When people go to the Moss Arts Center, they expect to be entertained. Typically that entertainment comes from a theatrical or musical performance, but once a year the stage belongs to the Virginia Tech wrestling team.
While those that gathered in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theater didn’t see a play or performance, they did witness quite the show Saturday afternoon as No. 12 Virginia Tech (5-3) knocked off George Mason (0-4, 0-2 A10), 31-15, winning seven of ten matches on the day.
The dual kicked off with the 149 pound weight class, as No. 7 Bryce Andonian returned to the mat after a month-long hiatus to take on George Mason’s No. 23 Alex Madrigal.
Despite facing arguably the Patriots’ best wrestler, Andonian made easy work of Madrigal, pinning him in under three minutes. The victory acted as a nice return to action for Andonian, in addition to giving the Hokies an early 6-0 lead.
VT nabbed the early advantage, but George Mason came storming back, winning two of the following three matches to cut Tech’s lead to one, 10-9. Simeone Holmes took the mat next for the Hokies and went down with an injury, awarding another six points to the Patriots.
Suddenly, Virginia Tech trailed George Mason through five matches, 15-10. It was unfamiliar territory for Tech to be trailing that far into a match, let alone to an unranked opponent at home.
That’s when everything flipped for the Hokies.
Dakota Howard took the stage next, obliterating George Mason’s Jeremy Seymour in a 22-7 tech fall, pointing to the crowd after his hand was raised as if to say, “We’re not done yet.”
If anyone in the building had doubts that the Hokies had taken back momentum, No. 13 Nathan Traxler ended them, swiftly pinning George Mason’s Austin Smith in only 33 seconds.
After trailing by five points halfway through the match, Tech was up by six points, 21-15, with only three bouts left.
VT won all three of those final matches by a combined score of 25-8, a closing act that even a typical theater-goer could appreciate. The 31-15 victory is the program’s third straight in matches at Moss Arts Center.
No. 12 Virginia Tech takes the mat next in Raleigh, N.C. on Friday against No. 5 NC State (6-1) in the ACC opener at 7 p.m.
Results:
125: Sam Latona (VT) maj dec. Benjamin Monn (GMU), 12-3
133: Brandon Wittenberg (VT) dec. Michael Rapuano (GMU), 8-3
141: Collin Gerardi (VT) dec. Kaden Cassidy (GMU), 5-2
149: No. 7 Bryce Andonian (VT) WBF No. 23 Alex Madrigal (GMU), 2:49
157: Avery Bassett (GMU) dec. Jake Hart (VT), 3-1 SV
165: Clayton Ulrey (VT) maj dec. Tyler Kocack (GMU), 13-3
174: Logan Messer (GMU) WBF Austin Dempsey (VT), 2:11
184: Kyle Davis (GMU) inj. for Simeone Holmes (VT)
197: No. 33 Dakota Howard (VT) TF Jeremy Seymour (GMU), 22-7
285 (HWT): No. 13 Nathan Traxler (VT) WBF Austin Smith (GMU), 0:33
Print
‘lag: those look like high school scoring rules.
Here is the .pdf for this year’s rulebook for NCAA wrestling:
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:8ad46db3-275f-3372-8d12-0cb4983e6f10
Side note regarding WBF: that isn’t an official designation, I believe Al was referring to the abbreviations in the results list above.
Side note #2: for some reason the site wouldn’t let me reply to your post, so I created a new one…
So, major decision, decision, TF, WBF, and so on. Someone explain what they are, when they apply and the significance of each? Thanks.
A dual meet is a series of matches consisting of 10 weight classes. Wrestlers are awarded match points during a match for various activities: take downs, escapes, near falls, etc, etc that result in a total score for the match.
The items you are asking about are designations of how the match ended, based on the difference in the accumulation of match points between the winning wrestler and the loser. This designation indicates how many Team points are awarded to the team of the winning wrestler.
FALL (WBF): A fall is a pin and occurs when one wrestler puts the other on his back and both shoulders touch the mat at the same time. Six team points are scored toward the team total for the competitor who wins by fall. Note that six team points are also awarded for forfeit, medical forfeit or disqualification.
TECH FALL (TF): basically a mercy rule…occurs at the moment one wrestler is 15 or more match points ahead of his opponent. At that point, the match is stopped and five team points are scored toward the team total for the competitor who wins by TF.
MAJOR DECISION (MD): is awarded after a match ends if one wrestler is 8 to 14 points ahead. Four team points are scored for a MD.
DECISION: the most common match result…awarded after the match ends to the team of the wrestler who finishes one to seven match points ahead. Three team points are scored for a decision.
The winner of the dual meet is the team that has the most team points after 10 matches. There are tiebreaker criteria in place to decide which team wins if the teams have the same number of team points after 10 matches. Note that match points do not count towards team score, they simply determine how many team points are awarded from the result of a match based on the criteria above.
I’m seeing WBF as “win by forfeit” while the loser gets a “FOR” likewise I see a WBD which wasn’t used here but “win by default” which can be several things including misconduct or three warnings.
I know this doesn’t look totally authoritative, but I was curious myself and it was what I came up with in a few minutes.
https://cdn4.sportngin.com/attachments/document/0046/2242/scorer_duties_-2.pdf
I don’t know if the 3 fill-ins were the 2nd best at their weight but I hope not. BTW, most raking have us at No.8 for duals.
Yeah, I’d be a little concerned about being behind an 0-4 team. 2nd time we’ve had a 22-7 score though, that’s crazy.
We sat 3 starters at 157, 174, and 184 where GMU got their points. We almost certainly win all those matches with the regular guys in the lineup.
Yep dual very easily could be been 40+ to zip. Wish the TSL writers would add this context to the article.
And I think it would be nice to add the results of the additional matches. Exp. Bryce’s and the reasons why this matters when looking ahead to NCAAs.
Thanks guys, Kinda wondering about that but don’t know the names this year. I’ll be down in Feb to catch a dual.
OK, so no Mekhi replaced by a Fr who apparently forfeited in the match?