No. 5 Hokies head to 37th Annual Virginia Duals

Tech will face Kent State and Lock Haven in the first round of pool play

January 12, 2017

BLACKSBURG – The fifth-ranked Virginia Tech wrestling team head to the Tidewater region this weekend for the 37th Annual Virginia Duals where they will open with Kent State at 11 a.m. and Lock Haven at 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13.

All matches from the Virginia Duals will be streamed live on TrackWrestling.com with a subscription. Fans can also follow along on Twitter, @VT_Wrestling.

The Hokies (7-1, 1-0 ACC) are coming off a 2-0 weekend that saw road victories at Princeton and in their ACC opener at North Carolina. With those wins and losses from a couple of higher-ranked programs, the Hokies moved up a spot to No. 6 in the NWCA/USA Today Coaches Poll. It’s Tech’s highest ranking of the season and the highest since finishing fourth in the final NWCA Poll at the end of last season. The Hokies have won three duals in a row since narrowly falling to No. 5 Missouri, 23-19, in Columbia on Nov. 20.

SCOUTING THE FIELD
• Lock Haven enters the weekend with a 3-3 record and a 2-1 mark in PSAC play.
• The Bald Eagles were faced with a tough non-conference schedule that included a 20-18 victory over Maryland on Nov. 20 at the Cavalier Duals.
• Redshirt junior Ronnie Perry leads the lowerweights at 141 pounds where he holds a 21-5 record and is currently ranked No. 17 by FloWrestling.
• Virginia Tech heavyweight Ty Walz, who has faced one of the toughest individual schedules in collegiate wrestling this season, will once again be tested against Lock Haven’s Thomas Haines, who’s ranked 16th this week by InterMat.
• The Bald Eagles hold a 6-1 edge in the all-time series Hokies with their lone defeat coming in the last meeting – a 22-19 Tech victory at Cassell Coliseum on Jan. 16.
• Kent State enters the weekend at 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the MAC.
• The Golden Flashes have dropped their last two duals, a 22-17 loss to Gardner-Webb on Dec. 16 and a 22-19 loss to Chattanooga on Dec. 18.
• The Hokies narrowly lead the all-time series with Kent State, 5-4, and won the last meeting, 29-15, at the 2015 Virginia Duals on Jan. 9.

EPPERLY EARNS CO-ACC WRESTLER OF THE WEEK HONORS
• Redshirt junior Zach Epperly was named Co-ACC Wrestler of the Week with North Carolina’s Joey Ward after after defeating two top 20 opponents over the weekend.
• Epperly, ranked second nationally by InterMat and FloWrestling, scored a major decision (12-4) over 17th-ranked Jonathan Schlieffer of Princeton, in leading the Hokies to a 30-11 win over the Tigers.
• He then scored an 8-2 decision over seventh-ranked Ethan Ramos of North Carolina in Tech’s 28-8 win over the Tar Heels in the Hokies’ ACC season-opener

HOKIES HISTORY AT THE VIRGINIA DUALS
• Virginia Tech has won two of the last three Virginia Duals after falling to No. 18 Iowa State, 16-14, the finals last season.
• The Hokies, ranked No. 5 at the time, rolled through the Citadel, Bucknell and Arizona State en route to a rematch of their first dual of the season.
• Tech had topped then-No. 13 Iowa State, 32-3, at Cassell on Nov. 17, 2015 but they prevented a Hokies three-peat.
• Overall, the Hokies have a 26-23 record at the Virginia Duals entering their 15th appearance at the tournament this weekend.

For updates on Virginia Tech wrestling, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Wrestling