No. 12 Virginia Tech cruised past No. 26 Appalachian State in a 28-10 victory on Friday night in Blacksburg to pick up its fourth dual win of the season before ACC play begins.
“I was real pleased with the way we wrestled tonight and the effort and emotion that our guys had,” Virginia Tech head coach Tony Robie said after the match. “It was good to be back in Cassell and wrestling in front of our fans. Our fans bring the energy and it’s a big deal.”
Tech (3-4) took seven of the 10 matches against the Mountaineers (2-2), including five bonus-point victories.
Scoring early and often was a recurring theme for the Hokies throughout the dual. No. 26 Andy Smith (197) put up the biggest offensive showing in his 18-3 major decision win over App State’s Carson Floyd.
After scoring only four points in the first two periods, he exploded for 14 points in the third period for the bonus-point win, just falling short of a tech fall.
“I think a lot of my success comes from [having] a good gas tank and I’m able just to wear on people a lot,” Smith said. “After hand fighting for five minutes, I just kind of felt that kid breaking. He was coming out of his stance and I just felt like my shots were opening up and once I got [one], I knew I was gonna get three or four more at least.”
The Hokies averaged 10.8 points in their wins against the Mountaineers, which included No. 2 Caleb Henson’s (149) 12 points prior to pinning App State’s No. 27 Cody Bond at the end of the first period to cap off the dual. The win was his 20th of the season and his 13th bonus-point victory of the year.
“We’re just trying to be as offensive as we can, going out there [and] scoring as much as we can,” Smith said. “We don’t want to be the guys that are backing up, winning by one point. We want to be aggressive, taking shots, taking chances [and] having wrestling that’s fun to watch, too.”
Redshirt freshman TJ Stewart (184) was aggressive off the first whistle, snagging two takedowns in the initial 32 seconds of the bout against App State’s Tomas Booker. He stonewalled Booker for the duration of the clash to pick the 7-3 decision in his Cassell Coliseum debut.
“It was fun,” Stewart said. “I was super excited, really nervous at the same time, but you can just feel the crowd just feeding into your matches and [it] pushed me through to the end of the match. It was a blessing in disguise, so I’m grateful for it, to be able to go out there and compete.”
Stewart is the third different dual starter for Tech this season at 184, joining Dakota Howard and Sam Fisher. While the permanent starting spot appears to still be up for grabs, the trio is focused on helping each other.
“It’s a battle, we push each other every day” Stewart said of the group at 184. “But at the same time, we’re also pretty good friends and close. … We all want what’s best for each other, we all want what’s best for Virginia Tech wrestling.
“[We’re doing] whatever we can to help the team progress and help the team get us to the next step and get us closer to not only winning ACC’s, but also be one of the better team’s at the NCAA Tournament, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Tech had big offensive performances from No. 18 Tom Crook (141), No. 20 Hunter Catka (285) and No. 2 Mekhi Lewis (174) as well.
Crook began the match with a pair of takedowns in the first period before adding two more in the final four minutes to seal the 14-4 major decision victory over App State’s Riley Edwards and put the dual on ice for VT.
Both Catka and Lewis nabbed late takedowns to push their wins to majors and add points to Tech’s team score.
Catka led 6-2 at the end of the second period and added a takedown, escape and the riding time point in the third period to lock up the 11-2 major over App State’s Jacob Sartorio and move to 9-5 on the year. Lewis forced a major of his own against App State’s Luke Uliano with a takedown in the final 30 seconds of the bout en route to a 10-2 win.
Reigning ACC Wrestler of the Week No. 8 Cooper Flynn earned a decision win on Friday night to continue his impressive season. He opened up the bout at 125 with a takedown to lead 3-1 at the end of the first period, but had to defend App State’s Chad Bellis tough for the remainder of the match to take the 4-2 victory.
App State picked up wins at 133, 157 and 165 pounds, respectively — all spots where VT had reserves wrestling.
The win over the Mountaineers snapped a two-dual losing streak for the Hokies, who have a two-week break before their next outing against No. 27 North Carolina on Jan. 26 in Blacksburg to open ACC play.
“Continued improvement in every area,” said Robie on what he wants to see from his team over the break. “We’ve got 14 days before we go again, so I think this kind of bye week, if that’s what you want to call it, comes at a good time for our guys to get healthy in some places and get some rest.
“We’ve had a long stretch here of travel and wrestling some really good teams. Just [good] to kind of take a little bit of an emotional break. Just looking for our guys to continue to improve and wrestle with the same kind of energy and emotion that we wrestled with tonight.”
125: No. 8 Cooper Flynn (VT) dec. Chad Bellis (APP), 4-2
133: No. 24 Ethan Oakley (APP) dec. Logan Frazier (VT), 8-2
141: No. 18 Tom Crook (VT) maj dec. Riley Edwards (APP), 14-4
149: No. 2 Caleb Henson (VT) win by fall No. 27 Cody Bond (APP), 2:59
157: No. 23 Tommy Askey (APP) maj dec. Clayton Ulrey (VT), 10-2
165: No. 32 Will Miller (APP) dec. Ty Finn (VT), 5-2
174: No. 2 Mekhi Lewis (VT) maj dec. Luke Uliano (APP), 10-2
184: TJ Stewart (VT) dec. Tomas Booker (APP), 7-3
197: No. 26 Andy Smith (VT) maj dec. Carson Floyd (APP), 18-3
285: No. 20 Hunter Catka (VT) maj dec. Jacob Sartorio (APP), 11-2
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There’s a typo in the story – the next dual is January 26th, not February 26th.
Great to see TJ out there scrapping and enjoying the moment. Let’s go StewCrew!