UVA’s Contino, Danals and Phillips each place at Mat Town Open

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Three wrestlers placed to lead a group of six Cavaliers in competition on Sunday at the Mat Town Open hosted by Lock Haven (Pa.). Rocco Contino and Hadyn Danals posted runner-up finishes at 174 pounds and 184 pounds, respectively, while Justin Phillips turned in a fourth-place finish at 174 pounds to lead the group of Virginia wrestlers.

Contino went 3-1 on the day to advance to the championship match before being forced to injury default in the third period of the championship bout. Danals went 3-1 in round-robin competition at 184 pounds, posting a pair of wins by technical fall and a pin to earn the second-place finish.

Phillips closed out the placewinners for the Cavaliers with his fourth-place finsh after going 2-2 on the day.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE GARLAND
“When our guys say they want to compete I will do all I can to help them do that. I’m proud of these guys who made a commitment to get needed matches in over a holiday break. They want to improve and they know the best way to do that is through real time competition. So that mission was accomplished. We made a lot of mistakes today, but the best way to learn sometimes is to learn from those types of things. So I think our guys learned a lot today and will be better because of this trip.”

141
Evan Buchanan
R16: Buchanan dec. Frank Antonelli (Navy), 4-0
QF: Ryan Michaels (Pitt) dec. Buchanan, 6-0
Conso. R8-2: Buchanan dec. David Graves (Navy), 6-1
Conso. R4: Luke Lucerne (Navy) dec. Buchanan, 3-2

174
Rocco Contino – Second-Place Finish
R16: Contino dec. Ethan Wiant (Clarion), 8-1
QF: Contino dec. Luke Gorg (Cornell), 2-0
SF: Contino over Vic Marcelli (UVA) by medical forfeit
FINAL: Tyler Stoltzfus (Lock Haven) over Contino by injury default

Vic Marcelli
R16: Bye
QF: Marcelli major dec. Carson Miller (Pitt), 13-5
SF: Marcelli medical forfeit Rocco Contino (UVA)
Conso. SF: Christian Hansen (Cornell) over Marcelli by medical forfeit

Justin Phillips – Fourth-Place Finish
R16: Bye
QF: Phillips pinned Christian Hansen (Cornell), 0:34
SF: Tyler Stoltzfus (Lock Haven) dec. Phillips, 6-4 (sv-1)
Conso. SF: Phillips dec. Carson Miller (Pitt), 7-0
THIRD-PLACE MATCH: Christian Hansen (Cornell) pinned Phillips, 6:21

Hudson Stewart
R16: Bye
QF: Tyler Stoltzfus (Lock Haven) pinned Stewart, 3:52
Conso. R4: Christian Hansen (Cornell) dec. Stewart, 6-4

184
Hadyn Danals – Second Place Finish
RR1: James Lledo (Pitt) pinned Danals, 6:26
RR2: Danals tech fall John Baker (Binghamton), 18-0 (1:46)
RR3: Danals tech fall Vincent Andreano (Bucknell), 19-2 (6:21)
RR4: Bye
RR5: Danals pinned Cael Black (Lock Haven), 2:10