No. 10 Virginia Tech Wrestling’s start to the 2025 National Duals Invitational in Tulsa didn’t get off to the start that the Hokies hoped for with an upset loss at 125 and a pair of tech falls costing the Hokies dearly.
No. 10 Virginia Tech lost 19-17 to No. 9 Minnesota and dropped into the consolation bracket where they will face Wyoming next at 4pm. Here’s the rundown of how things went down.
- 125: No. 4 Eddie Ventresca loses in rideoutd to No. 8 Jore Volk 3-1
- 133: No. 17 Dillon Campbell beats Chris Cannon 5-3
- 141: No. 17 Tom Crook loses to No. 8 Vance VomBauer 5-4
- 149: Noah Nininger wins via tech fall over Rhett Koenig 16-1
- 157: Matt Heinrich loses via tech fall to No. 14 Charlie Millard 16-1
- 165: Ryan Burton beats No. 11 Andrew Sparks 7-4
- 174: No. 23 Sergio Desiante loses in rideouts to No. 22 Ethan Riddle 2-1
- 184: No. 22 Jaden Bullock loses via tech fall to No. 1 Max McEnelly 23-7
- 197: No. 23 Sonny Sasso beats No. 17 Gavin Nelson 8-4
- HWT: No. 18 Jimmy Mullen beats Bennett Tabor 3-1
Tech going 0-2 in rideouts was costly for the Hokies with Eddie Ventresca’s loss to Jore Volk being disappointing given the numerous toss-up matchups. Ventresca will certainly look to bounce back and show why he remains a serious national title contender at 125 this season.
Dillon Campbell remains a major bright spot for the Hokies with a title at Southeast Open being followed by an impressive win over Chris Cannon, who has moved back to 133 this season where he previously was a two-time All-American. While the expectation was that standout true freshman Aaron Seidel would start, the redshirt freshman Campbell may be complicating things.
Tom Crook had a tough early loss at the Southeast Open but has looked better the past two weeks including with this loss against a two-time All-American in Vombaur.
The youth of the lineup were among the stars as a whole as true freshman Ryan Burton picked up a very impressive win over a top 13 opponent in Andrew Sparks after almost beating him at the Southeast Open previously. Burton is expected to be the primary starter over Mac Church and if he is included in the Intermat rankings next week, he should jump in somewhere in the top 15 at worst.
Noah Nininger made a strong case to be the 149 starter during Caleb Henson’s redshirt season with his impressive victory though it didn’t come against the toughest competition.
Matt Heinrich remains a fill-in 157 while Ethen Miller recovers from an undisclosed injury that keeps the Maryland transfer sidelined.
Sergio Desiante was unable to avenge his previous loss to Ethan Riddle though this was a much better performance than that one. Meanwhile, Jaden Bullock losing by tech fall is extremely disappointing, even with his defeat coming to the No. 1 opponent.
Sonny Sasso and Jimmy Mullen both picked up important wins with Sasso being a top 20 opponent while Mullen beat a Minnesota heavyweight in Tabor who isn’t ranked because he isn’t listed as the starter currently, but whom WrestleStat had at No. 19 entering this weekend.
Overall, it was an up and down opener for Virginia Tech, but the Hokies needed more if they wanted to advance to the quarterfinals. Now VT will look to wrestle their way up to a solid top 10 finish through the consolation bracket starting with Wyoming.
