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Wrestling

Six Hokies named No. 1 seeds entering ACC Wrestling Championship

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Brackets and seeding for the 2017 ACC Wrestling Championship have been released, and six Virginia Tech wrestlers will enter weekend as the top seed in their respective weight class, the conference announced Tuesday.

Senior Joey Dance at 125 pounds, redshirt sophomore Solomon Chishko at 149, redshirt senior Sal Mastriani at 157, redshirt junior Zach Epperly at 174, redshirt junior Jared Haught at 197 and redshirt senior Ty Walz at 285 are all No. 1 seeds in their weight classes. All of the top seeds receive a first round-bye and will face the winner of the bout between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.

First-round action will begin at 11:03 a.m. followed by the semifinals (1 p.m.), the consolation semifinals (3:30 p.m.), the consolation finals (5 p.m.) and finally, the championship finals (7:03 p.m.). All bouts of the Championship will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra with Shawn Kenney and Dean Linke handling the play-by-play and Tim Foley and Rock Harrison providing the expert analysis.

The two-time defending ACC Champion at 125, Dance will look to join exclusive company in program history, as he’s seeking his third conference title. Jarrod Garnett, Jesse Dong, Devin Carter and Nick Brascetta are the only three-time ACC champions in the history of Tech wrestling.

Defending ACC champ Zack Zavatsky is seeded second at 184 and will also receive a first-round bye. Rounding out the brackets, redshirt junior Dennis Gustafson is seeded fifth at 133, classmate Kevin Norstrem is slotted sixth at 141 and redshirt senior David Bergida is seeded sixth at 165. Gustafson is no stranger to advancing deep in the ACC Tournament, as he won the 133-pound bracket as a true freshman in 2014.

A PDF version of the bracket and information on the 63rd ACC Wrestling Championship can be found under “Extras”.