I’ll answer the easiest question which is your last one. The other good wrestlers either wait for their time like Hughes or they transfer to a team they can wrestle for.

The tougher question is deciding who goes. Unless a shirt is available the best wrestler goes regardless. The gray area is when a guy has a shirt available. Rather than answering the question outright I will give examples.

David McFaddens true freshman year at 165. He was the clear best wrestler and we had a really good team to make a push at getting a trophy which we did and him getting an AA contributed to that.

McFadden’s redshirt year he was coming off injury and even though he wrestled he wasn’t 100% and David Bergida was doing a fine job. Even though McFadden was better even at less than 100% he might not have gotten an AA that year and he’s on pace to be the first 4x AA for the Hokies.

Hunter Bolen’s freshman year he barely beat Hughes and was pretty raw, but I think he was clearly the better guy. What made the decision to go with him was I think the staff already decided he would shirt the next year and bump McFadden and have Mekhi at 165. We had ZZ as a senior at 184 so shirting Bolen in his sophomore year was the best decision.