Virginia Falls 26-10 At No. 16 North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A group of tight matches down the stretch went the way of the home team on Friday night (Feb. 14) as Virginia (5-5, 1-4 ACC) fell in dual action at No. 16 North Carolina (8-5, 4-1 ACC) by a score of 26-10.

HOW IT HAPPENED
North Carolina took the opening bout at 149 pounds with Virginia’s Erik Roggie battling but dropping a tight 5-3 decision to fifth-ranked Lachlan McNeil. The Cavaliers then took a blow with an injury forcing Nick Sanko to default from his match at 157 pounds to give the Tar Heels six points in the team score.

Virginia won back-to-back bouts at 165 and 174 to cut into the lead. Nick Hamilton got a takedown in overtime to post a 4-1 sudden-victory decision over Charlie Darracott before Rocco Contino powered his way to a 19-9 major decision over Nicholas Fea. The win by Contino cut the lead to 9-7 in favor of the Tar Heels.

North Carolina pulled away, however, getting a tech fall at 184 pounds before winning the next four weight classes by decision to lock up the dual.

Dylan Cedeno closed the night for the Hoos, taking his bout at 141 pounds with a 5-3 decision over No. 22 Jayden Scott with a solid performance that included a pair of escapes and a takedown in another stingy battle with the Tar Heel.

NOTING THE HOOS
• Rocco Contino wrestled his first match since the Southern Scuffle the first week of January.
• Nick Hamilton improved to 7-2 in dual action and 3-1 in ACC competition with his win at 165 pounds.
• Cedeno’s matchup with Scott was a rematch of the Southern Scuffle final, a match that Cedeno took 2-0 back in January in his first competition of the season.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE GARLAND
“First and foremost, my heart goes out to Nick Sanko. He was an absolute warrior, wrestling great and has a serious knee injury occur so he couldn’t finish the match. That was a big blow to everybody. I thought we had a lot of really good, hard-fought matches tonight. Rocco Contino, Nick Hamilton and Dylan Cedeno all won gritty. But, we let some other matches get away. We had a chance to win three other bouts which would have given us a chance to win the and we didn’t slam the door shut. We have to win those close ones.”

UP NEXT FOR VIRGINIA
Virginia returns to action at home on Sunday (Feb. 16) when the Hoos step out of conference action to host American (8-8). The dual is set to begin at 1 p.m. and will be wrestled at the North Grounds Rec Center on Grounds. Admission is free.

No. 16 NORTH CAROLINA 26, VIRGINIA 10
149: No. 5 Lachlan McNeil dec. Erik Roggie, 5-3 – UNC 3, UVA 0
157: No. 23 Sonny Santiago over Nick Sanko by injury default – UNC 9, UVA 0
165: No. 21 Nick Hamilton dec. Charlie Darracott, 4-1 (sv-1) – UNC 9, UVA 3
174: Rocco Contino major dec. Nicholas Fea, 19-9 – UNC 9, UVA 7
184: No. 21 Gavin Kane tech fall Griffin Gammell, 22-5 () – UNC 14, UVA 7
197: Cade Lautt dec. Steven Burrell Jr., 10-7 – UNC 17, UVA 7
HWT: Nolan Neves dec. Gabe Christenson, 4-1 – UNC 20, UVA 7
125: No. 11 Spencer Moore dec. No. 31 Keyveon Roller, 5-0 – UNC 23, UVA 7
133: No. 12 Ethan Oakley dec. No. 32 Gable Porter, 4-2 – UNC 26, UVA 7
141: No. 19 Dylan Cedeno dec. No. 22 Jayden Scott, 5-3 – UNC 26, UVA 10