RALEIGH, N.C. - Four Virginia Tech wrestlers captured ACC titles Saturday at the ACC Championships, held inside Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of NC State as six wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Winning titles for the Hokies were: Jarrod Garnett, Brian Stephens, Jesse Dong and Matt Epperly. Chris Diaz and Tommy Spellman took second place and Brock LiVorio took third place at 133 pounds. Tech finished third as a team behind Virginia and Maryland.
Garnett took the mat first for the Hokies and dominated Virginia’s Ross Gitomer at 125 pounds. After a scoreless first period, Garnett escaped in the second period and got a key takedown to make it 3-0. Gitomer escaped late in the third period, but with riding time, the sophomore from Newark, Del., picked up the 4-1 win for his first ACC title.
At 141 pounds, second-seeded Chris Diaz got a first-period takedown on top-seeded Alex Krom of Maryland, but was ridden the entire second period after choosing the down position. Krom got an escape early in the third period to tie up the match, and later got a takedown. Diaz got a reversal late, but Krom got an escape and with riding time, took the 6-4 decision.
Stephens took the mat at 149 pounds, and as he’s done all year, wore down his opponent for the win. After a scoreless first period, UVa’s Shawn Harris got the first point with an escape early in the second stanza. Stephens chose neutral to start the third period and quickly got a takedown before Harris escaped to tie it up. Stephens went on to get three more takedowns in the period to turn a deficit into a comfortable win and ACC title for the freshman from Piqua, Ohio.
Dong, also an Ohio native, took the mat next and quickly got a takedown and began riding Maryland’s Kyle John. In the second, Dong got an escape and a takedown to make it a 5-0 game, but gave up a reversal to John at the end of the period to make it 5-2. At the start of third, John got another reversal to creep within one point, but Dong escaped and got the point for riding time for the 7-5 win and his first championship.
Epperly got a quick takedown on Maryland’s John Asper, who was the top seed at 165 pounds. The junior from Christiansburg, Va., got another takedown midway through the period and took a 4-1 lead to the second period with over a minute of riding time. Asper cut it to a 5-2 ballgame in the third period, but Epperly got another takedown to make it 7-2. A stall warning gave Asper a point, but riding time gave Epperly the 8-3 win and his second ACC title. He won the crown as a freshman two years ago.
With the team title on the line, Spellman took the mat at 184 pounds needing at least a major decision to take the title, but instead, second-seeded Mike Salopek of Virginia got a takedown with eight seconds to take the individual title and clinch the team title for the Cavaliers.
Since joining the ACC in 2004, Tech had six different wrestlers win ACC titles. Saturday, three more can be added to that list as new title winners (Epperly won in 2008) as the Hokies had their most-successful ACC meet. The four champs tops the 2006 effort when three Hokies won titles.
The six Hokies who qualified for the NCAAs will return to the mats March 18 in Omaha, Neb., for the event.
For updates on Virginia Tech wrestling, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Wrestling).