Courtney In Quarterfinals To Lead UVA At NCAA Championships

Courtney will be joined by Jake Keating (157), Justin McCoy (165) and Jay Aiello (197) in action on Friday. Aiello, Keating and McCoy will all be in action in the consolation bracket still in the hunt to secure a spot on the podium and a chance to lock up All-America honors.

Courtney advanced to the quarterfinals with a pair of wins over top-10 seeds. He defeated eighth-seeded RayVon Foley of Michigan State in the opening round with a 4-2 decision before rallying to take an 8-7 decision over ninth-seeded Michael Colaiocco of Penn in the second round. The Cavalier wrestler used a takedown and back points in both matches to vault himself into the lead and take the victory.

He will face top-seeded and reigning NCAA champion Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State in his quarterfinal match.

Aiello, Keating and McCoy all won their opening-round matches on Thursday. Aiello took a 5-3 decision in overtime from Arizona State’s Kordell Norfleet. McCoy took a 6-1 decision over Columbia’s Joshua Ogunsanya while Keating took a 6-2 decision over Purdue’s Kendall Coleman.

The trio all dropped matches to wrestlers seeded among the top three nationally in the second round with Aiello dropping a tight contest to the top seed from Penn State, while Keating and McCoy each fell to the third-seeded wrestler in their weight class.

Patrick McCormick (125), Dylan Cedeno (141), Michael Battista (184) and Quinn Miller (285) also competed for the Cavaliers, but had their time at the NCAA Championships end in the evening session on Thursday.

NOTES ON THE DAY
• This marks the fifth straight NCAA Championship that the Hoos have had at least one quarterfinalist.
• Brian Courtney’s upset of eight-seeded and ranked RayVon Foley of Michigan State is his second win over a top-10 opponent this season and the highest-ranked victory of his career.
• The four wrestlers advancing to the second day of competition at the NCAA Championships is the most for Virginia since the 2015 NCAA Championships when quarterfinalist George DiCamillo led four Hoos into day two in St. Louis.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
125
No. 32 seed Patrick McCormick
Pigtail: No. 33 seed Logan Ashton (Stanford) dec. McCormick, 2-0
Conso. Pigtail: No. 30 seed Jace Koelzer (N. Colorado) dec. McCormick, 1-0

133
No. 25 seed Brian Courtney
R32: Courtney dec. No. 8 seed Rayvon Foley (Michigan State), 4-2
R16: Courtney dec. No. 9 seed Michael Colaiocco (Penn), 8-7
QF: Courtney vs. No. 1 seed Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)*
*Match coming on Friday morning

141
No. 33 seed Dylan Cedeno
Pigtail: No. 32 seed Josh Mason (Bloomsburg) pinned Cedeno, 2:11
Conso. Pigtail: No. 30 seed Jacob Butler (Oklahoma) major dec. Cedeno, 9-0

157
No. 14 seed Jake Keating
R32: Keating dec. No. 19 seed Kendall Coleman (Purdue), 6-2
R16: No. 3 seed Jacori Teemer pinned Keating, 2:43
Conso. R16-2: Keating vs. *
*Match coming on Friday morning

165
No. 19 seed Justin McCoy
R32: McCoy dec. No. 14 seed Joshua Ogunsanya (Columbia), 6-1
R16: No. 3 seed Alex Marinelli (Iowa) dec. McCoy, 8-2
Conso. R16-2: McCoy vs.
*Match coming on Friday morning

184
No. 25 seed Michael Battista
R32: No. 8 seed Marcus Coleman (Iowa State) major dec. Battista, 10-2
Conso. R16-1: Caleb Hopkins (Campbell) pinned Battista, 1:43

197
No. 17 seed Jay Aiello
R32: Aiello dec. No. 16 seed Kordell Norfleet (Arizona State), 5-3 (sv-1)
R16: No. 1 seed Max Dean (Penn State) dec. Aiello, 4-2
Conso. R16-2: Aiello vs. No. 15 seed Isaac Trumble (NC State)*
*Match coming on Friday morning

285
No. 23 seed Quinn Miller
R32: No. 10 seed Nathan Traxler (Virginia Tech) dec. Miller, 6-4 (sv-1)
Conso. R16-1: No. 26 seed Ben Goldin (Penn) dec. Miller, 7-5 (sv-1)