Hoos Put on Show for Special Guests at UVA

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For University of Virginia wrestlers, any opportunity to compete at John Paul Jones Arena is special, and they were pumped as Friday night approached. If they needed more fuel, though, it came from the UVA teams that won ACC titles in 2010 and 2015.

The current Cavaliers met and heard from members of those championship teams Thursday and drew inspiration from the stories shared.

“We were grateful to have them in our room,” UVA graduate student Dylan Cedeno said. “It was awesome meeting them, catching up with them and having them in our presence.”

Heavyweight Gabe Christenson echoed his teammate’s comments. “Getting to hear stories about how they overcame adversity and they beat guys they weren’t supposed to beat and they did things they weren’t supposed to do was something that I think we all took to heart,” said Christenson, a fifth-year senior.

The ACC championship in 2010 was the program’s first in 33 years. Standouts on that team included Chris Henrich and Mike Salopek, both of whom returned to Grounds for this alumni weekend. Leaders of the 2015 team included Nick Sulzer and George DiCamillo, who were at JPJ too.

In front of a festive crowd that included their illustrious predecessors, the Wahoos dominated Duke, 39-0, in an ACC dual meet Friday night. The dual started with junior Keyveon Roller’s technical fall at 125 pounds. It ended with Christenson’s first-period pin at heavyweight.

“I love Gabe to death,” Roller said. “Just seeing that just made the dual 10 times better.”

Christenson said: “I’m really proud of all of our guys, because they went out and competed hard.”

This is Steve Garland’s 19^th season as head coach at his alma mater, and he’s guiding the Hoos through a grueling ACC schedule. Five ACC teams are ranked nationally, led by NC State, and Virginia was 0-3 in the league heading into Friday night.

“So this was big just get our confidence going, get our chests up and puffing out,” said Cedeno, who won by major decision at 141 pounds. “I think it’ll help us for this final push, because it’s only going to get harder.”

After Nick Sanko won by major decision at 157 pounds to stretch UVA’s lead to 20-0, videos commemorating the accomplishments of the 2010 and 2015 teams played on Hoo Vision, and members of those squads were introduced to the crowd.

“Being able to put on a show in front of them was nothing short of a blessing,” Christenson said.

The Cavaliers (5-4 overall, 1-3 ACC) recorded six bonus-point wins against the Blue Devils (4-13, 0-5). Roller, who improved to 11-4, set an example his teammates followed.

“When he wrestles like that, everybody feeds off him,” Garland said. “It’s huge. He’s the spark plug.”

Memorial Gymnasium, which is undergoing renovations, is where the Hoos usually wrestle in Charlottesville. Over the years, though, Virginia has hosted several duals at JPJ, and Garland’s wrestlers love competing in that atmosphere.

“We just wanted to embrace it and then use that as energy and fuel to kind of come out here and put on a show,” Cedeno said, “and I think our guys did that. Obviously great exclamation point by Gabe getting that pin and up and down the lineup we were looking to score.”

UVA wrestled Virginia Tech at JPJ last season, and Roller was not in the lineup for that dual. “I’ve been waiting for this ever since I saw it last year,” he said Friday night.

Christenson missed most of the past two seasons with injuries, and this was his JPJ debut too.

“Glory to God that I came back and was able to do this,” Christenson said. “You stand on on the side and you’re like, ‘Man, I wish that was me,’ and then you get the opportunity. And so it’s nothing short of a blessing to go out and take it.”

Against Duke’s Tyler O’Boyle, Christenson delighted the home fans with a move that produced the dual’s only pin.

“That throw was unbelievable,” Garland said. “I haven’t seen anything like that in a long time. It was almost like he levitated. It looked like a Matrix move.”

The Hoos have three duals remaining in the regular season. They wrestle at North Carolina next Friday night and then host American on Feb. 16 (at North Grounds Recreation Center) and Pitt on Feb. 21 (at the Aquatic and Fitness Center).

UNC and Pitt are nationally ranked and will present more challenges for Virginia than Duke did. Still, the Cavaliers said, their win Friday night gives them a needed boost for the home stretch.

“It definitely builds confidence,” Roller said. “We took a couple of hard losses, so I think this gets us back on track.”

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