Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 2 | October 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 43 Before the game or after , Preston’s Restaurant is a delicious place for a new game-day tradition. Start with our fresh breakfast buffet. Order lunch or dinner from our mouth-watering a la carte menu of seasonal cuisine. And don’t forget the Valley’s best brunch, every Sunday at Preston’s. Make Preston’s Restaurant your game-day tradition. @PrestonsRestaurant @PrestonsIVTSCC 540.231.0120 | www.InnatVirginiaTech.com 901 Prices Fork Rd, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (inside The Inn at Virginia Tech) Reservations recommended. A delicious game-day tradition. Heavyweight Last year’s heavyweight, AndrewDunn, decided to leave the program, so Robie and his staff are looking at two wrestlers as replacements in John Borst and Billy Miller. Borst wrestled mostly at 197 pounds last year and is bulking up, but while wrestling unattached as a freshman, he went 21-5, with eight bonus point victories. Miller transferred from Edinboro and certainly brings impressive credentials, having twice won the Eastern Wrestling League title, and on three occasions, qualified for the NCAA Championships. The redshirt senior won 79 matches in his time there, but he has been injured so far this fall and probably won’t wrestle until December. “John had a pretty solid redshirt season,” Robie said. “He’s building himself into a heavyweight. He weighs about 220 now, so he’s not a huge heavyweight, but he’s getting there. When Billy comes back, there will be a wrestle-off there, a competition to see who ends up at that spot. I would expect Billy to be back and wrestling at some time in December.” Tech opens the season Nov. 4 at the Hokie Open in Roanoke, Virginia, and that marks the start of the typical grueling slate put together by Robie and his staff. The Hokies take on perennial powers in Missouri, Cornell and Lehigh, along with quality non-conference foes in West Virginia and Northwestern. The league schedule also figures to be brutal, as the ACC continues to get better in the sport. The Hokies and NC State battled it out last year, but North Carolina, Pitt, Duke and Virginia are making strides. But Tech’s staff and wrestlers worry more about themselves, just their daily work ethic and getting better each day. If they do that, they know they’ll be in the hunt for the ACC title and a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships—again. “I like where our team is at right now,” Robie said. “I feel really good about our team and how we’ve progressed through the offseason and the work ethic and commitment. I’m cautiously optimistic about the season. That’s the best way for me to put it.”