The Virginia wrestling team (2-7, 0-1 ACC) bounced back from a 31-9 loss Friday to North Carolina (8-2, 1-0) by finishing second at the 2002 Virginia Quad Meet on Saturday.
After beating Howard 32-12 and Old Dominion 27-19, the Cavaliers fell in the finals to Kent State by a score of 33-10.
"You got to come back from losing to a rival," such as North Carolina, sophomore Tim Foley said. "We lost to a really good Kent State team, but if a couple of matches go the other way, we're hanging in there."
Foley led Virginia by winning all three of his matches in the 157-pound weight class, including a victory by fall at one minute, 33 seconds over Howard's Brandon Hogan.
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"I feel pretty good right now," Foley said. "I'm trying to do the things I know how to do and improve on the things I don't."
The Cavaliers won seven of the 10 matches against the Bison, though four matches - three in favor of Virginia - were decided by forfeit.
After beating Howard, Virginia then had to face Old Dominion. The Cavaliers fell behind 16-6, but Virginia won the next four matches. Junior Bob Seidel and freshman Paul Bjorlo led this rally by winning their matches in the 141-pound and 149-pound classes by falls.
The two wins placed the Cavaliers in the finals against 17-5 Kent State. The Virginia Quad Meet had been a record-setting one for the Golden Flashes and they continued by winning the meet.
In Kent State's opening match against Old Dominion, the Golden Flashes became the 14th active collegiate wrestling program to earn 600 wins.
Against Virginia, Kent State won the first seven matches and coasted to a 33-10 victory. Kent State junior Nick Nemeth, ranked 13th in the country at 165 but wrestling at 174, led the Golden Flashes as they lost only six matches all day.
"We wrestled as well as could be expected," Virginia junior Don Carlo-Clauss said. "We had three starters out of the lineup and a couple guys recovering from injuries who are not 100 percent. We won the matches we should have won, but the important thing is to get everyone back healthy for ACCs."
On Friday, the Cavaliers opened their ACC schedule on a losing note, falling to North Carolina. Foley again led the Cavaliers, but it was not enough as the Tar Heels took seven of ten matches.
"We kind of turned things around" as a team, Foley said. "We've been riddled with injuries, but as a team we wrestled really well."
Senior Ryan Painter at heavyweight and Carlo-Clauss at 165 also won matches for Virginia.
"Everyone wrestled well against UNC but we had two forfeits," Carlo-Clauss said. "It always hurts to lose, but you try to look for the positives. Everyone is wrestling well now"
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