March 15, 2001

IOWA CITY - All four representatives of the Virginia Tech wrestling team won their respective matches in the opening session of the 71st edition of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, being held on the campus of the University of Iowa in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The big win came at 184 pounds, where sophomore Scott Justus - unseeded in the tournament - upset fifth-seeded Damion Hahn of Minnesota, 6-5. Sean Gray, Chris Martin and Eric Hall will also advance to the round of 16 in their respective weight classes via opening-session victories Thursday morning.

At 141 pounds, the fourth-seeded Gray used a pair of takedowns, an escape and riding time to defeat Robert Sessley of Ohio State, 6-3, in the first round. Gray took a quick 2-0 lead in the first with a takedown, but Sessley escaped to cut it to 2-1 heading into the second period. Gray started the second period on the bottom and quickly escaped and got another takedown for a 5-2 lead. Sessley, who was an All-American at 133 pounds two years ago, escaped to make it 5-2 heading into the final period. Gray began the third on top and rode Sessley until he gained the one minute needed for riding time to become a factor. Sessley escaped with under 15 seconds left, but it was too late as Gray advanced to the "Sweet 16," where he will face Mike Castillo of Michigan State.

At 165 pounds, seventh-seeded Chris Martin had little trouble in pinning freshman Johnny Clark of Ohio State in 6:33. Martin took down Clark at will to build up a 6-1 lead after one period and a 10-3 lead after two periods. Martin then got a takedown and back points before letting Clark escape. The Norfolk, Va., native then got another takedown, putting Clark right on his back to get the fall. Martin will face 10th-seeded Charles Martelli of Michigan in Friday night's session.

At 174 pounds, the seventh-seeded Hall struggled against Steve Strange of Cal-Poly SLO, but came away with an 8-7 victory. Strange started the match with a takedown, but Hall quickly reversed him to tie it up at two. Strange escaped, but Hall took him down to end the first period with a 4-3 lead. Strange started the second period with an escape, but Hall retaliated with a takedown. Strange escaped to end the second period, trailing 6-5. In the third, Hall got a reverse to take an 8-5 lead, but was then called for a stall warning. An escape by strange cut the lead to two and then Hall was called for his second stall, giving a point to Strange. The final 30 seconds was wild as Strange try to get the takedown, but Hall held him off for the 8-7 win. He will now face 10th-seeded Jacob Volkman of Minnesota in the round of 16.

At 184 pounds, Justus pulled off a huge upset when he knocked of the No. 5 seed at 184 pounds. Justus started the match with a takedown, but Hahn quickly escaped, making it 2-1. The only scoring in the second period came when Hahn escaped early on, tying the match heading to the third period. Justus began it with an escape, but Hahn came back with a takedown to take his first lead of the match at 4-3. Justus escaped to tie it back up and got a takedown to give him a two-point lead. Hahn escaped with less than a minute remaining and had a shot to win it, pulling in Justus' leg with less than 15 seconds left. Justus squirmed out of it, though, to come away with the 6-5 upset.

In this year's Championship, 330 wrestlers representing 78 schools are competing. Session Two, which will include the preliminaries and consolations, begins at 6:30 p.m., Central Time on Thursday. Session Three - the quarterfinals and consolations - will begin on Friday at 10 a.m., with Session Four - the semifinals and consolations - beginning at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, Session Five, which is the consolation semifinals and finals, begins at 8 a.m., with the finals set for 1 p.m. ESPN2 will broadcast the finals on a tape delay basis, beginning at 6 p.m., Eastern Time on Saturday, March 17.