Northern Neck Times

Hoos Down Ohio And Navy To Open Virginia Duals

The Virginia wrestling team (5-1) picked up a pair of wins on Friday (Jan. 13) as the Cavaliers defeated Ohio (2-3) and Navy (0-3) to open up two days of competition in the Virginia Duals at the Hampton Coliseum.

The Cavaliers defeated the Bobcats by a score of 23-10 to start the day before downing Navy by a score of 29-9.

HOW IT HAPPENEDVirginia’s day started with the dual against Ohio with the Bobcats claiming the opening bout before Virginia would rattle of three straight wins to take the lead for good in the dual. Garrett Grice’s bonus-point victory at 133 pounds started the run that was capped by Michael Gioffre’s upset of No. 31 Alec Hagan at 149 pounds.

The teams traded scores in the next three weight classes with Nick Hamilton’s win over No. 32 Jordan Slivka at 165 pounds providing the other upset of the dual. Virginia would then claim the final three weight classes to lock up the victory.

The second dual of the day came against the Midshipmen of Navy with Virginia the first six weight classes on the way to build an insurmountable lead. Brian Courtney provided one of the two Cavalier upsets in the dual as he knocked off No. 14 Josh Koderhandt at 141 pounds in his return to the Cavaliers.

Navy would win three of the final four weight classes with Michael Battista’s win over NO. 29 Carson Brewer at 197 pounds closing the scoring for the Hoos.

NOTES ON THE DAY• Virginia improved to 5-2 against Ohio and picked up its first-ever dual victory over Navy.• Virginia wrestlers posted five bonus-point victories combined between the two duals.• The Cavaliers picked up a pair of pins against Navy with Garrett Grice and Denton Spencer winning by fall.• Brian Courtney saw his first action for the Hoos after joining the Cavaliers for an additional season this semester.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE GARLAND“We had a great day today. I’m really proud of our guys. We had a lot of guys step up today; with so many injuries and guys out we had to dig deep. Our young guys like Nick Hamilton, Garrett Grice and Michael Gioffre were amazing today. And then we had veterans like Patrick McCormick and Michael Battista getting gritty wins. I’m happy but we can’t let off the gas. We have two more tough teams tomorrow.”

Original source can be found here