Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 9 No. 2 | October 2016

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44 Inside Hokie Sports
1, 2,3,4 - Logo Brands
5 - Victory Tailgate
6, 7, 8, 9 - Picnic Time
10, 11, 12, 13 - NIKE
14, 15 - Lillybee -
16, 17 - Emerson Street
18, 19, 20 - Yeti -
21 - Big Sport Gifts
22 - zoozatz
23 - Westrick Paper
24 - Rock ‘Em
25 - ’47
26 - Vera Bradley
NCAA runner-up the year before [NC State’s
Pete Renda]. That just shows you how tough
184 is.
“But we really like Zack. He’s a guy who can
wrestle in a lot of positions. He’s fun towatch. He
has a lot of skill. Like I said, he’s super talented.”
The Hokies, though, lack depth at this
weight class. T.J. Allen, a freshman from
Mechanicsville, Virginia, goes into the season
as the top backup option.
197 POUNDS
Jared Haught finally broke through last
season and wrestled the way that the coaches
expected when they recruited him out of
Parkersburg, West Virginia. The redshirt junior
qualified for the NCAA Championships for the
second time and earned All-America honors
for the first time. He went 22-10 on the season,
including a four-match winning streak during
the NCAAs that culminated with him beating
nemesis Conner Hartmann of Duke.
Dresser thinks that even bigger things could
be in store for Haught.
“He was the most improved guy we had
from December to March,” Dresser said. “To
be honest, he might be the most improved
guy from March to November, too. He’s a guy
who is capable—and I never would have said
this last year—of being in the finals. If I picked
up the paper and saw that he was in the NCAA
finals, it wouldn’t surprise me. He’s definitely
in the top three or four.
“It’s just a matter of confidence. He opened
up a little bit. He decided that he was going to
be there, and then, ‘Boom,’ he got there.”
Dylan Cook, a sophomore from Bluefield,
Virginia, is the top backup at this class. He won
three matches last season in a limited role.
HEAVYWEIGHT
Walz, arguably the leader of this team, holds
down this weight class and is coming off the
best season of his career—one in which he
earned All-America honors for the second time.
The redshirt senior went 27-4 on the season.
His weight class features the return of the
national champion [Kyle Snyder], who also
won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio
de Janeiro. But Dresser expects another big-
time season from his leader.
“Ty is the kind of guy who likes that kind
of challenge,” Dresser said. “He’s definitely
gunning for being a three-time All-American,
and he’s one of the leaders on our team. For a
heavyweight, he’s fun to watch. He’s a crowd
favorite and a program favorite.”
Dresser also thinks highly ofWalz’s projected
backup—Andrew Dunn, a redshirt freshman
from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Dunn went
49-0 his senior season in high school and won
the state title as a heavyweight.
The Virginia Tech wrestling team
opens the 2016-17 season Nov. 5 with two
matches—Edinboro and VMI—at Cassell
Coliseum. The Hokies’ schedule features the
usual array of tough competition, as Dresser
never shies away from testing his team. Tech
goes to Northern Iowa (Nov. 18) and Missouri
(Nov. 20) and wrestles West Virginia (Dec. 18)
in Parkersburg, West Virginia—the hometown
of Haught. Dresser thinksMissouri is a national
title contender, along with Penn State, Iowa,
Ohio State and Oklahoma State.
In the ACC, the Hokies wrestle last year’s
tournament champion, NC State, at Cassell
Coliseum on Feb. 11. They also face a rapidly
improving North Carolina team on the road
(Jan. 8).
This is a program that isn’t afraid of
challenges. It’s one that isn’t afraid of
expectations either.
This program possesses a ton of talent. But
to reach the pinnacle of the sport, it needs for a
lot of things to go its way.
“I say the same thing every year,” Dresser
said. “If we want to make a run, three things
have to happen—we have to keep improving
and progress as wrestlers, we have to stay
healthy and that was a big factor last year when
we made our run, and last, we have to get a
little bit lucky.
“If we can do those three things, I think
we’ve got a shot.”
THE BAR
Again
Continued
from page 43