GENEVA, OH – Virginia Tech wrestling finished the 2023 USA Wrestling U23 Nationals with one champion in Cooper Flynn at 57-kilograms and fifth-place finisher at 86-kilograms, Sam Fisher, this past weekend in Geneva, Ohio. With his title performance, Flynn became the third Hokie to qualify to represent the US at the U23 world championships.
Flynn started his weekend with a dominating 11-0 tech fall over Jace Schafer in his first bout of the tournament. The redshirt sophomore would then add two more blistering tech falls – 10-0 over Koda Holeman and 10-0 over Logan Graf. Flynn would secure his spot in the finals with a gritty 3-2 victory over Sheldon Seymour in the semifinals to meet NCAA qualifier, Stevo Poulin.
The finals featured a best two of three series which saw the matchup go the full three bouts. Flynn would drop the first bout 4-7 to the Northern Colorado wrestler but would then rally back to rattle two straight victories in dominating fashion – 4-1 in match two and 9-4 in match three – to lock up his first U23 title in as many appearances.
At 86-kilograms, Fisher went 5-2 over the weekend with two tech falls and wins over three NCAA qualifiers to finish 5th in this first U23 Nationals. Fisher started with a 10-0 tech fall over Matthew Rodriguez, an 8-5 victory over Cameron Pine, and a 15-10 decision over Benjamin Mower. In the quarterfinals, Fisher would storm back after trailing 0-5 at the break to defeat Neil Antrassian, 13-5. The Hokie would then drop his semifinal match to Donnell Washington and his first bout on the backside to Nathan Haas to fall into the fifth-place bout. Fisher would take the lead early and never look back with a dominating 14-3 tech fall over Cael Valencia to bring home more hardware for the Hokies.
Full brackets and results can be found at top of page.
