Virginia Wrestling Announces 10 Newcomers For 2020-21
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia head coach Steve Garland announced a group of 10 wrestlers who will join the Virginia wrestling program for the 2020-21 academic year with the release of the latest incoming class on Friday (May 22).
The class includes four state champions, seven All-Americans and two national champions and seven state place-winners among its 10 members. The class also features three wrestlers ranked in the top 20 nationally in their weight classes and two ranked among the top 100 seniors regardless of weight class.
“Our staff is really happy with this group coming in,” said Virginia head coach Steve Garland. “This is an underrated group in our opinion. We have guys coming in this class that have won at the highest levels and we feel like most people have overlooked them. We trust they see that and we hope it motivates them. We have guys coming in from all over and we are excited to bring a diverse group of student-athletes to Grounds this fall.”
The class includes wrestlers from five states, including four from Virginia (Evan Buchanan, Loudon Hurt, Jessie Knight and Hudson Stewart), three from New York (Joe Contrastano, Josiah Encarnacion and Luca Errico), and one each from Illinois (Noah Villareal), New Jersey (Dylan Cedeno) and Pennsylvania (Patrick Noonan).
This past season, the Cavaliers had six wrestlers qualify for the NCAA Championships with two wrestlers selected as first-team All-America honorees in Jay Aiello and Jack Mueller. The squad had a pair of place-winners at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, including 125-pound champion Mueller, and a trio of place-winners at the Midlands Championship that included 197-pound runner-up Aiello. Virginia also had four wrestlers named to the ACC Wrestling All-Academic Team and three wrestlers named NWCA Scholar All-Americans.
2020-21 VIRGINIA WRESTLING NEWCOMERS
Evan Buchanan – Mechanicsville, Va. (Atlee)
• Three-time Virginia state champion
• Four-time Virginia state finalist
• FloNationals All-America
• NHSCA Freshman All-America
Dylan Cedeno – Fair Lawn, N.J. (Bergen Catholic)
• Runner-up New Jersey State Championships
• Ranked No. 16 at 132 pounds by FloWrestling
• Ranked No. 18 at 132 pounds by InterMat
• Ranked No. 87 in the Top 100 Seniors by FloWrestling
• NHSCA National Champion
• Super 32 All-America
• Two-time NHSCA All-America
Joe Contrastano – East Williston, N.Y. (Wheatley HS)
• NHSCA All-America
• New York All-State honoree
• Three-time New York state place-winner
Josiah Encarnacion – Wantagh, N.Y. (Wantagh)
• Three time place-winner at New York State Championships
• 2019 New York state finalist
• NHSCA All-America
Luca Errico – Armonk, N.Y. (Brunswick School)
• National Prep All-America
• Fifth at 2019 Prep Nationals
Loudon Hurt – Midlothian, Va. (St. Christopher’s School)
• Ranked No. 6 at 170 pounds by National Prep
• 2019 Prep League Champion
Jessie Knight – Bridgewater, Va. (Turner Ashby)
• Two-time Virginia State Champion
• Ranked No. 16 at 285 by InterMat
• Ranked No. 19 at 285 by FloWrestling
• NHSCA All-America
• NHSCA National Champion
• Two-time Disney All-America
Patrick Noonan – Stroudsburg, Pa. (Stroudsburg)
• Runner-up Pennsylvania State Championships
• Ranked No. 10 at 132 pounds by InterMat
• Ranked No. 15 at 132 pounds by FloWrestling
• Ranked No. 91 in the Top 100 Seniors by FloWrestling
• Three-time NHSCA All-America
• Three-time Journeymen Classic Champion
Hudson Stewart – Goode, Va. (Brookville)
• Two-time Virginia State Champion
• Three-time Virginia State place-winner
Noah Villarreal – Plano, Ill. (Aurora Christian)
• Three-time Illinois State Champion