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BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech will host its first ACC Wrestling Championship this Saturday at Cassell Coliseum as 58 wrestlers will be continuing their March to the Arch, aka the NCAA Championships. The last time the Hokies hosted a conference meet was in 2001 when they hosted the EWL Championships.

This will be Tech’s fifth ACC meet and the Hokies will be looking for their first team title. Tech finished second in 2005, fifth in both 2006 and 2007 and finished fourth last year. The last team title Tech won came in 1998 when the Hokies won the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title.

Six different Tech wrestlers have won ACC titles in the first four years: Tyde Prater (149 pounds) and Mike Faust (heavyweight) in 2005; Faust, David Hoffman (141 pounds) and Justin Staylor (125 pounds) in 2006; Jon Bonilla-Bowman (157 pounds) in 2007 and Matt Epperly (165 pounds) last year.

Bonilla-Bowman was named Co-Most Outstanding Wrestler in 2007 and Epperly was named Most Outstanding Wrestler last year.

Under the new NCAA Automatic Qualifying System, the Atlantic Coast Conference will have 27 automatic qualifiers this year, up from 14 in 2008. Here’s a breakdown of the qualifiers: 5 - 141 pounds; 4 - 197 pounds; 3 - 133, 149, 157, 285 pounds; 2 - 125, 184 pounds; 1- 157, 165 pounds

After all of the qualifying events have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 52 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 11.

Tech has never sent more than five wrestlers to an NCAA Championship. The program sent five in 2000 and 2005 and has sent four on several occasions. This year’s NCAA Championships will be held March 19-21 in St. Louis, Mo.

A few important items of interest for the event:

* Doors will open at 10 a.m., and the only doors open will be the Washington Street entrance (where the HokieBird statue is) and tickets can be purchased at the windows inside the lobby area. Fans will receive a wristband, which will allow them re-entry, but the Spring Road doors will be locked and cannot be used for entry/exit. Since it will be the beginning of Spring Break on campus, plenty of parking will be available to all in the Cassell Coliseum lot. The first round of action begins at 11 a.m.

* Fans will only be allowed to sit on the west side of the Coliseum. There will be two mats used for the first four sessions and then it will go to one mat for the championship session beginning at approximately 7 p.m.

* Brackets will be set Friday night at the seeding meeting and will be available online shortly thereafter. Bracket sheets and rosters will be available for $2 at the event.

* ACC Select will broadcast the event starting at 1 o’clock and will continue through the rest of the day. Live brackets and a running blog will be available on theACC.com.

For updates on Virginia Tech wrestling, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Wrestling).