GREENSBORO, N.C. – Fresh off a memorable 2021-2022 season, Virginia Tech wrestling picked up two Atlantic Coast Conference season awards for the season as NCAA silver medalist Mekhi Lewis earned ACC Wrestler of the Year and head coach Tony Robie took home ACC Coach of the Year accolades.
The annual awards are determined by a vote of the league's head coaches.
Lewis made history in 2019 when he became Tech's first national champion while also adding the championship's Most Outstanding Wrestler and snagging ACC Wrestler of the Year honors as a freshman to his resume. In his new weight class this year, he made history once again by becoming the program's first two-time finalist. Lewis is the fourth Virginia Tech wrestler to be voted ACC Wrestler of the Year and the first in program history to win the award twice.
Having recovered from the injury that forced him out of the 2021 national championship after reaching the quarterfinal bout, the redshirt junior from Somerset, N.J., wrestled to his No. 2 seed by defeating No. 10 Clay Lautt of North Carolina then pinning No. 3 Logan Massa of Michigan en route to his second finals appearance. He would then drop a competitive bout in tiebreakers to defending champion No. 1 Carter Starocci of Penn State.
Lewis' NCAA silver medal finish capped a season in which he posted a 24-2 overall record along with an ACC title and the conference championship's Most Outstanding Wrestler award in Charlottesville, Virginia on March 6.
Tech picked up ACC Coach of the Year honors for the seventh time in the last nine seasons. The honor is the third for Robie since taking the helm of the Hokies in 2017.
Under Robie's leadership this season, Virginia Tech earned a conference leading, eighth-place NCAA finish and produced three All-Americans – Lewis (2nd), Bryce Andonian (3rd), and Korbin Myers (6th) – for the ninth consecutive season, a streak shared with Penn State, Cornell, and Iowa. The Hokies also scored the fourth most points at the national championship in program history.
Tech claimed three individual gold medals at the ACC Championship – Lewis, Myers, and Nathan Traxler – while placing second in team scoring, with Tech's eight qualifiers for the NCAA Championships the second-most in the conference.