No. 20 Virginia Wrestling Rings in New Year at Southern Scuffle

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Dec. 31, 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The 20th-ranked Virginia wrestling team starts the 2013 portion of its schedule Tuesday and Wednesday when it competes in the Southern Scuffle, hosted at McKenzie Arena by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Seven top-25 teams, including five amongst the top 10, will grapple in the tournament.

Live Coverage
Live video streaming will be available both days and can be accessed through VirginiaSports.com (subscription required). Four mats will be featured throughout the tournament.

Live scoring of each match, along with constantly updated brackets, will be available through TrackWrestling. A link to live scoring will be located on VirginiaSports.com.

Southern Scuffle Schedule
Tuesday (Jan. 1)
10 a.m. – Pigtails & 32-man Championship
1 p.m. – Pigtails & 1st Round Consolations
3:30 p.m. – Round of 16
5 p.m. – 2nd Round Consolations
6:30 p.m. – Championship Quarterfinals & 3rd Round Consolations

Wednesday (Jan. 2)
9 a.m. – 4th Round Consolation
11 a.m. – Semifinals & Consolation Quarterfinals
1 p.m. – Consolation Semifinals
6 p.m. – Finals & Medal Matches

Southern Scuffle Field
The 2013 field is one of the best in the Scuffle’s history, including seven top-25 squads in the 23-team tournament: No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 6 Missouri, No. 8 Cornell, No. 11 Virginia Tech and No. 20 Virginia.

Other teams competing include Air Force, American, Appalachian State, Arizona State, Army, Campbell, Cleveland State, Duke, Navy, NC State, North Carolina, Northern Colorado, Ohio, South Dakota State, The Citadel and UTC.

There are seven NCAA champions, 10 NCAA finalists and 24 All-Americans, including UVa’s Derek Valenti (R-Sr., Newton, N.J.), scheduled to wrestle in the Scuffle. Over 300 wrestlers are slated to compete in the tournament.

Probable Virginia Lineup (2012-13 Record; Hometown)
125: No. 8 Matt Snyder (4-2; R-Sr., Lewistown, Pa.),
Nick Herrmann (7-2; Fr., Amarillo, Texas)
133: No. 16 George DiCamillo (15-3; Fr., Highland Heights, Ohio)
141: Joe Spisak (10-2; R-So., Boiling Springs, Pa.),
Matt Nelson (0-0; R-So., Pittsburgh, Pa.),
Jimmy Nehls (5-2; R-Fr., Downers Grove, Ill.)
149: No. 18 Derek Valenti (8-3; R-Sr., Newton, N.J.)
157: No. 14 Jedd Moore (16-4; R-Sr., Mount Vernon, Ohio),
Blaise Butler (12-2; R-Fr., Belvidere, Ill.)
165: No. 7 Nick Sulzer (9-3; R-So., Cleveland, Ohio)
174: No. 16 Jon Fausey (14-2; R-Jr., Dalmatia, Pa.)
184: Stephen Doty (4-4; R-Jr., St. Louis, Mo.),
Zach Nye (3-3; R-Fr., Enola, Pa.)
197: Mike Salopek (9-1; R-Sr., North Huntingdon, Pa.)
285: Patrick Gillen (2-1; R-Fr., Shelton, Conn.)

Competing Unattached:
133: Joseph Martinez (16-10; So., Platteville, Colo.), Zach Watson (10-3; Fr., Chattanooga, Tenn.)
149: Gus Sako (21-3; Jr., Cleveland, Ohio)
174: James Suvak (7-6; Fr., Parma Heights, Ohio)
**rankings according to InterMat

Pre-Seeds Announced
The pre-seeds for the Southern Scuffle were unveiled Sunday, with Cavalier wrestlers earning 10 seeds:

125: No. 3 Matt Snyder
133: No. 4 George DiCamillo, No. 10 Joseph Martinez (unattached)
141: No. 10 Joe Spisak
149: No. 5 Derek Valenti, No. 9 Gus Sako (unattached)
157: No. 2 Jedd Moore
165: No. 4 Nick Sulzer
174: No. 9 Jon Fausey
197: No. 7 Mike Salopek

Noting the Cavaliers
• Virginia is 6-2 in dual competition this year; this is Virginia’s final non-dual team event of the regular season.
• Spisak (141), Fausey (174) and Salopek (197) all won individual championships at the Cleveland State Open on Dec. 15; Moore nabbed third place at 157; he won seven matches and avenged his only loss in the wrestlebacks.
• At Cleveland State Spisak earned his first wins since moving up a weight class in November.
• Moore is having an outstanding start to his season; of his four losses, three have come to wrestlers currently ranked in the top 10.
• A 2012 NCAA qualifier, Nelson will compete for the first time this season after undergoing offseason surgery.
• Gus Sako will wrestle unattached in the tournament; he has placed in all four of the open tournaments in which he has competed, including a first-place finish at the East Stroudsburg Open.

Last Year at the Scuffle: UVa Nabs Sixth Place
Virginia took sixth place at the Southern Scuffle in 2012, highlighted by a third-place finish from Nick Nelson at 141 pounds.

Snyder and Sulzer took fifth place at 125 and 165 pounds, respectively, while Gus Sako (Cleveland, Ohio) and Moore nabbed seventh at 149 and 157 pounds, respectively. Martinez finished eighth at 133.

UVa’s best finish at the Scuffle was fifth in 2009.

Last Time Out: Virginia Takes Seventh at Las Vegas Invitational
Virginia will be competing as a team for the first time since Dec. 1 when the Cavaliers finished seventh at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Moore upset then-No. 6 James Green of Nebraska en route to a runner-up finish at 157 pounds.

Sulzer was third at 165 and DiCamillo was fifth at 133. UVa had wrestlers at just eight of the weight classes because of late scratches by Snyder (125) and Spisak (141).

Next Up
Virginia returns to dual competition Jan. 11 and 12 when it heads to the Virginia Duals at the Hampton Coliseum.