University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
ACC Championships
Dobies Claims ACC Heavyweight Title
March 8, 2008 | Wrestling
March 8, 2008
Complete ACC Championships Results PDF Format 
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Junior heavyweight Justin Dobies won his first conference title and four Tar Heels posted runner-up finishes as North Carolina placed third at the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestling Championships Saturday at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center.
With 77 points, the Tar Heels finished behind the host Terrapins, who captured five individual titles and posted 86.5 points, and Virginia, which took third with 84.5 points. Virginia Tech (40), NC State (37.5) and Duke (11.5) rounded out scoring. Maryland is the first team outside the state of North Carolina to win the ACC title since 1977.
Dobies, who moved up from 184 pounds to heavyweight prior to this season, registered a 4-3 win over No. 2 seed David Marone of Virginia Tech to punch a ticket to this month's NCAA Championships. The Garfield Heights, Ohio, native reached his first league final with a first-period pin of Virginia's Jack Danilkowicz in 2:10 in the opening round and a 5-2 decision over Maryland's Pat Gilmore in the semis. The 20th-ranked Dobies is 29-6 with a team-best seven pins on the season.
Carolina's Drew Forshey, Thomas Scotton, Keegan Mueller and Dennis Drury each reached the final in their respective weight classes and earned All-ACC honors with runner-up finishes. The ACC will receive four wild card berths to the 2008 NCAA Championships, which will be determined Sunday morning by the league's coaches. Nationals are scheduled for March 20-22 in St. Louis.
Forshey, who was seeing his first action in over a month at 125 pounds due to an ankle injury, dropped the final to Virginia's Ross Gitomer by an 8-3 margin. The senior opened his day with an 8-3 decision over NC State's Taylor Cummings and followed with a 6-5 decision over Duke's Kellan McKeon to reach the final. Forshey is 15-9 on the season.
At 157 pounds, Scotton was edged by Maryland's Brian Letters in the final, 3-2. The redshirt freshman scored a pair of tight wins to reach in the final in his first-ever ACC Championships appearance, opening with a 7-6 win over Virginia Tech's Matt Rosen and following with a 7-5 decision over Virginia's Drew Dipasquale in the semifinals. Scotton owns a 19-8 record.
Mueller won his first two bouts at 165 to extend his win streak to 22 matches but was upset in the final by No. 5 seed Matt Epperly of Virginia Tech, who handed Mueller his first loss since Nov. 30 with a 7-2 overtime decision. Mueller, who is 28-4 on the season, was dominant en route to the final with a pin of NC State's Jalil Dozier in 4:55 in the opening round and a 12-0 major decision over Maryland's Mike McGill in the semifinals.
Drury dropped a 10-5 decision to No. 5 Hudson Taylor in the 197-pound final. Drury, who is 20-11 on the season, received a first-round bye and followed with a 10-7 decision over Brent Jones of Virginia to move to the final.
At 141, redshirt freshman Nick Stabile was 2-1 on the day and placed third with a 16-2 major decision over No. 9-ranked Joe Caramanica of NC State in the third-place bout. He had a first-round bye and was upset by Maryland's Jon Kohler in the semifinals before scoring a pin of Duke's Bryan Gibson in just 2:17 to reach the third-place match. Stabile is 22-7 on the season.
Additionally, the Tar Heels had four wrestlers earn fourth-place finishes in Danny Lopes (1-2 at 133) Vincent Ramirez (2-2 at 141) Kyle Kiss (2-2 at 174) Nick Tenpenny (1-2 at 184).
Players Mentioned
