Caleb Henson won Virginia Tech wrestling’s second individual national championship on Saturday night, defeating Michigan’s No. 6 seed Austin Gomez 15-7 in the 149-pound title match. The win comes five years to the day after Mekhi Lewis won the program’s first national title at 165 pounds.
After an initial takedown from Gomez, Henson countered with two takedowns and six back points to lead 13-4 at the end of the first period. He staved off the former All-American over the final two periods, only allowing one takedown in the last four minutes to seal the title to the tune of Enter Sandman.
Entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed at 149, Henson plowed through the first three rounds, winning by at least five points in every bout.
He took down South Dakota State’s No. 29 seed Alek Martin by technical fall in the first round, 18-3, before beating Oklahoma State’s No. 20 seed Jordan Williams, 7-2, in the second.
An 8-3 win over West Virginia’s No. 7 seed Ty Watters in the quarterfinals set up a date with No. 1 seed Ridge Lovett in the semis, who Henson suffered his only regular season loss to at the Cliff Keen Invitational in December, 4-3.
Despite the score being tied at zero through the first two periods in the semifinal bout, Lovett chose to start the third on top. Henson battled to his feet after 44 seconds and fended off attacks for the final 1:16 of the match to secure his spot in the finals.
The Cartersville, Ga., native finished the season with a 30-2 record en route to his first national title. He notched 15 bonus-point wins, including his major decision against Gomez in the national championship. Nine of the bonus-point victories were technical falls, and he also had a pair of pins.
His two losses came against Lovett and NC State’s No. 3 seed Jackson Arrington (4-1) at the ACC Tournament two weeks prior.
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Great job and great match, proud we have another national champ. Congrats Caleb!!!!
Great article but could use a link to the video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MsbU4IxwU
What an accomplishment!!! Congratulations Caleb!!! Glory to God!!!Thankful you’re a Hokie!!! Best Wishes and prayers for you’re future.
Amazing accomplishment!! Congrats to Caleb!!
That was great to watch! Loved seeing his family and the Hokie team celebrating with him. They even played Enter Sandman.
Great win by Caleb, topping off an excellent showing by our Hokie wrestlers! Good job by Coach Robie, his staff, and the squad!
Outstanding! Congratulations Caleb!!
Way to go Caleb! VT Wrestling on the up and up!
How did the rest of the team do?
Looks like team is going to finish #7. Easily outpacing NC State for tops of ACC teams.
Wrestling’s strange like that. Weren’t they predicted to be #2? crashed and burned against OOC then slowly got things back together again through ACC play and a decent finish.
Yes but DJ Burns won the heavyweight title
Very cool. Was kind of thinking about VT’s rep when Lewis leaves, I guess he has now technically left as a wrestler so still having another natty champion as a flag bearer is a good thing.
Saw Henson wrestle last year against Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis four time NCAA winner at that weight class at the Moss center and he only lost like 6-3 basically three takedowns but Henson got his three (or was it two?) escapes. Not bad for a freshman. Congrats.
6-2
Watched the match. Caleb was awesome. We did better than NC State even though they won the ACC title.
Congrats!! Any video of his championship match?
Awesome!! Congrats to Caleb Henson!!
1 – 0 . Nebraska
So, for those of us who don’t follow closely, what was the score of the match against Lovett, and for whom does Lovett wrestle?
Lovett wrestles for Nebraska and was #1 ranked all season.
Henson beat him 1-0.
Thanks. Congrats to Caleb!