Virginia Travels to North Carolina Friday

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia wrestling team continues its ACC schedule Friday with a 7 p.m. dual match at North Carolina at Carmichael Auditorium. Live results and video will be available at VirginiaSports.com.

Virginia (13-5, 1-0 ACC) won two of its three home duals last weekend. The Cavaliers defeated NC State, 26-12, in their ACC opener Saturday. UVa dropped a tough 18-15 decision to then-No. 21 Penn Sunday before rebounding to rout VMI, 41-3.

Chris Henrich (Sr., Lansdale, Pa.) won all three of his bouts last weekend to push his record to 22-1 this season. The UVa career wins leader, Henrich now owns a 123-17 record at Virginia.

Four Cavaliers are ranked nationally this week. Henrich is ranked No. 4 nationally at 174, while Mike Salopek (R-So., North Huntingdon, Pa.) stands No. 20 in InterMat’s 197 rankings. At 184 pounds Jon Fausey (R-Fr., Dalmatia, Pa.) is ranked No. 15 by Amateur Wrestling News and No. 20 by WIN Magazine, while Matt Snyder (R-So., Lewistown, Pa.) stands 18th at 125 according to AWN.

The NCAA released its first of three coaches’ panel rankings for the 2010-11 season on Thursday. The final rankings will be one of the tools used as part of the selection process to determine the qualifiers for the 2011 NCAA Championships. UVa had five wrestlers in the rankings – Snyder (23rd at 125), Henrich (fourth at 174), Fausey (18th at 184), Salopek (22nd at 197) and Jack Danilkowicz (R-Sr., Green Oaks, Ill.) (29th at heavyweight).

North Carolina (6-5, 1-1) picked up a 33-9 ACC win over Duke on Tuesday evening. Corey Mock, at 157 pounds, is the reigning ACC Wrestler of the Week after earning a pair of wins last weekend, including an upset of No. 5 Jesse Dong of Virginia Tech. Thomas Scotton is ranked 15th this week at 165 pounds by AWN. The Tar Heels own a 42-27 edge in the all-time series with UVa. The Cavaliers notched a 23-12 victory last season in Charlottesville.

Virginia returns home to Memorial Gymnasium next weekend for a pair of non-conference duals. UVa will face No. 8 Rutgers at 6 p.m. Friday (Jan. 28), and the Cavaliers come back at 1 p.m. Saturday to take on Princeton.

Virginia Probable Lineup (rankings in parentheses)
125: Matt Snyder (18 AWN)
133: Joe Spisak
141: Gus Sako
149: Derek Valenti
157: Shawn Harris or Nicky Gordon
165: Jedd Moore or Conner Miller
174: Chris Henrich (4 InterMat, AWN, WIN)
184: Jon Fausey (15 AWN, 20 WIN)
197: Mike Salopek (20 InterMat, 18 WIN) or Stephen Doty
HWT: Jack Danilkowicz