Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Virginia Tech is the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 2026 wrestling champs.
A crowd of close to 5,000 in Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg witnessed the Hokies hold off second place Stanford to claim both the dual and overall championships.
Last month, for the first time since 2016-2017, the No. 6 Virginia Tech wrestling team snatched outright possession of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title to finish an undefeated conference competition slate. So, this weekend, the Hokies added to the trophy case.
Stanford placed second with 84.0 points, followed by NC State (57.0), North Carolina (53.0), Pitt (37.0), Virginia (21.5) and Duke (2.0).
Virginia Tech true freshman Aaron Seidel was sensational, earning Most Outstanding Wrestler honors after two dominant technical falls — 17-2 over Pitt’s No. 25 Evan Tallmadge and 18-3 over Stanford’s No. 8 Tyler Knox — to claim the 133-pound title.
Virginia Tech’s Eddie Ventresca (125) and NC State’s Matty Singleton (174) repeated as ACC champions, while the Hokies and Wolfpack combined to win seven of the 10 weight classes. Other champions included Stanford’s Jack Consiglio (141) and Daniel Cardenas (157) and North Carolina’s Bryce Hepner (165).
Four of the 10 matches went to extra periods, including a sudden victory thriller at 184 pounds and three tiebreakers at 125, 149 and 174.
Tech qualifies all 10 of its wrestlers for the national championship, the fourth time in program history and third in the past four seasons.
Elsewhere, a future Hokie finished an unbelievable high school career.
Tech commit-Bo Bassett broke the Pennsylvania state career wins record and became the winningest undefeated wrestler in Pennsylvania’s history with an unblemished 170-0 record and was his third-state title at 145 pounds.
