DURHAM, N.C. (theACC.com) – For the first time since 2018, the Virginia Tech Hokies won the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championship, scoring 91.5 points led by four individual champions on Sunday, March 9, in Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
Virginia Tech placed six wrestlers in the finals and claimed four individual gold medals to win its fifth ACC title and third under head coach Tony Robie in front of 3,312 fans in attendance. This year’s championship marked the fourth consecutive year with over 3,000 fans.
With their win, the Hokies ended NC State’s run of six straight ACC titles. The Wolfpack placed third overall with 62.5 points, one point behind Pitt, which placed second with 63.5 points.
North Carolina finished fourth with 45.5 points, Stanford placed finished with 45.0 and Virginia finished sixth with 38.5 points. Host Duke was seventh with 1.5 points.
Five of the 10 championship matches went into overtime, while nine of the 10 bouts were decided by four points or less.
Starting at 157 pounds, a top-15 matchup saw No. 15 Rafael Hipolito of Virginia Tech defeat defending champion No. 15 Ed Scott of NC State, 7-3.
Stanford’s first-ever ACC individual wrestling champion came at 165 pounds, as No. 13 Hunter Garvin upended defending champion No. 20 Nick Hamilton of Virginia with a 5-1 decision at 165 pounds.
After NC State’s No. 20 Matty Singleton scored a 5-2 win over No. 22 Luca Augustine of Pitt at 174 pounds, the Panthers reeled off three straight wins at the upper weights with No. 13 Reece Heller at 184 pounds, No. 10 Mac Stout at 197 and No. 14 Dayton Pitzer at 285 pounds.
Pitzer was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler for the championship, going 3-0 with wins over No. 25 Peter Ming of Stanford (8-2 decision), No. 4 Isaac Trumble of NC State (4-1 decision) and No. 13 Jimmy Mullen of Virginia Tech (4-1 (SV-1)) to win the title at 285 pounds.
Virginia Tech won three out of the final four bouts, starting with No. 4 Eddie Ventresca defeating No. 5 Vince Robinson of NC State 4-1 in a sudden victory at 125 pounds. No. 11 Connor McGonagle downed two-time defending champion No. 13 Kai Orine of NC State with a 5-2 sudden victory in overtime, while two bouts later at 149 pounds, the defending NCAA National Champion defeated No. 6 Lachlan McNeil of North Carolina 4-1 in overtime.
At 141 pounds, No. 19 Dylan Cedeno of Virginia posted a decision over No. 10 Sam Latona of Virginia Tech, claiming his first ACC individual title.
In addition to determining league champions, this year’s ACC Wrestling Championship filled the conference’s 38 automatic NCAA berths with the champions and runner-up at each weight class.
Runner-up and automatic qualifiers included NC State’s Robinson (125) and Orine (133), VT’s Latona (141), North Carolina’s McNeil (149), NC State’s Scott (157), Virginia’s Hamilton (165), Pitt’s Augustine (174), NC State’s Dylan Fishback (184), Stanford’s Nick Stemmet (197) and VT’s Mullen (285).
Also earning an automatic berth was Keyveon Roller of Virginia (3rd) and Nick Babin of Pitt (4th) at 125 pounds; Ethan Oakley of North Carolina (3rd) at 133 pounds; Jason Miranda of Stanford (3rd) and Briar Priest of Pitt (4th) at 141 pounds; Koy Buesgens of NC State (3rd) and Jack Gioffre of Virginia (4th) at 149 pounds; Sonny Santiago of North Carolina (3rd) at 157 pounds; Mac Church of Virginia Tech (3rd), Derek Fields of NC State (4th) and Jared Keslar of Pitt (5th) at 165 pounds; Joshua Ogunsanya of North Carolina (3rd) and Lennox Wolak of Virginia Tech (4th) at 174 pounds; Gavin Kane of North Carolina (3rd) at 184 pounds; Andy Smith of Virginia Tech (3rd) at 197 pounds; and Nolan Neves of North Carolina (3rd), Peter Ming of Stanford (4th) and Connor Barket of Duke (5th) at 285 pounds.
The ACC is hopeful of landing additional at-large spots in the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which will be held March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Please see below for the results of Sunday night’s championship matches. The winner and runner-up in each weight class earned 2025 All-ACC honors.
Championship Results
157 – #10 Rafael Hipolito (VT) decision #15 Ed Scott ^ (NCSU), 7-3
165 – #13 Hunter Garvin (STAN) decision #20 Nick Hamilton (UVA), 5-1
174 – #20 Matty Singleton (NCSU) decision #22 Luca Augustine (PITT), 5-2
184 – #13 Reece Heller (PITT) decision #14 Dylan Fishback (NCSU), 4-1 (SV-1)
197 – #10 Mac Stout (PITT) major decision #15 Nick Stemmet (STAN), 10-2
285 – #14 Dayton Pitzer (PITT) decision #13 Jimmy Mullen (VT), 4-1 (SV-1)
125 – #4 Eddie Ventresca (VT) decision #5 Vince Robinson (NCSU), 4-1 (SV-1)
133 – #11 Connor McGonagle (VT) decision #13 Kai Orine ^ (NCSU), 5-2 (SV-1)
141 – #19 Dylan Cedeno (UVA) decision #10 Sam Latona (VT), 8-6
149 – #1 Caleb Henson ^ (VT) decision #6 Lachlan McNeil (UNC), 4-1 (SV-1)
^ - two-time ACC champion
# InterMat ranking
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
Dayton Pitzer, Pitt
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1. Virginia Tech - 91.5
2. Pitt - 63.5
3. NC State - 62.5
4. North Carolina - 45.5
5. Stanford - 45.0
6. Virginia - 38.5
7. Duke - 1.5