After winning the 2026 World Championship in Astana just over a week ago, world champion Bo Bassett made his highly anticipated collegiate debut for No. 5 Virginia Tech in a huge showdown with No. 12 Lehigh's Luke Stanich, the #1 ranked wrestler at 141 pounds and a former U20 world champion. This was one of the most hyped individual matchups in a dual meet in a long time even with Bassett getting back to America from Kazakhstan just days before this match.
Despite concerns about being a little fatigued, Bassett delivered a dream debut while the Hokies put on a show and proved why they are a top five team at minimum this season.
No. 5 Virginia Tech Wrestling routed No. 12 Lehigh on the road 30-6 with the Hokies taking eight of the ten matches. The biggest victory came at the very end with Bo Bassett beating Luke Stanich 13-9 in a match where Bassett asserted his control for much of this match with his lead becoming as large as 11-3 early in the third period. He was then able to hold on despite a late Stanich surge in the third period to make it interesting and bring it to the final 13-9 margin.
While the rankings probably felt they simply couldn't rank a true freshman No. 1 to open the season even if that freshman was Bo Bassett. However, he's shown on the mat that he is the clear No. 1 at 141 pounds and given his world championship, he's probably the No. 1 pound-for-pound wrestler at the collegiate level. Next week, Bassett will get the No. 1 ranking he deserves.
With Bassett-Stanich finishing the night off, the dual meet started at 149 pounds instead of at 125 pounds, with Drew Gorman filling in for Caleb Henson. The redshirt freshman delivered a huge performance as he beat Kelvin Griffin via tech fall 17-2. This is a very good win for Gorman after he had a disappointing start to his season at the Southeast Open last week.
The first ranked matchup came at 157 pounds with returning All-American Collin Gaj suffering a 5-3 loss to No. 15 Logan Rozynski. The close loss will likely have Gaj dropping a couple of spots from No. 8 when Intermat releases their latest rankings next week.
Mac Church got the start after winning the Southeast Open at 165 pounds and continued his impressive start to the season with Church getting a 10-0 major decision over Richie Grungo. With Church now being the starter for the Hokies at 165 pounds, he should debut in the rankings in place of Noah Nininger, with Church likely to fall somewhere in the mid to lower teens given his strong start.
No. 18 Ryan Burton continued his strong start to the season with a 16-6 major decision victory over Brady Collins at 174.
After a disappointing third place at the Southeast Open, No. 23 Jaden Bullock picked up a big victory taking down No. 21 Rylan Rogers 4-3 at 184. The defending ACC champ should move up at least one spot following the road victory over Rogers.
No. 8 Sonny Sasso took care of business with a dominant 16-1 tech fall victory over Cael Weidemoyer at 197. No. 13 Jimmy Mullen faced a tough matchup and came up short losing 6-0 to No. 5 Nathan Taylor at heavyweight.
No. 6 Eddie Ventresca was workmanlike with a 4-2 victory over Mason Ziegler. No. 3 Aaron Seidel wasn't as dominant as normal when facing an opponent outside the top four, but he still took care of his business with a 14-2 major decision victory over Keanu Dillard before Bassett made his debut.
The Hokies did lose a point on the team side due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Overall, it was a very good night for the Hokies with Bo Bassett shining in his collegiate debut while Jaden Bullock picked up an important win after his disappointing Southeast Open.
Tech's attention will now turn more heavily towards the upcoming Nationals Duals in mid-December, the 16-team bracket event where the Hokies are one of the favorites to win it all along with Oklahoma State.
Prior to then, VT will have home duals against The Citadel on Thursday, November 19th and Pennsylvania on Friday, December 4th. The Hokies will also have a group of wrestlers taking part in the upcoming Keystone Classic on Sunday, November 22nd at The Palestra in Philadelphia, and a selection of top starters taking part in the NWCA All-Star Classic hosted by Penn State.
