Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Three coaches and four student-athletes will represent the Virginia Tech wrestling program at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas this weekend. The action, which runs from April 27-28, will have live results and a live stream available on FloWrestling.com.
Assistant coach Frank Molinaro, volunteer assistant coach Ty Walz and director of performance Tyler Graff will all be competing in the senior open.
Molinaro, the top seed at 70kg, won the 65kg title at the Open last season. He traveled to Iowa City last month where was on the United States' roster at the Freestyle World Cup and recently won the 70kg bronze medal at the Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix in Russia.
Seeded second at 97kg, Walz is coming off of a gold medal performance at Bill Farrell Memorial Open and has already won a bronze at the U23 World Championships and a silver medal at the Cerro Pelado in his young freestyle career. Graff is seeded sixth at 61kg and looks to add a U.S. Open to his decorated freestyle resume.
Freshmen Mekhi Lewis (74kg), Stanley Smeltzer (86kg), John Borst (92kg) and sophomore Hunter Bolen (79kg) will all be competing in the UWW Junior Freestyle Nationals. Bolen is coming off of a strong freshman campaign where he went 21-12 overall, took home ACC Freshman of the Year honors and qualified for the NCAA Championships. Lewis, Smeltzer and Borst are each coming off of impressive redshirt seasons.