Virginia Tech wrestling wins five titles in season opener
Virginia Tech, ranked No. 5 nationally, won five individual titles to open its season at the Southeast Open on Sunday, beating West Virginia finalists Gunner Andrick and Max Vanadia along the way.
WrestlingVirginia Tech wrestling opened its season by winning five individual titles at the Southeast Open on Sunday in Salem, Virginia. The Hokies are ranked No. 5 in the NWCA coaches' preseason poll released Oct. 28. They wrestled like it, in a field that also included West Virginia and dozens of other Division I programs from the region. Read more: Virginia Tech wrestling wins five titles in season opener
Alex Rozas won at 125 pounds, Aaron Seidel at 133, Mac Church at 165, Ryan Burton at 174 and Jim Mullen at 285.
Seidel beat the Mountaineers' Gunner Andrick 15-0 in the 133 final, a technical fall, the result when one wrestler builds a 15-point lead and the match ends early. Mullen also beat West Virginia's Max Vanadia 8-0, a lopsided decision, at 285. It was a fast start for a Virginia Tech wrestling program picked fifth before the season even began.
Andrick, Vanadia fall in finals
West Virginia's trip to the Southeast Open was not empty. Andrick and Vanadia still wrestled into finals before running into Virginia Tech's champions. Ian Bush, a returning Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, beat the Hokies' Sergio Desiante 5-2 at 184 pounds. TJ Langley pinned Virginia Tech's Jack Bastarrika at 149.
Virginia also sent wrestlers through the bracket. The Cavaliers' Preston Wagner placed fourth at 285 after beating West Virginia's Brock Kehler 3-2 in the quarterfinals. West Virginia's Paxton Hunt turned it around at 197, beating Virginia's Will Etu 5-2 in the round of 16.
Head coach Tim Flynn said before the season that his roster could be elite. "I think that we should be and can be a top 10 team here," Flynn said. He also pointed to Bush and two-time All-American Ty Watters as the foundation already in place. West Virginia opened this season ranked No. 23 in that same NWCA poll.
Virginia Tech was not the only ranked team to open strong. No. 9 Iowa State beat Bucknell 29-12 on Sunday. Michigan, ranked 14th, blanked VMI 50-0, and No. 17 Oklahoma routed Northeastern State by the same kind of score, 46-0.
No. 18 Wyoming had opened a day earlier with a 51-0 win over Western Wyoming. All four results came from a weekend roundup of season-opening duals.
Flynn's new contract at West Virginia runs through the 2029-30 season.
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