Hokie ClubCEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Wrestling in front of a hostile crowd of 1,921 at Northern Iowa’s West Gym on Friday evening, the No. 6 Virginia Tech wrestling team came away with a 27-10 win over the No. 22 Panthers.
The Hokies (4-0, 0-0 ACC) improve to 4-2 all-time against the Panthers (2-1, 0-0 MAC) and have now topped ranked opponents in back-to-back duals. Tech will next travel to No. 5 Missouri for a 2 p.m. match on Sunday that will be streamed live on FloWrestling.com.
The dual consisted of highly physical matchups that only added to the electric atmosphere in Cedar Falls as a top three matchup at 125 got the night started between No. 3 Joey Dance and No. 2 Dylan Peters of UNI. Dance, facing Peters for the fourth time in his career, jumped out to a 7-1 lead after two and came away with an 8-3 decision with 1:38 of riding time.
After the Panthers picked up a major decision at 133, Dennis Gustafson came out with high energy our of the gate and helped bring the dual meet score to a tie at 6-6. A ranked bout at 149 followed between No. 6 Solomon Chishko and UNI’s No. 18 Max Thomsen where Chishko used two takedowns in the first and second periods to ride to a 6-2 win.
Senior Sal Mastriani, who came into the match leading the Hokies with two tech falls at 157, struck again as he used four near fall points to pick up the tech in the second period, giving Tech a 14-6 advantage.
The dominance of Zach Epperly and Zak Zavatsky at 174 and 184, respectively, were really tested with the Hokies leading by four, 14-10. Both of their matches came down to smarts and both came away with key decisions.
Jared Haught followed at 197 with a 6-2 decison before senor heavyweight Ty Walz capped things off his first major decision, 20-6, of the dual season.
MATCH RESULTS
125 - #3 Joey Dance (VT) dec. Dylan Peters (UNI), 8-3 (1:38 RT)
133 - #14 Josh Alber (UNI) pinned Dominic Latona (VT), 1:47
141 - Dennis Gustafson (VT) dec. Jake Hodges (UNI), 10-5 (2:02 RT)
149 - #6 Solomon Chishko (VT) dec. #18 Max Thomsen (UNI), 6-2 (2:20 RT)
157 - Sal Mastriani (VT) tech fall Paden Moore (UNI), 18-2 (2:30 RT)
165 - #13 Bryce Steiert* (UNI) maj. dec. Mike Ciavarro (VT), 11-3 (2:24 RT)
174 - #2 Zach Epperly (VT) dec. Taylor Lujan (UNI), 9-7
184 - #9 Zach Zavatsky (VT) dec. Jacob Holschlag (UNI), 9-7 (1:30 RT)
197 - #3 Jared Haught (VT) dec. Jared Bartel (UNI), 6-2 (1:18 RT)
285 - #3 Ty Walz (VT) maj. dec. JJ Everard (UNI), 20-6 (2:50 RT)