A group of 10 newly crowned wrestlers, surrounded by a pack of exhilarated coaches and teammates, crowded onto a podium in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday night and hoisted a championship trophy high above their heads.
The Terrapin wrestling team, for the third time in the past four seasons, had capped off its year with an ACC Championship.
"It's cliché," coach Kerry McCoy said, "but this is what we train for."
Nine of the Terps' 10 wrestlers placed at the tournament, helping to compile a team score of 94.5 points and giving them a 12-point victory over favored Virginia Tech, which finished second.
Topping the Hokies was especially gratifying for the Terps, said 174-pound Mike Letts, who won his third career individual title Saturday. The lone blemish on the Terps' conference record had been a one-point loss to Virginia Tech in College Park on Jan. 23, and a triumph at the conference championship served as retribution for their earlier defeat.
"When they left our house with a one-point win, I knew everybody really wanted to get them back," Letts said. "We showed up, took control of it and seized the moment."
The Terps used a balanced effort from all of their wrestlers to top the competition, finishing the tournament with five individual champions, one runner-up and three third-place finishers.
Top-seeded 141-pound Jon Kohler won his second career individual title, defeating N.C. State's Darrius Little in overtime for the second time this season, while 165-pound Josh Asper, 184-pound Corey Peltier and heavyweight Spencer Myers each won their first career ACC titles. The Terps' only loss in the finals round was 157-pound Kyle John, who fell to the Hokies' Jesse Dong for the second straight year and third time this season.
Letts, though, may have put on the most impressive performance for the Terps, however, winning the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler award. Wrestling against another two-time ACC Champion in Virginia's No. 4 Chris Henrich, Letts avenged an earlier 3-2 loss with a 4-2 win Saturday in the 174-pound finals to win his third conference title at his final ACC Championship.
"My main goal was just to wrestle — that's really all you can do, and you really can't worry about anything else," Letts said. "I knew it would be a hard-fought match, but I grinded it out and got the win."
"We've known all year that Mike can compete with and beat some of the best guys in the country," McCoy said. "It just shows what Mike is capable of."
The Terps also received stellar performances from some of their more inexperienced wrestlers. Along with the freshman Myers' individual championship, 125-pound freshman Shane Gentry, 197-pound freshman Christian Boley and 133-pound senior Lou Ruland all claimed third-place finishes in their first-ever ACC Championship appearances.
"We knew that this team at the beginning of the year had a lot of youth. We had some situations where the youth showed," McCoy said. "It just shows that if they continue to do the things we're telling them to do, the sky is the limit for this group."
"We all won it together. We're all a team, and everybody contributed to where we got and where we're headed," Myers added. "We just want to win nationals as a team now."
The NCAA Wrestling Championship begins March 17 in Philadelphia, and the Terps already have six automatic qualifiers: Kohler, John, Asper, Letts, Peltier and Myers. More wrestlers could receive bids to the tournament when the brackets are released later this week.
With a league championship under their belts and at least half a dozen wrestlers headed to Philadelphia, the Terps have hopes of lifting another trophy in two weeks' time. But Saturday, they were happy to just be back on top of the ACC.
Said McCoy: "To actually be here, have it officially over and be on the top of the podium is a great thing."
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