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Despite a near-miss in the Cavaliers' quest for a team conference title, nine UVA wrestlers qualified to head to Des Moine, Iowa for the NCAA Championships. The tournament started Thursday, and concludes today with the consolation finals this afternoon and championship matches tonight. Nick Sulzer and Jedd Moore are the two Hoos left in competition, wrestling for 7th and 3rd place in the nation, respectively. For clinching a finish in the top 8, both have qualified as All-Americans.
As a team, Virginia is in 20th place with two more sessions still to go. UVA's finish shouldn't shift much from #20, but will depend on the results of the finals and consolation finals. Here is a good look at where team scores are before the last rounds, and what each team has remaining.
You could watch Sulzer and Moore wrestle on ESPNU - Moore will be up first and take on Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State, per UVA Wrestling's Twitter.
All in all, the tournament has progressed about according to (high) expectations. The Cavaliers advanced a deep group to Des Moines, and picked up two All-America awards for just the fifth time in program history. Obviously, fans would have loved to see a wrestler advance to the semis, but Sulzer, Moore, and Matt Snyder all fell short, as each was shut out in the quarterfinal round. Snyder also ended up a match short of All-American status. With another year of multiple wrestlers placing and a finish around the top-20, the program continues to establish itself as one that could consistently compete among the nation's elite.
"I'm so proud of our guys. This is an unbelievably well-deserved honor for Jedd and Nick," head coach Steve Garlan told VirginiaSports.com. "They have worked so hard for it. Words can't express how happy and excited I am for them. We are looking forward to watching them wrestle in the All-American round."
We'll have more updates on Moore and Sulzer's consolation matches as well as the final team scores right here as those events play out.