Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 2 | October 2017

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America recognition in his final year. Gustafson could follow the
same path as that of Mastriani, who earned All-America honors for
the first time his senior year.
“What Sal [Mastriani] was able to do last year as a fifth-year senior
has motivated Dennis, and I think just having a guy like Tyler Graff [a
four-time All-American at 133 pounds while at Wisconsin] to roll with
has been able to help him with his wrestling and with his confidence in
himself,” Robie said. “I expect a big year out of Dennis.
He’s going to be a critical part of what we do. We
need him to perform.”
Josh Baier, who won a state
championship while at Cave Spring
High in Roanoke, Virginia, entered
the fall as the top backup at this
weight class.
141 pounds
Things are up in the air for the
Hokies at 141 pounds, as Robie
knows he needs one of his
younger wrestlers at this class
to emerge. The contenders
for the job include redshirt
freshmen Brent Moore
and Andrew Mehrholz,
freshman Caden Darber
and junior Brendan
Ryan. Moore probably
ranks as the
favorite to win the job
after going 26-6 while
wrestling unattached
during his redshirt
season. Those 26 wins
included nine pins.
“We’ve got a lot of
young guys in there
that are unproven, but
if you had to say one
guy is the favorite, it
would have to be Brent Moore just from what he did last year as far as
having some success,” Robie said. “What we’ve seen in the room, we’ve
got to get his weight in a good place and get him to feeling good and
wrestling well on a one-hour weigh-in. That’s his challenge.
“He’s a competitive and tough kid. It’s going to require discipline and
a lot of work for him to maintain the weight and do it the right way.
That’s his challenge. Not far behind him would be Andrew Mehrholz
from [Deerfield] Illinois who redshirted last year. He’s a talented guy,
and he’s going to be in the mix.”
149 pounds
Chishko returns to anchor this weight class for the third straight year.
He won his first ACC title last season, and he finished sixth at the NCAA
Championships for the second consecutive year to earn All-America
honors. He went 25-6 overall and already has won 55 matches in two
years. He enters the season ranked fourth in the nation at his weight
class, and Robie expects a big redshirt junior season.
“He’s got to be a guy whose goal is to be wrestling in the NCAA final
on Saturday night,” Robie said.
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