Tweet

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Virginia Tech junior Devin Carter fell in the championship bout of the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships Saturday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, falling 10-1 to second-seeded and two-time national champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State University.

Stieber controlled the pace of the match, getting four takedowns, an escape and a point for riding time to take the crown.

“That’s a top-tier guy,” Carter said. “Even if you know what’s coming like I did, he hits it anyway. It’s just unfortunate.”

Carter, the No. 4 seed at 141 pounds, won his first four matches of the tournament to reach the finals and become the first Virginia Tech wrestler in program history to advance to the championship bout.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing to get to the NCAA Championships and then to the NCAA finals and to lose,” head coach Kevin Dresser said. “It’s a dream that every serious wrestler has and that’s Devin’s dream. Fortunately, he gets another crack at it when he can get the proper amount of training. We could have been in tip-top shape and maybe still lost that match. But it would have been a heck of a match and it would have been a war. Being the third day in a row of a tournament, he just didn’t have the training or the stamina to stay with the guy. That’s an elite level guy, not only in our country, but in the whole world. To try to compete with that guy with one-fifth of the training everybody else has had in the nation is pretty much a tall order, but Devin Carter keeps amazing us.”

The Christiansburg, Va., native tore a hamstring in December and had surgery, but returned to the mat just three months later. He won an ACC title earlier in March and finished his season with a 18-1 record, earning his second All-America medal.

“Just like anything else, it gets sore,” Carter said. “It’s gets sore a lot easier. It gets sensitive to the touch and stuff like that. Yesterday, I had to just push through it. Today it felt a lot better and I got to rest it all day. I just didn’t perform. I’m going to take a few weeks off and actually heal up to 100 percent. This will definitely fuel the fire.”

“I know Devin is a really, really tough individual,” Stieber said. “I knew he had to be really tough to make it through that injury. So felt good to get through my offense and ride hard. And my defense was great, and I just kept getting after him.”

Overall, Virginia Tech finished with 49.0 points and alone in eighth place for its second straight national top-10 finish. The points and placement are both program highs, topping last year’s 43.5 points and a tie for 10th place. Tech also crowned three All-Americans in Carter, Joey Dance and Chris Penny, giving the Hokies seven in the last two seasons.

“Eight of the nine guys that qualified scored points for us this weekend to get us into eighth place,” Dresser said. “It’s a step for the program and it continues to be steps. I know we have a lot of hungry guys next year who sure want to be better than eighth. Right now, I take my hat off to these guys. They are the best team in Virginia Tech wrestling history and I told them that in the motel room before we came over.”

125: #16 seed Joey Dance (6-2; FOURTH PLACE; ALL-AMERICAN)
First Round: def. Paul Petrov (Bucknell), 6-1
Second Round: lost to #1 Jesse Delgado (Illinois), 6-1
Consolations: def. Conor Youtsey (Michigan), 10-6
Consolations: def. #7 Bradley Taylor (Wisconsin), 3-2
Consolations: def. #6 Jarrod Patterson (Oklahoma), 6-5
Consolations: def. Darian Cruz (Lehigh), 4-1
Consolations: def. #5 Dylan Peters (Northern Iowa), 10-8
Third-Place Match: lost to #3 Nico Megaludis (Penn State), 6-1

133: Dennis Gustafson (1-2)
First Round: lost to #7 Cashé Quiroga (Purdue), Fall 4:51
Consolations: def. Joey Palmer (Oregon State), 2:56
Consolations: lost to #9 Johnni DiJulius (Ohio State), 6-3

141: #4 seed Devin Carter (4-1; RUNNER-UP; ALL-AMERICAN)
First Round: def. Nick Flannery (Buffalo), Fall 3:52
Second Round: def. #13 Stephen Dutton (Michigan), 11-7
Quarterfinals: def. #12 Richard Duson (F&M), 4-3
Semifinals: def. #9 Evan Henderson (North Carolina), MD 12-3
Finals: lost to #2 Logan Stieber (Ohio State), MD 10-1

149: #10 seed Zach Neibert (2-2)
First Round: def. Ken Theobold (Rutgers), 9-4
Second Round: def. #7 Gus Sako (Virginia), 3-2
Quarterfinals: lost to #15 Mitchell Minotti (Lehigh), 4-3
Consolations: lost to James English (Penn State), 6-4 (SV)

165: Chris Moon (2-2)
First Round: lost to #3 Nick Sulzer (Virginia), 9-3
Consolations: def. Harrison Hightower (Ohio), 2-1
Consolations: def. #13 Daniel Yates (Michigan), MD 13-1
Consolations: lost to Ryan Leblanc (Indiana), 5-1

174: Austin Gabel (1-2)
First Round: lost to #11 Stephen Doty (Virginia), 3-2
Consolations: def. Caleb Marsh (Kent State), 3-1 (SV)
Consolations: lost to #12 Tanner Weatherman (Iowa State), 4-3 (TB-1)

184: #16 seed Nick Vetterlein (0-2)
First Round: lost to David Hightower (Air Force), 5-1
Pigtail Consolation: vs. Lucas Sheridan (Indiana), 4-2

197: #14 seed Chris Penny (3-2; SIXTH PLACE; ALL-AMERICAN)
First Round: def. Nick Bonaccorsi (Pitt), 3-1
Second Round: def. #3 Morgan McIntosh (Penn State), 3-2
Quarterfinals: def. #11 Nathan Burak (Iowa), 6-3
Semifinals: lost to #2 J’Den Cox (Missouri), 4-1
Consolations: lost to #5 Kyven Gadson (Iowa State), Fall 3:24
Fifth-Place Match: forfeited out

285: Ty Walz (2-2)
Pigtail: def. Nick Tavanello (Ohio State), 3-1 (SV)
First Round Match: lost to #8 J.T. Felix (Boise State), Fall 2:54
Consolations: def. Devin Mellon (Missouri), 6-4 (SV)
Consolations: lost to #10 Jeremy Johnson (Ohio), 6-2

For updates on Virginia Tech wrestling, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Wrestling