Five Hoos move on to second day at Midlands Championships

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Five members of the Virginia wrestling team advanced to the second day of competition at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships after a solid opening day in the tournament at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., on Thursday.

Neil Antrassian (184), Michael Battista (197), Justin McCoy (165) and Jarod Verkleeren (149) all advanced to the quarterfinal round on Thursday night and will continue in the consolation bracket when wrestling resumes at noon on Friday (Dec. 30). Nick Hamilton, who is wrestling in an unattached capacity, also advanced to day two of the tournament.

In all, 14 members of the Virginia wrestling program competed on day one of the event with two of them competing unattached. Nick Sanko also competed in an unattached capacity at 157 pounds.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE GARLAND
“We started the day pretty well, winning some hard fought-battles, but we just had a rough round this evening. We are not happy walking out of the arena tonight and that’s a good thing because the expectations for this program and each individual competing for us is high. That’s not changing. We have a great opportunity in front of us to respond. I think it’ll be a really good challenge for these guys to see how they come back and respond for next session (on Friday).”

125
Patrick McCormick
R32: Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) major dec. McCormick, 9-0
Conso. R2: Jacob Moran (Indiana) dec. McCormick, 6-2

133
Marlon Yarbrough
R64: Yarbrough dec. Nathanial Genobaba (N. Illinois), 11-5
R32: Hunter Adrian (Brown) pinned Yarbrough, 2:44
Conso. R2: Pat Phillips (Franklin & Marshall) tech fall Yarbrough, 15-0 (4:34)

149
Denton Spencer
R64: Bye
R32: Nate Higley (George Mason) dec. Spencer, 9-7
Conso. R3: Umihiko Saito (Brown) dec. Spencer, 8-3 

No. 24 Jarod Verkleeren
R64: Bye
R32: Verkleeren pinned Justin Benjamin (Northwestern), 2:27
R16: Verkleeren dec. Jeff Boyd (West Virginia), 6-5
QF: No. 10 Doug Zapf (Penn) dec. Verkleeren, 9-3
Conso. R6: Verkleeren vs. Nate Higley (George Mason) on Friday

157
Nick Sanko
R64: Bye
R32: No. 16 Garrett Model (Wisconsin) dec. Sanko, 6-3
Conso. R2: Sanko major dec. Keegan Rothrock (Brown), 15-5
Conso. R3: Dylan Weaver (Rutgers) over Sanko by medical forfeit

Nic Sansone
R64: Bye
R32: Andrew Clark (Rutgers) dec. Sansone, 7-4
Conso. R2: Sansone dec. Caleb Dowling (West Virginia), 5-3
Conso. R3: Sansone dec. Dan Mancini (Pitt), 5-3 (SV-1)
Conso. R4: Alfred Desantis (Rutgers) dec. Sansone, 7-6

165
Nick Hamilton
R64: Bye
R32: Hamilton dec. Nathan Lackman (Rhode Island College) , 5-3
R16: No. 16 Holden Heller (Pitt) dec. Hamilton, 6-0
Conso. R4: Hamilton dec. Wilder Wichman (Thomas More), 10-4
Conso. R5: Hamilton dec. James Conway (Missouri), 7-5 (sv-1)
Conso. R6: Hamilton vs. Cardi Wilson (SIUE) on Friday 

No. 8 Justin McCoy
R64: Bye
R32: McCoy tech fall Wilder Wichman (Thomas More), 18-3 (7:00)
R16: McCoy major dec. Josh Kim (Harvard), 11-2
QF: No. 10 Izzak Olejnik (N. Illinois) dec. McCoy, 3-2
Conso. R6: McCoy vs. Max Mayfield (Northwestern) on Friday

174
Vic Marcelli
R32: Marcelli major dec. J.R. Reed (Cleveland State), 11-0
R16: Josh Otto (Wisconsin) dec. Marcelli, 3-2
Conso. R2: Marcelli dec. Justin Phillips (Virginia), 2-1 (TB-1)
Conso. R3: Scott Joll (West Virginia) pinned Marcelli, 4:19

Justin Phillips
R32: Trey Sizemore (Illinois) dec. Phillips, 9-2
Conso. R1: Phillips major dec. Ryan Riser (UW-Whitewater), 12-3
Conso. R2: Vic Marcelli (Virginia) dec. Phillips, 2-1 (TB-1)

184
No. 20 Neil Antrassian
R64: Bye
R32: Antrassian pinned Jack Jessen (Northwestern), 3:48
R16: Antrassian dec. Ike Squires (Unattached), 10-5
QF: Jaritt Shinhoster (UW-Whitewater) dec. Antrassian, 7-3
Conso. R6: Antrassian vs. Nate Dugan (Princeton) on Friday

Hadyn Danals
R64: Bye
R32: Danals tech fall John Stout (Penn), 16-1
R16: No. 25 Reece Heller (Pitt) pinned Danals, 0:21
Conso. R4: Clayton Whiting (Missouri) dec. Danals, 7-1

197
Michael Battista
R32: Battista dec. Joey Lyons (Cleveland State), 5-3
R16: Battista dec. Sam Mitchell (Buffalo), 4-3
QF: Zac Braunagel (Illinois) dec. Battista, 4-1
Conso. R4: Battista vs. Eli Sheeren (Buffalo) on Friday

285
Jessie Knight
R64: No. 27 Michael Wolfgram (West Virginia) over Knight by injury default
Conso. R1: Tyrie Houghton (NC State) over Knight by medical forfeit