Virginia Uses Bonus Points To Race Past Gardner-Webb
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia wrestling team (1-0) turned in a strong performance in the home opener on Saturday (Jan. 9), posting seven bonus-point victories on the way to a 44 to -1 victory over Gardner-Webb (0-2) in dual competition at Memorial Gym.
A penalty point resulting in a deduction from the overall team score during the 174-pound matchup resulted in the final score on the afternoon. With the win, Virginia is now 9-0 all-time against Gardner-Webb.
The Cavaliers raced out of the gates with bonus-point victories in the first three weight classes to take the 15-0 lead on the Bulldogs. In all Virginia got a pair of pins, three technical falls and a pair of major decisions on the afternoon.
Following the dual action, the Cavaliers and Bulldogs wrestled 10 additional individual matches per new allowances due to COVID and condensed schedules this season.
MATCH NOTES
• Louie Hayes (Orland Park, Ill.) improved to 5-0 on the season as he recorded his third pin of the year.
• Jake Keating (Naperville, Ill.) also improved to 5-0 on the season with a tech fall in his match. Keating now has two technical falls and three bonus-point wins this season.
• Jay Aiello (Chantilly, Va.) picked up his third pin of the season as he improved to 4-0 on the year.
• Brian Courtney (Athens, Pa.) won by technical fall, improving to 4-0 on the year with a pair of pins and two tech falls in his four victories this season.
• Michael Battista (Ashburn, Va.) and Quinn Miller (Lilburn, Ga.) also remained undefeated on the year as they both improved to 4-0 on the season.
• Freshman Dylan Cedeno (Fair Lawn, N.J.) remained undefeated and improved to 4-0, picking up his second pin of the season in the additional matches following the dual with the Bulldogs.
• After today’s action, the Cavaliers have 10 wrestlers who have seen time and remain undefeated on the year.
FROM COACH GARLAND:
“It was a really good day and another good weekend for us. I think we only lost one match today between the dual and the extra matches after the fact. One of the huge positives was bonus points. At the end we had to gut some out and that was a positive, too. That was good to see; biting down when the other guy is fighting like crazy too.”
“Our first two big leaders are Louie Hayes and Jay Aiello. We look to them to really ignite our team and that’s what they did again today. Louie came out and hit everything but the kitchen sink. Brian Courtney is one of our captains and he just scored points. Denton Spencer is another captain and that was his first match of the season, but he’s going to build off that and did some good things. Jay just kept his composure and was building points until he was able to flurry into a fall. Our leaders are everything to us. We got good leadership from Jack Mueller last year and we knew that baton was going to get passed to those guys and they’ve done a great job.”
VIRGINIA 44, GARDNER-WEBB -1
125: Patrick McCormick major dec. Austin Wadlow (GWU), 10-0; UVA 4, GWU 0
133: No. 12 Louie Hayes pinned Todd Carter (GWU), 3:09; UVA 10, GWU 0
141: Brian Courtney tech fall Conrad Schiess (GWU), 23-5 (6:45); UVA 15, GWU 0
149: Denton Spencer dec. Jacson Muldrew (GWU), 9-4; UVA 18, GWU 0
157: No. 16 Justin McCoy tech fall Chase McKinney (GWU), 17-2 (6:35); UVA 23, GWU 0
165: Jake Keating tech fall Austin Reames (GWU), 21-6 (3:47); UVA 28, GWU 0
174: Vic Marcelli major dec. Sam Mora (GWU), 10-1; UVA 32, GWU -1
184: Michael Battista dec. Evan Schenk (GWU), 7-4; UVA 35, GWU -1
197: No. 3 Jay Aiello pinned Jack Trautman (GWU), 4:07; UVA 41, GWU -1
HWT: No 19 Quinn Miller dec. Anthony Perrine (GWU), 3-2 (TB-1); UVA 44, GWU -1
*A team point was deducted from GWU during the 174 weight class for bench conduct
ADDITIONAL MATCHES
125: Sam Book tech fall Aedyn Concepcion (GWU), 18-0
125: Sam Book dec. Austin Wadlow (GWU), 8-4
125: Patrick McCormick major dec. Aedyn Concepcion (GWU), 12-0
133: Evan Buchanan dec. Todd Carter (GWU), 4-2
141: Dylan Cedeno pinned Corbin Dion (GWU), 1:55
141: Scott Kiyono tech fall Corbin Dion, 23-8 (7:00)
157: Nic Sansone major dec. Christian Trimble, 10-1
157: Chase McKinney dec. Justin Phillips, 8-5
174: Robby Patrick pinned Sam Mora, 0:48
HWT: Jessie Knight pinned Gabriel Pickett, 1:32