North Carolina
ACC Championships
Henderson, Ramos Claim ACC Titles
March 7, 2016 | Wrestling
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. --- Evan Henderson and Ethan Ramos grabbed Atlantic Coast Conference titles to lead No. 14 North Carolina to a third-place finish at the 2016 ACC Wrestling Championship Sunday at John Paul Jones Arena. Henderson picked up his second career ACC championship while Ramos was a first-time winner for the Tar Heels, who had multiple conference champions for the first time since 2006.
In total, Carolina earned six automatic berths to the 2016 NCAA Championships that begin Thursday, March 17, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Henderson and Ramos will be joined as automatic qualifiers by Joey Ward (141 pounds), Robert Henderson (157), John Michael Staudenmayer (165) and Alex Utley (184).
Henderson capped his stellar career against ACC competition with his second league crown. The 2013 champion at 141 pounds, Henderson swept his way to a title in his first conference tournament at 149. The redshirt senior opened the day with a 4-0 win over Virginia's Chris Yankowich before handling Duke's Mitch Finesilver 8-3 in the final. With Sunday's win, he became Carolina's first two-time winner since Evan Sola won three titles at 133 from 2003-07.
Ramos continued his dominant redshirt sophomore campaign with his first ACC title. He opened the day with a major decision in the semifinal round, thumping Virginia's Tyler Askey 15-5. The final at 174 was a war of attrition with Virginia Tech's Zach Epperly. After a scoreless opening round, the two wrestlers traded escapes to make it 1-1 late into the third. Ramos scored the bout's only takedown with less than 30 seconds remaining and held on for a 3-2 decision.
Perhaps the most dramatic moment of the day came in the third-place bout at 157. Robert Henderson, who entered as the No. 5 seed, stunned Virginia's Andrew Atkinson with a pin in the consolation semifinals to earn a shot at the final automatic bid for the weight. The redshirt senior met Pitt's Ronnie Garbinsky in the third-place match and the two were deadlocked at 6 after three periods. In the final moments of the first sudden-victory period, Henderson finished a scramble with a takedown to win 8-6 and clinch his first career NCAA bid.
Ward picked up a major decision in the opening round at 141 before suffering a tough 2-1 setback to Solomon Chishko of Virginia Tech in the semifinals. But the Tar Heel junior responded well and blanked Zach Finesilver of Duke 4-0 to grab third place.
Staudenmayer was Carolina's third finalist of the night after knocking off second-seeded Jake Faust of Duke in the semifinals. That 5-4 decision came after a 12-4 major decision in the opening round, but Staudenmayer came up just shy of his first ACC title. Max Rohskopf of NC State escaped in the final 15 seconds of the 165 final for the match's only point.
Utley's third-place win came at the expense of Duke's Trey Adamson and it gave the redshirt senior his second career NCAA berth. After falling into the wrestlebacks, Utley beat Virginia's Will Schany 2-1 before besting Adamson 4-2 to grab third.
Full selections for the 2016 NCAA Championships will be released this week, but Chip Ness has a chance to make it seven Tar Heels in New York as an at-large selection. The sophomore 197-pounder narrowly missed an automatic bid when he was on the wrong end of a lengthy video replay in the closing seconds of his fifth-place match loss to Nick Bonaccorsi of Pitt.
By virute of their top-two finishes, Henderson, Ramos and Staudenmayer were named to the 2016 All-ACC team.
North Carolina State edged Virginia Tech to win the team competition. NCSU's Nick Gwiazdowski won the heavyweight title and was named Most Valuable Wrestler.
Final Team Scores
1. NC State 90.0
2. Virginia Tech 81.5
3. North Carolina 56.5
4. Virginia 44.0
5. Duke 33.0
6. Pitt 31.0
Players Mentioned
