GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Virginia Tech NCAA silver medalist Mekhi Lewis has been selected the Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestler of the Year for the second time in his career, while NC State’s Ed Scott earned Freshman of the Year honors in a vote of the league’s head coaches.
Virginia Tech’s Tony Robie was voted the ACC Coach of the Year for the third time in six seasons.
Lewis, a redshirt junior from Bound Brook, New Jersey, captured the ACC Championship at 174 pounds this season after competing at 165 his first three years in Blacksburg. Lewis, the 2019 NCAA Champion at 165 pounds as the No. 8 seed, reached this year’s 174 final as the No. 2 seed before dropping a hard-fought 5-4 decision to Penn State’s top-seeded Carter Starocci in a match that was decided on sudden-victory rideout criteria.
After becoming Virginia Tech’s first national champion three years ago, Lewis made more school history as the program’s first two-time NCAA finalist. Battling back from injuries that forced him to miss the 2021 ACC Championships and take a medical withdrawal from the NCAAs, Lewis finished with a 24-2 record this season and now stands 62-6 for his college career.
NC State’s Scott took the 157-pound gold medal at the ACC Championships with a 3-2 win over 2021 149-pound national champion Austin O’Connor of North Carolina and advanced to the blood round of the 2022 NCAA Championships as the No. 4 seed.
Ranked among the nation’s top 10 wrestlers in his weight class most of the season, Scott finished 24-3 while recording seven wins by fall, seven by technical fall and three by major decision. The DuBois, Pennsylvania, native was 12-1 in dual matches and 8-1 versus fellow ranked opponents. He finished the season ranked 12th in the NCAA in falls and 16th in technical falls.
Robie guided Virginia Tech to an ACC-leading eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The Hokies’ 52.5 points at the NCAA finals marked the fourth-most in program history, and the top-10 team finish was the Hokies’ third under Robie’s watch since he took over as head coach midway through the 2017 season.
In addition to Lewis, Virginia Tech saw Bryce Andonian (bronze medalist at 149) and Korbin Myers (sixth place at 133) earn All-America honors. The Hokies join Penn State, Iowa and Cornell as the only programs to boast at least three All-Americans each of the past nine seasons. The strong showing followed an ACC Championship in which the Hokies claimed three individual titles and qualified eight wrestlers for the NCAAs.
Robie was previously voted the ACC Wrestling Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2019.