Talented, successful teams in any sport at any level typically can brag that a little luck was on their side. If Virginia Tech has a matside chair reserved for luck, it’s gone unfilled.

The Hokies, who have tumbled to #10 in both the Flowrestling dual meet rankings and team tournament ratings, perennially boast a rugged schedule and this season is no different. But upsets, injuries and a few, ill-timed bad decisions on the mat have Tech sitting at 3-3, with losses to #4 Missouri, #6 Ohio State and #7 Cornell. 

“Listen, we lost to three really good teams this year. And matches that, honestly, I think we could have won all three of them if we wrestled a little better in some places and we had a little more luck,” Virginia Tech coach Tony Robie said. “That's the way it goes when you put a schedule together like we have.

“But you know that that's part of the deal and things don't always go your way. We wrestle the dual-meet season to prepare us for the NCAA Championships, but we always want to win when we step out on the mat. As a coach, you understand that when you're going on the road and you're wrestling teams like Missouri and Cornell, more things have to go right than go wrong for you to win the dual meet.”

The Hokies kicked off the new year with 22-17 and 24-13 losses to Missouri and Cornell. In the former, All-America Sam Latona rolled across his back and got stuck by Kade Moore and in the latter, All-America Bryce Andonian was forced to default in the first period against Meyer Shapiro. Plenty more details were involved, including losing the final three bouts in each match, but that was enough to alter momentum.

“We haven't made a lot of luck either,” Robie added. “We have to wrestle better in some places. We have to have some guys that aren’t favored in some places step up a little bit more … even if it's not getting majored or teched or giving up bonus points, and we have to win some more close matches. We're doing that a little bit; we're not doing it enough.”

Robie said the Hokies won a lot of the matches that they needed to win to prevail against Missouri. 

“They had a really good team and if you're gonna beat a really good teams, things like that can’t happen to you,” he said.

Andonian, according to Robie, will be out of the lineup for a while. 

“It looked bad,” he said. “We were concerned. He's gonna have to take some time away and recover and heal, but he will be back before the ACC Championships. So that's something we're grateful for.”

Appalachian State is on deck on Friday in Blacksburg and Robie said a few starters likely will sit out for health reasons to give them a rest and get them back to close to 100 percent. 

“We have App State and those guys wrestle hard,” he said. “Coach (John Mark) Bentley does a great job with them. We know we're gonna have to be on our A-game.”

A well-timed two-week break awaits after that. 

“I think it's good,” Robie said about the upcoming down time. “We've been on the go a lot. Some of these guys were in Chicago (at the Midlands) and in the last two weeks, they went from Chicago to Missouri to Ithaca. And then we have a short turnaround (before Appalachian State).

“We'll give our guys Saturday and Sunday off and kind of get in get some training in the early part of next week. I think it comes at a good time for us having the week off. Let some guys get healthy.”

Some Snowy Travel Woes

The snowstorm that ravaged the East Coast on the new year’s opening weekend didn’t leave the Hokies unscathed. They chartered a plane to Ithaca, New York, but the storm was underway.

“It wasn't great,” Robie said. “When we got there, there was a snowstorm and we had to push cars up the hill getting up to campus. It was an interesting night on Saturday trying to get to their workout facility.”

Getting A Look At Jimmy Mullen

Robie used heavyweight Jimmy Mullen against Cornell’s 19th-ranked Lewis Fernandes, and Fernandes needed a takedown in the second sudden-victory period to subdue the VT freshman, 6-3.

“Quite honestly, I felt like he (Mullen) outwrestled the guy for the majority of the match,” Robie said. “Maybe a few mistakes that have a lot to do with his inexperience and his youth, but I thought he wrestled pretty good and I felt like he had had plenty of opportunities to win. (It was) a good learning experience for Jimmy and we've got these five opportunities to compete, so why not use them and see what he's about. He'll probably get in there again this season at some point.”

Good Progress for Flynn, Crook

Robie pulled the Olympic redshirt off sophomore Cooper Flynn and it appears that sophomore Tom Crook will continue at 141.

“I think Cooper Flynn and Tom Crook absolutely are helping us,” Robie said. “Cooper's got three top-10 or top-12 wins against Stanford, Missouri and Cornell. That's encouraging when you have a guy that you think is one of the best guys in the country, and if he wrestles the way he's capable of, he can do some great things at the national tournament potentially.”

“And I think Tom Crook is definitely going to give us a boost down the stretch here. I think he can compete with most of the guys in the country. He needs to continue to improve and get better and win some close matches, but he did a great job in Missouri. He's got a great pace that he wrestles at and a good gas tank. We like his style. He just goes hard, and I think that's good for everybody when you have a guy like that in your lineup.”