Gioffre finishes fifth at Southern Scuffle

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Freshman Michael Gioffre finished fifth at 149 pounds at the Southern Scuffle on Monday to close out competition for the Virginia wrestling team at the annual event hosted by Chattanooga.

The fifth-place finish came as Gioffre was awarded a medical forfeit by second-seeded Quinn Kinner of Rider in the fifth-place match. Kinner is also ranked No. 23 nationally at 149 pounds. It was the second match of the day for Gioffre who dropped a hard-fought match with No. 21 Victor Voinovich of Oklahoma State in the semifinals to kick off the day. Gioffre faced No. 18 Ethen Miller of Maryland in the consolation semifinals, dropping a 3-1 decision to move to the fifth-place match.

Gioffre advanced to Monday’s semifinals after an undefeated opening day of competition, going 3-0 on Sunday including an opening-round win over top-seeded Jaden Abas of Stanford. Abas was ranked No. 16 nationally at 149 pounds.

He was one of three wrestlers to advance to the second day of competition at the Southern Scuffle with his brother, Jack, competing on Monday at 141 pounds along with Dylan Cedeno. Both Jack Gioffre and Cedeno dropped their matches to start the day and end their run in the tournament.

ICYMI we’ve got highlights of our action from the Southern Scuffle as we rang in the New Year with some exciting action!#GoHoos | #TheVirginiaWay pic.twitter.com/AvcSWLluQO

— Virginia Wrestling (@UVAWrestling) January 3, 2023

NOTES ON THE SOUTHERN SCUFFLE

• Virginia has made 16 overall appearances at the Southern Scuffle and first since the 2018 Southern Scuffle.
• In that 2018 appearance, then sophomore Jack Mueller won the 133-pound title, while second-year Louie Hayes finished third at 125 pounds and Sam Krivus finished fourth at 149 pounds.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE GARLAND
“It has been a long trip. We are excited to get home. Our guys got some great matches at a really tough tournament. We learned a lot and know that we have a lot of work to do moving forward. We have a big match coming up with an undefeated team so that is where all our focus is on next.”

UP NEXT
Virginia will return to action on Saturday, when the Cavaliers take on George Mason in a neutral-site match hosted by St. Christopher’s School in Richmond. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m.

Dylan Cedeno
R64: Cedeno dec. Luciano Arroyo (Stanford), 6-0
R32: Cedeno dec. Teague Travis (Oklahoma State), 10-7
R16: Cedeno pinned Zach Price (Gardner-Webb), 7:35 (sv-1)
QF: No. 4 Allan Hart (Missouri) tech fall Cedeno, 15-0 (5:34)
Conso. R8-2: McKenzie Bell (Rider) dec Cedeno, 5-1
*Sunday’s matches listed in italics

Jack Gioffre
R32: Gioffre dec. Kal Miller (Maryland), 2-1
R16: No. 28 Carter Young (Oklahoma State) dec. Gioffre, 7-3
Conso. R16-2: Gioffre pinned Jayden Gomez (Little Rock), 2:26
Conso. R8-1: Gioffre dec. Dylan Chappell (Bucknell), 8-4
Conso. R8-2: No. 11 Dylan Droegemueller (North Dakota State) dec. Gioffre, 2-1
*Sunday’s matches listed in italics

149
Michael Gioffre – Fifth-Place Finish
R32: Gioffre dec. No. 16 Jaden Abas (Stanford), 3-1 (sv-1)
R16: Gioffre dec. Theo Cha (Minnesota), 8-3
QF: Gioffre dec. Mike Zarif (Binghamton), 2-1
SF: No. 21 Victor Voinovich (Oklahoma State) dec. Gioffre, 4-1
Conso. SF: No. 18 Ethen Miller (Maryland) dec. Gioffre, 3-1
FIFTH-PLACE MATCH: Gioffre over No. 23 Quinn Kinner (Rider) by medical forfeit
*Sunday’s matches listed in italics