-0 ACC)
125: #3 Joey Dance (22-1)
133: Dennis Gustafson, r-Jr. (6-4)
141: #8 Solomon Chishko, r-Fr. (23-2)
149: Sal Mastriani, r-Jr. (7-7)
157: #4 Nick Brascetta, r-Sr. (4-1)
165: #12 David McFadden, Fr. (17-6)
174: #3 Zach Epperly, r-Soph. (6-1)
184: #7 Zack Zavatsky, Soph. (19-4)
197: #7 Jared Haught, r-Soph. (14-5)
HWT: #3 Ty Walz, r-Jr. (20-0)

#3 NC State Wolfpack (21-0, 4-0 ACC)
125: #24 R-Fr. Sean Fausz (15-5)
133: #28 R-Fr. Jamal Morris (11-5)
141: #3 So. Kevin Jack (18-3)
149: So. Sam Melikian (9-4)
157: #4 R-Sr. Tommy Gantt (19-0)
165: #7 Jr. Max Rohskopf (11-1)
174: So. Nicky Hall (10-9)
184: #15 Jr. Pete Renda (18-5)
197: #17 So. Michael Boykin (14-6)
285: #1 R-Sr. Nick Gwiazdowski (24-0)

Duke Blue Devils (5-7, 1-3 ACC)
125: Thayer Atkins (7-8)
133: Open
141: Zach Finesilver (20-9)
149: No. 10 Mitch Finesilver (22-5)
157: Connor Bass (13-11)
165: Jake Faust (13-6)
174: Brian Dorsey (6-11)
184: Trey Adamson (11-12)
197: No. 5 Conner Hartmann (20-1)
285: Brendan Walsh (11-11)