Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Eight members of the Virginia Tech wrestling squad will take the floor in Madison Square Garden on Thursday for the 2016 NCAA National Championship. In all, the ACC will send 38 wrestlers to the NCAA Championship, including 34 automatic and four at-large entrants. A total of 23 of the 38 earned Top 16 seeds, the most by the ACC in its history.
The eight wrestlers representing Virginia Tech are: Joey Dance at 125 pounds, Solomon Chishko at 141 pounds, Nick Brascetta at 157 pounds, David McFadden at 165 pounds, Zach Epperly at 174 pounds, Zack Zavatsky at 184 pounds, Jared Haught at 197 pounds and Ty Walz at heavyweight.
Dance is seeded second at 125 pounds while Walz grabbed the No. 3 seed at heavyweight. Zavatsky snagged a fifth seed in his first time as an NCAA qualifier. Haught is seeded sixth, Chishko is the seventh seed, Brascetta and Epperly are both the eighth seed and McFadden will be the 14th seed at his first trip to Nationals.
Below are the initial matchups for all eight competitors, barring no changes between now and Thursday, and their potential second match.
125: #2 seed Joey Dance
First Round: vs. Alfredo Rodriguez (SIUE)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of #15 seed David Terao (AMER) vs Nick Hermann (UVA)
141: #7 seed Solomon Chishko
First Round: vs. Mike Pongracz (CHAT)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Logan Everett (Army) vs #10 seed Todd Prestion (Harvard)
157: #8 seed Nick Brascetta
First Round: vs. Russell Parsons (Army)
Second Match: vs winner/loser of Andrew Atkinson (UVA) vs Richie Lewis (Rutgers)
165: #14 seed David McFadden
First Round: vs. winner of Cooper Moore (UNI) vs Mitchell Wightman (AMER)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Tyler Buckwalter (Kent St) vs #3 seed Bo Jordan (Ohio State)
174: #8 seed Zach Epperly
First Round: vs. Casey Kent (Penn)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Rustin Barrick (Bucknell) vs #9 seed Chandler Rogers (Okla. State)
184: #5 seed Zack Zavatsky
First Round: vs. Andrew Romanchik (Ohio)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Dane Pestano (Iowa State) vs #12 seed Hayden Zillmer (NDSU)
197: #6 seed Jared Haught
First Round: vs. Sam Wheeler (CSU)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Patrick Downey (ISU) vs #11 seed Phil Wellington (Ohio)
285: #3 seed Ty Walz
First Round: vs. Tanner Hall (Arizona State)
Second Match: vs. winner/loser of Joseph Goodheart (Drexel) vs. #14 seed Blaise Cabell (Northern Illinois)
Action will begin on Thursday at noon Eastern time with the first session. Tech’s eight wrestlers (and all 330 total wrestlers) will take to the eight mats as their journey begins to a possible national title or All-America honors. The second session begins Thursday evening at 7 p.m. Eastern with the second round and consolation bouts. On Friday, Session III begins at 11 a.m. Eastern with wrestlebacks and quarterfinal bouts and Session IV starts at 8 p.m. Eastern on six mats with semifinal bouts and wrestlebacks. On Saturday, Session V features wrestleback semifinals and medal matches on three mats starting at 11 a.m. Eastern and the final session will feature the 10 championship bouts live at 8 p.m. Eastern
ESPN’s family of networks will broadcast every round. You can find a complete list of where and when here.