I wanted to let the dust settle before gathering my thoughts on this year’s tournament so some of my opinions will not be original.

As someone on here previously mentioned, kudos to the athletes, coaches, training staff and doctors for making this season a thing. Having swabs shoved up your nose multiple times a week, sacrificing your personal life to distance/quarantine and getting thrown off of your routine (tough for wrestlers to do) for the sake of competing for Virginia Tech this season will never be forgotten. Thank you for providing us a sense of normalcy and for making us proud whenever you toed the line.

Last week was filled with highs and lows. The high obviously being that we have three All-Americans for the eighth straight season – only us, Oklahoma State, Iowa and Penn State can say the same. These three men got it done against some tough obstacles, including a wacky preseason. I remember seeing footage on social media and hearing about our guys wrestling in facilities off campus and figuring out ways to stay in shape during the months when they would traditionally be in the swing of competing. Not having the usual training period and competition schedule leading up to March probably hurt for some guys.

Those things probably didn’t hurt a sixth-year guy like Korbin Myers (who was probably on a pitch count all season anyway for his previous injuries) and it showed. Which leads me to my next observation: for Korbin Myers, this was his fourth NCAA Tournament. Every one of our other qualifiers had either wrestled in one NCAAs (Bolen, Mekhi) or none (Latona, Andonian, Brady, Howard, Catka). In Bolen’s case, his last NCAA Tournament was in 2018 when he was at 174. Three years ago! It’s crazy sometimes to look at the youth on this team.

Everyone has brought up Mekhi’s heroic effort to battle through pain to wrestle two matches last week, and rightfully so. But let’s look at this: Mekhi scored two points for us at this year’s championships. If he doesn’t get those two wins, we would have ended up with 34.5 team points instead of 36.5. That would’ve put us at 17th place – behind North Carolina (blech) and Stanford – instead of 15th. From an optics perspective, it obviously looks better to place top 15 with three All-Americans. Mekhi’s two points meant a whole lot.

I’m glad that this program now has expectations to push for team trophies. Finishing in the top 10 is no longer the standard. We have a national champion, we have a team trophy, let’s start doing this every year. Having a Hokie wrestle for the big one on the stage on Saturday night on ESPN was something we hadn’t experienced as a fan base since 2017. It felt different! Heading into Friday morning (before we knew what we knew about Mekhi), we all felt like we had five guys that could get to Saturday night in Latona, Korbin, Andonian, Lewis and Bolen. That didn’t happen and some folks (including myself for a few moments) felt like it was a disappointment.

But next year though, to me, is the year. Everybody returns but Korbin. We’re expecting to see gains from guys like Catka, HIllegas, Brady and Howard. Andonian has national title talent, but can he put it all together consistently? How will Mekhi’s rehab go? Bolen is a scouted guy, what will he add to his arsenal? Do we add anyone on the transfer market? Will we see Ulrey or Eddie V next season? A ton of questions.

Now I ask you all to do one thing (if you’re able to and assuming COVID protocols won’t carry over): go to the duals. The best wrestlers want to wrestle in front of big crowds. It might seem silly but it’s a real thing. Attendance at Cassell is the next big step for the program. Our guys deserve it.