North Carolina
Virginia
Tar Heels Defeated by No. 16 Virginia 23-12
January 22, 2010 | Wrestling
Jan. 22, 2010
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. -
The North Carolina wrestlers suffered a 23-12 road defeat at the hands of No. 16 Virginia Friday night. With the loss, Carolina falls to 3-6-1 in dual meets and 1-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Meanwhile, Virginia improves to 13-3 overall with a victory in their first conference match of the season.
Recording victories for the Tar Heels were Ziad Haddad at heavyweight, Jon Burns at 149 pounds and Kyle Kiss at 165 pounds. Both of UNC's nationally ranked grapplers, No. 6 Thomas Scotton (157) and No. 12 Dennis Drury (197) dropped narrow decisions to the Cavaliers.
The match started with two top-20 wrestlers facing off in the 197-pound weight class. The bout went down to the wire, but Virginia's 20th-ranked Brent Jones held off Drury by a 4-3 score. The Tar Heels quickly fought back to tie the match at three behind Haddad's convincing 10-3 win over Jack Danilkowicz.
After UVa registered three straight victories at 125, 133 and 141, Burns pulled Carolina within striking distance at 13-9 with a victory via injury default over Kellon Balum at 149 pounds. The meet was the redshirt freshman's first as a Tar Heel after he recently joined the squad after transferring from Nebraska. However, the momentum was halted when the Cavaliers' Shawn Harris upset the sixth-ranked Scotton 5-4.
165-pounder Kyle Kiss notched another victory for Carolina, a 3-1 decision over UVa's Pat Riley, to bring the team score to 16-12, but the Cavaliers closed the match with two straight victories at 174 and 184 pounds.
Carolina will be back in action Saturday at 3 p.m. as they continue their road trip in Annapolis, Md. against Navy.
No. 16 Virginia 23, North Carolina 12 197: No. 20 Brent Jones (UVa) dec. No. 12 Dennis Drury, 4-3; UVa, 3-0 285: Ziad Haddad (UNC) dec. Jack Danilkowicz (UVa), 10-3; Tied 3-3 125: Ross Gitomer (UVa) major dec. Brian Bokoski (UNC), 16-5; UVa 7-3 133: Matt Snyder (UVa) dec. Jeremy Shaw (UNC), 5-3; UVa 10-3 141: Derek Valenti (UVa) dec. Mike Rappo (UNC), 9-3; UVa 13-3 149: Jon Burns (UNC) injury default over Kellon Balum (UVa); UVa 13-9 157: Shawn Harris (UVa) dec. No. 6 Thomas Scotton (UNC), 5-4; UVa 16-9 165: Kyle Kiss (UNC) dec. Pat Riley (UVa), 3-1; UVa 16-12 174: No. 4 Chris Henrich (UVa) major dec. Thomas Ferguson (UNC), 19-6; UVa 20-12 184: Mike Salopek (UVa) dec. Nick Tenpenny (UNC), 5-3; UVa 23-12
Players Mentioned
