SALEM, Va. -- Virginia Tech picked up three wins at the Hokie Duals on Sunday at the Salem Civic Center to move to 4-0 on the year. In the first match, the eighth-ranked Hokies tied with Kent State, but won on criteria in the third tiebreaker to take the 19-18 win. From there, the train got moving as Tech rolled past Chattanooga 27-10 and then blanked VMI 47-0 to end the day.
Third-ranked Devin Carter continued his hot start to the season at 141 pounds. First, he pinned eighth-ranked Tyler Small of Kent State in picking up points that would prove to be big at the end. In his second match, he earned a quick technical fall and then pinned VMI’s Joe Jarrells in just 39 seconds. Also going undefeated on the day were 20th-ranked Joey Dance at 125 pounds, fifth-ranked Zach Neibert at 149 pounds and freshman Ty Walz at heavyweight.
Walz came up big for the Hokies in the first match of the day. With Tech trailing Kent State 18-15, he got an early lead on Mimmo Lytle and picked up the 8-4 win to tie the match. The first criteria in a tiebreaker is matches won and both teams won five matches. The second criteria is six-point decisions, in which each team had one pin. The third criteria is match points in non-pin matches and Tech finished plus-7 to pick up the bonus point to win 19-18.
