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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Redshirt junior Jay Aiello (Chantilly, Va.) picked up three wins on Sunday to advance to the semifinals at the Midlands Championships and lead a group of five wrestlers into day two of the competition on Monday (Dec. 30) at the Sears Centre Arena.

Advancing to Sunday’s rounds with Aiello are redshirt juniors Louie Hayes (Orland Park, Ill.) and Michael Murphy (Lookout Mountain, Tenn.), junior Jake Keating (Naperville, Ill.) and redshirt freshman Victor Marcelli (Massillon, Ohio). Keating is competing in an unattached capacity at the event.

Five wrestlers advanced to Sunday night’s quarterfinal rounds with Hayes, Murphy, Keating and Marcelli joining Aiello in the quarterfinals. Justin McCoy (New Paris, Pa.), Quinn Miller (Lilburn, Ga.) and Denton Spencer (Waverly, Ga.) also competed in the second session with appearances in the wrestlebacks on Sunday night.

Virginia is in 11th in the team standings after the first day of action with 38.5 total points. Iowa leads the field with 111.5 total points as a team. Wrestling will resume on Monday at 1 p.m. with the semifinals, consolation rounds and seventh place match as part of the day’s first session.

Aiello will now face second-ranked Jacob Warner of Iowa in the semifinals. Hayes will face Jack Scudlarczyk of Northern Iowa in the wrestlebacks at 133 pounds. Murphy will face Alec Hagan of Ohio, while Keating will face Izzak Olejnik of Northern Illinois and Marcelli will face Nathan Dugan of Princeton.

Aiello, who is ranked No. 16 at 197 pounds, posted a 3-0 day with a win by fall in his opening bout of the day before grinding out a pair of decisions in the second round and quarterfinals. The redshirt junior rallied in the third period in the quarterfinals, notching a takedown with eight seconds left in the match to send it to extra time. He then claimed the victory with a takedown in the first round of tiebreaks.
 
At 133 pounds, the 18th-ranked Hayes won by a decision and a fall before facing third-ranked Sebastian Rivera of Northwestern in the quarterfinals. Rivera took the major decision over Hayes to send him to the consolation rounds.

Murphy picked up three straight victories, two by decision and one by major decision, at 149 pounds before dropping his quarterfinal match to Vincent Turk of Iowa by major decision.

Keating won his first two matches at 165 pounds, including a decision over No. 11 Cael McCormick of Army, before dropping his quarterfinal match to No. 15 Zachary Hartman of Bucknell.
 
Marcelli took back-to-back decisions at 174 pounds to get his day started before dropping a low-scoring decision to fifth-ranked Bryce Steiert of Northern Iowa in his quarterfinal bout.

Junior Michael Battista (Fairfax, Va.) , redshirt sophomore Brian Courtney (Sayre, Pa.)  and redshirt freshman Patrick McCormick (Poquoson, Va.) also wrestled in the event for the Cavaliers.

125
Patrick McCormick 
R64: Antonio Lorenzo (Cal Poly) dec. McCormick, 10-6
Conso. R32-2: Giovanni Disaboto (Ohio) major dec. McCormick, 14-6

133
No. 18 Louie Hayes
R32: Hayes dec. Gavin Teasdale (Iowa), 3-1
R16: Hayes pinned Savion Haywood (Omega TC), 5:36
QF: No. 3 Sebastian Rivera (Northwestern) major dec. Hayes, 15-5
Conso. R8-2: Hayes vs. Jack Scudlarczyk (N. Iowa)
 
141
Brian Courtney 
R64: Doug Zapf (Penn) dec. Courtney, 3-2
Conso. R32 – 2: Courtney pinned Triston Lara (N. Iowa), 1:30
Conso. R16-1: Justin Benjamin (Northwestern) dec. Courtney, 7-2

149
Michael Murphy
R64: Murphy dec. Danny Fongara (NYCRTC), 7-4
R32: Murphy major dec. McCoy Kent (N. Illinois), 10-2
R16: Murphy dec. Graham Rooks (Indiana), 4-3
QF: Vincent Turk (Iowa) major dec. Murphy, 11-1
Conso. R8-2: Murphy vs. Alec Hagan (Ohio)

No. 19 Denton Spencer 
R64: Jake Bergeland (Minnesota) major dec. Spencer, 9-0
Conso. R32-2: Spencer pinned Max Kristoff (SIU-E), 0:58
Conso. R16-1: Spencer pinned Gabe Miller (Penn), 0:33
Conso. R16-2: Spencer dec. Brett Kaliner (Stevens Institute), 5-2
Conso. R8-1: Alec Hagan (Ohio) dec. Denton Spencer, 1-0
 
157
Justin McCoy 

R32: McCoy tech fall Kasper McIntosh (Minnesota), 18-2 (6:32)
R16: Logan Parks (Central Michigan) dec. McCoy, 7-2
Conso. R16-2: McCoy dec. Kyle Mosher (Columbia), 3-2
Conso. R8-1: No. 5 Quincy Monday (Princeton) dec. McCoy, 8-3

165
Jake Keating (Competing Unattached)
R32: Keating dec. Nick South (Indiana), 6-4
R16: Keating dec. No. 11 Cael McCormick (Army), 8-6
QF: No. 15 Zachary Hartman (Bucknell) major dec. Keating, 13-0
Conso. R8-2: Keating vs. Izzak Olejnik (N. Illinois)

174
Victor Marcelli

R32: Marcelli dec. DJ Shannon (Illinois), 5-1 (TB-1)
R16: Marcelli dec. Kevin Parker (Princeton), 4-0
QF: No. 5 Bryce Steiert (N. Iowa) dec. Marcelli, 4-0
Conso. R8-2: Marcelli vs. Nathan Dugan (Princeton)
 
184
Michael Battista 

R32: No. 12 Noah Stewart (Army) dec. Battista, 4-2 (sv-1)
Conso. R32-2: Joseph Franzese (Columbia) dec. Battista, 14-11

197
No. 16 Jay Aiello
R32: Aiello pinned Danny Balderas (Omega TC), 4:43
R16: Aiello dec. JT Brown (Army), 5-3
QF: Aiello dec. Alexander Hopkins (Army), 6-5 (TB-1)
SF: Aiello vs. No. 2 Jacob Warner (Iowa)

HWT 
Quinn Miller 
R32: Miller pinned Joshua Eckman (Omega TC), 0:31
R16: Zach Elam (Missouri) dec. Miller, 4-3
Conso. R16-2: Miller pinned David Eli (Purdue), 6:58
Conso. R8-1: Thomas Penola (Purdue) pinned Miller, 5:29

*Monday’s upcoming matches listed in italics