The Cavaliers' loss to N.C. State Friday was madeworse by a knee injury suffered by star junior Rocco Caponi in the third period of his match. Caponi -- who fought through the injury to take a 14-4 major decision over defending ACC champion junior Jeremy Colbert -- is the only nationally ranked Cavalier wrestler, with a No.19 ranking in the 184-pound weight class.
"My knee got caught under during my second take-down," Caponi said. "I just twisted it and popped it all along the side."
Caponi's injury became particularly important in the next day's match against Duke. The Cavaliers jumped out to an early 15-3 lead, but the Blue Devils took the decision in overtime at 165 pounds and got a pin at 174 pounds to cut the lead to 15-12. With Caponi relegated to the bench, and the match at 184 pounds looming, all eyes turned to senior Mike Grogan. Grogan, the Cavaliers' usual competitor at 174 pounds, would not only have to fill the void left by Caponi at a key moment in the match, but he would have to do it at a higher weight class than he was used to.
Grogan responded by providing the Cavaliers with the boost they needed. Not only did he win his match at 184 pounds, he got a 9-1 major decision, increasing the Cavaliers' lead to 19-12. The team never looked back, as it went on to take a 25-12 victory.
"Grogan did an excellent job wrestling," Caponi said. "Those guys are bigger, they're a little bit stronger than [the wrestlers at 174], a different style of wrestling. He stepped up and did an amazing job. He's the star of the match today."
Caponi's status for the Cavaliers' remaining matches is uncertain. The team is not yet sure what injury he suffered, nor how much time he will miss.
In addition to Grogan's inspiring performance, the Cavaliers also got outstanding contributions from sophomore Ross Gitomer at 125 pounds, freshman Kellon Ballum 141 pounds, junior Kyle Narkiewicz at 197 pounds and redshirt junior Scott Smith at heavyweight in the win.
The win is "really important, because we've been hitting a rough patch here -- we lost to N.C. State, and we lost to Ohio University last weekend," Grogan said. "It was definitely a big win we needed for our team to get back on the right track."
The win was especially significant after Virginia's loss the night before to N.C. State. Although the Cavaliers got off to an early 6-0 lead with decisions from Gitomer and sophomore Eric Albright, the Wolfpack dominated the rest of the meet, winning six out of the final eight matches in its 25-13 defeat of the Cavaliers.
Virginia's night was made better, however, by the attendance of many notable alumni at Memorial Gym. Halfway through Friday's matches, a banner was unveiled in honor of Virginia's only three ACC championship teams from 1974, 1975 and 1977.
"The alumni event couldn't have went better," Virginia coach Steve Garland said. "I'm so glad we did that. That's long overdue for those guys getting recognized. That was the one positive of the night."
The split the Cavaliers achieved over the weekend puts their record at 7-8, and 2-2 in conference play. The team returns to action Friday in an away meet at Maryland.
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