Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110059
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Virginia Tech's football staff would have welcomed Hokie wrestler Josh Feldman, but there was a hitch: The football Hokies didn't have room to add another scholarship player.
Feldman, who went to Tech as a walk-on, accepted a partial wrestling scholarship in January - knowing full well he was forfeiting a chance to try out for football, because NCAA rules mandate that a two-sport athlete's scholarship counts against the limit of the major sport (football or basketball).
Now, Feldman is headed to the NCAA wrestling tournament.
"I think he can basically go with anybody in the nation, except maybe the top five [individuals]," Tech coach Jerry Cheynet said. "He's quick. He moves like a 150-pounder."
Feldman will be in Oklahoma City, Okla., on March 19 when the three-day tournament begins. By winning the Colonial Athletic Association's heavyweight division, Feldman got an automatic bid to the NCAAs. It is Tech's first year in the CAA's wrestling league, which includes five full-fledged CAA members (George Mason, Old Dominion, William and Mary, James Madison and American), Tech and Liberty.
In previous years, Hokie wrestlers competed in the East Region, a collection of 27 schools that held a tournament with automatic NCAA bids awarded to individual winners. Last year, Cheynet said, 13 of the 16 wrestlers that went to the NCAA from the East Region came from the seven CAA wrestling schools.
Feldman is 27-3-1 this year in all meets. That win total is tied with 134-pounder Jason Diggs (1982-83) and heavyweight Bill Pheffer (1984-85) for the most in a single season at Tech. Rob Fair won 35 matches in 1984-85. Feldman's 15-0-1 record in dual meets made him only the second Tech wrestler to go unbeaten since 1974. Fair went 15-0-0 in '84-85.
Virginia Tech's women's basketball team plays UNC-Charlotte on Wednesday in the first round of the Metro Tournament. The Hokies will be trying for their first tournament win in three years. Tech is 6-9 overall in the tournament,including 1-4 in the past four seasons.
The women's tournament,unlike the men's version this year, awards the champion with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Here are the pairings for the women's tournament,beginning today at Louisville's Freedom Hall. Overall records are in parentheses:
No. 1 seed Louisville (19-8) gets a bye; No. 2 Southern Mississippi (18-9) vs. No. 7 South Florida (13-14), 2 p.m.; No. 3 UNC Charlotte (20-7) vs. No. 6 Virginia Tech (9-17), 4 p.m.; No. 4 Virginia Commonwealth (16-11) vs. No. 5 Tulane (9-18), 7 p.m.
The UNC-Charlotte-Virginia Tech winner plays the Southern Miss-South Florida winner at 2 p.m. Thursday, and Louisville plays the VCU-Tulane winner at 4 p.m. Thursday. The championship is 9:30 p.m. Friday, after the men's three first-round games.
The men's and women's Metro tournaments are being held at the same site for the first time in league history.
Virginia Tech baseball coach Chuck Hartman entered this season eighth among active coaches in victories in NCAA Division I baseball with 969. Among the top 10, Hartman is one of four coaches at schools east of the Mississippi River, and Tech is the northernmost of those schools. The West and South are considered college baseball's strongest regions.
Hartman entered the season ninth in all-time victories.
\ UPCOMING IN BLACKSBURG:Men's tennis - vs. George Mason, 2 p.m. March 14; vs. West Virginia, 2 p.m. March 15; vs. Western Carolina, Radford and Liberty (four-way tournament), March 20-22.
Scott Blanchard is a Roanoke Times & World-News sportswriter.
by CNB