Virginia Wraps Up Regular Season with Road Duals at GMU, ODU

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia wrestling team completes regular-season competition this week with a pair of road intrastate duals. UVa travels to George Mason at 7 p.m. Thursday at the RAC Gym, then visits Old Dominion at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

Live statistics will be available at VirginiaSports.com.

Virginia (17-7) has an opportunity this weekend to tie or break the program’s single-season dual wins record. The record of 18 was set in 2008.

The Cavaliers won two of three bouts last weekend, dropping a hard-fought 19-16 decision at Maryland before returning home to blank Duke, 40-0, and rip Appalachian State, 31-8. Stephen Doty (So., St. Louis, Mo.) was named the ACC Wrestler of the Week after picking up three wins at two different weight classes.

Virginia again has four wrestlers who are ranked in the InterMat rankings – No. 4 Chris Henrich (Sr., Lansdale, Pa.) at 174 pounds, No. 20 Jon Fausey (R-Fr., Dalmatia, Pa.) at 184 and No. 17 Mike Salopek (R-So., North Huntingdon, Pa.) at 197. Henrich has won 14 straight bouts in pushing his season record to 28-1.

In addition, Matt Snyder (R-So., Lewistown, Pa.) is ranked No. 17 at 125 pounds in the latest Amateur Wrestling News rankings. Derek Valenti (Jr., Newton, N.J.), at 149 pounds, has been one of Virginia’s hottest wrestlers of late, winning eight straight matches to push his record to 20-11.

George Mason is 0-19 in duals this season. Among the team’s active wrestlers, 149-pounder Brandon Butcher leads the squad with 11 wins. The programs last met in 2009, with Virginia winning, 28-6. The all-time series is tied, 4-4.

Old Dominion (7-11-1) boasts a pair of wrestlers in the latest InterMat national rankings – No. 4 James Nicholson at 125 and No. 12 Kyle Hutter at 133. Nicholson (28-0) won CAA Wrestler of the Week honors for the fourth time this season this past week.

The teams last met at the Virginia Duals in 2010, with the Cavaliers claiming a 21-15 victory. UVa leads the all-time series with the Monarchs, 22-14.

UVa will have next week off before playing host to the 2011 ACC Wrestling Championship on March 5.