No. 23 Wrestling Travels to Nittany Lion Open Sunday

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Several members of the Virginia wrestling team will compete Sunday at the Nittany Lion Open, hosted by Penn State at Rec Hall in State College, Pa.

The Open, which is not a team scored event, will feature hundreds of wrestlers from around the nation. Teams set to send wrestlers into action at the event include No. 5 Penn State, No. 8 Pittsburgh, No. 10 Lehigh, No. 13 Maryland, No. 14 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Rutgers, No. 19 Central Michigan, No. 20 Kent State, No. 23 Virginia and No. 25 Binghamton.

Most of Virginia’s starters will not compete this weekend while resting and preparing for final exams. Virginia will have six wrestlers compete attached at the event — Joseph Martinez (Fr., Platteville, Colo.) and Jimmy Nehls (Fr., Downers Grove, Ill.) at 133 pounds, Tanner Hirstine (R-Fr., Greenwood Village, Colo.) at 157, Luke Barney (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Vinny Waldhauser (Fr., El Dorado, Calif.) at 174 and Ryan Malo (Sr., Georgetown, Mass.) at 197.

Martinez won the 133-pound title at the Mat Town Open last week and has been strong thus far, going 12-5 during the first month of the season.

The Cavaliers are off next week as they enter the final exam period. Their final dual match before the holiday break is Dec. 18 at Drexel.