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This Weekend’s Headlines
• Sixteen Division I wrestling squads will converge upon the Hampton Coliseum for the 33rd Virginia Duals.
• The last time Virginia Tech participated in the Virginia Duals (2010), it took sixth place, a program-best, topping a seventh-place finish in 1981. Tech won three matches in 2010, tying the program’s best performance at the Duals.
• This will be the 11th time the Hokies have participated in the Virginia Duals. They enter this year’s competition with a all-time record of 12-21, placing just the two times (mentioned above).
• Tech also competed in 1981 (1-2; 7th), 1992 (1-2), 1994 (0-2), 2000 (3-2), 2002 (1-2), 2003 (0-2), 2006 (0-3), 2007 (1-2), 2008 (2-2) and 2010 (3-2; 6th).

Who’s Going?
• Sixteen teams are in the field, including five teams ranked in the latest USA Today/NWCA/AWN Division I Coaches Poll. The ranked teams are: No. 10 Central Michigan, No. 11 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Edinboro, No. 19 Virginia and No. 25 Old Dominion.
• The top eight seeds for this weekend are: 1) CMU; 2) VT; 3) Edinboro; 4) Virginia; 5) Boise State; 6) ODU; 7) Kent State and 8) Arizona State.
• Rounding out the field are: Army, Binghamton, Bucknell, Buffalo, North Dakota State, Rider, The Citadel and VMI.

Up First
• The 10th-ranked and second-seeded Hokies (5-2) will open Friday’s action at 11 a.m. on mat 8 against unseeded Binghamton (2-6). The Hokies and Bearcats have met twice before previously, but not since 2009 when Tech won 37-3 in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Bearcats are led by a pari of nationally ranked wrestlers in sixth-ranked Donnie Vinson at 149 pounds and eighth-ranked Nate Scheidel at 197 pounds. Vinson is 18-1 this year and placed third at last year’s NCAA Championships, but his lone loss this season came to the wrestler he will face Friday in Virginia Tech’s Nick Brascetta. The two met in the finals of the Midlands Championships with Brascetta taking a 3-1 victory thanks to a first-period takedown and a third-period escape. Scheidel is 15-2 on the season and will take on Tech’s Derrick Borlie.

And Then ...
• Win or lose in the first match on Friday, the Hokies will be back in action at 3 p.m. If the Hokies will, they’ll be on mat 8 again against the winner of the seventh-seeded Kent State/VMI match or if they lose, they’ll be on mat 7 against the loser of KSU/VMI. All teams are guaranteed a minimum of three matches. Action continues on Saturday with the finals slated for 8:30 p.m. You can download the bracket here. Live results should be available through TrackWrestling.

The 100-Win Club
• Two wrestlers on this year’s squad have already joined the 100-Win Club with one more to join them soon. Redshirt senior Pete Yates enters the Virginia Duals with 113 wins, tied for the fourth-most in school history. Redshirt senior Jarrod Garnett has 108 wins, the sixth-most in school history. With four more wins, redshirt senior Jesse Dong will become the eighth member of Tech’s 100-Win Club.
• They’re all chasing Sean Gray (1997-2002), a current assistant coach at Princeton, who racked 133 wins in his career at Tech. Below is the list for career wins at Virginia Tech: 1) Sean Gray (1997-02) - 133-19-0; 2) Chris Martin (1996-01) - 126-25-0; 3) David Hoffman (2001-06) - 116-32-0; 4) Eric Hall (1996-01) - 113-39-0 and Pete Yates (2008-) - 113-31-0; 6) Jarrod Garnett (2008-) - 108-25-0; 7) Chris Diaz (2007-11) - 106-46-0; 8) Scott Justus (1998-03) - 98-31-0; 9) Jesse Dong (2008-) - 96-20-0

Going For The Record
• With two wins this weekend, senior Jesse Dong will set a new school record for career dual meet wins. The Westerville, Ohio, native enters this weekend with a career mark of 57-6 in dual meets after picking up a win against Duke last weekend.
• Sean Gray and Chris Martin both won 58 dual matches in their careers at Tech. Jarrod Garnett and Pete Yates are also in the top 6 all-time at Tech with 52 dual meet wins. Below is the list for career dual wins at Virginia Tech: 1) Sean Gray (1997-02) - 58-3-0 and Chris Martin (1996-01) - 58-5-0; 3) Jesse Dong (2008-) - 57-6-0; 4. Chris Diaz (2007-11) - 56-18-0; 5) David Hoffman (2001-06) - 55-10-0; 6) Pete Yates (2008-) - 52-8-0 and Jarrod Garnett (2008-) - 52-13-0

Below are the probables for Virginia Tech and Binghamton, as submitted by the respective coaching staffs:

#10 Virginia Tech (5-2)
125: #4 Jarrod Garnett (14-1)
133: Erik Spjut (7-5)
141: #11 Zach Neibert (12-5)
149: #5 Nick Brascetta (16-1)
157: #6 Jesse Dong (10-2)
165: #5 Pete Yates (16-1)
174: Austin Gabel (9-6)
184: Nick Vetterlein (8-6)
197: Derrick Borlie (10-6)
285: David Marone (6-6)

Binghamton (2-6)
125: Patrick Hunter (5-4)
133: Derek Steeley (9-8)
141: Dan Riggi (11-8)
149: #6 Donnie Vinson (18-1)
157: Jack McKeever (1-6) OR Brian Conrad (1-4)
165: Vincent Grella (2-6)
174: John Paris (8-9) OR Caleb Wallace (4-4)
184: Cody Reed (8-10)
197: #8 Nate Schiedel (15-2)
285: Tyler Deuel (11-11)

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