BLACKSBURG, VA. – The Virginia Tech wrestling team begins second semester competition in fashion as twelve wrestlers will enter a field of over 25 teams at the 59th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Chicago, IL from Friday, December 29, 2023 to Saturday, December 30. Fans can stream live action with a BIG 10 Plus subscription and live results via Trackwrestling.
Leading the young contingent is veteran, No. 5 Sam Latona. Latona is coming off a dominating victory over No. 16 Tyler Knox (Stanford) and will look to continue his strong season after missing the Cliff Keen Las Vegas earlier this year. Other veterans in action are No. 24 Andy Smith and Cody Howard for the Hokies. Redshirt sophomore Cooper Flynn enters the rankings after his season debut at No. 10 and will look to climb the ladder this weekend. Ty Finn will look to continue his momentum from a solid Keystone Classic in November and TJ Stewart will make his season debut – and career debut – at 184-pounds. It is also worth noting that 2023 NCAA Qualifier Tom Crook is competing unattached and is making his 141-pound season debut after spending the first semester at 149-pounds.
The Hokies will roll out the highly-touted recruiting class of Jimmy Mullen, Sonny Sasso, Mac Church, Hunter Mason, and Rafael Hipolito this weekend. Sasso and Hipolito lead the class with wins over ranked opponents this season. Mullen has fully made his transition from football duties to wrestling for the remainder of the year and will look to notch more wins on his record after an impressive showing at the Keystone Classic back in November. Church and Mason also enter the field and will look to continue building upon their resume in their young Hokie wrestling careers.
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Virginia Tech Wrestling Entries
125-pounds
No. 10 Cooper Flynn
133-pounds
No. 5 Sam Latona
141-pounds
Tom Crook (Unattached)
Mac Church (Unattached)
Hunter Mason (Unattached)
165-pounds
Ty Finn
Rafael Hipolito (Unattached)
184-pounds
Cody Howard
TJ Stewart
197-pounds
No. 25 Andy Smith
Sonny Sasso (Unattached)
285-pounds
Jimmy Mullen (Unattached)
