It’s late on the East Coast, semi late here in Minnesota and the College Football Playoff game is still going on as I sit down and blast out this episode. This is Short Time Shots, a mostly daily look at the scores and more from in and around the sport of wrestling, I’m Jason Bryant, and since there were no scores tonight, the show is about the “more,” today. Back home from Virginia and the 40th annual Virginia Duals. I’ve been to 24 and that tournament holds a special place in my heart. One of the more heart-wrenching moments came in the ODU-Virginia dual where Killian Cardinale, the starter for ODU, which as you know, is my alma mater, wrestled Patrick McCormick, a four-time state champion from my hometown of Poquoson and the son of one of my good friends, NCAA wrestling official Mike McCormick. I once had a similar instance where Bryan LaShomb of ODU wrestled Anthony Burke of UVA in a dual meet. That time, I was announcing. Burke was in my sister’s graduating class back in 2004, and I’d known him since he was in middle school. With Patch, who I gave a little local shout out to at the Midlands, I’d known him since birth. It’s one of those cool things that when you go to the Virginia Duals and see that type of matchup with both ODU and UVA coming from where they were about 15 years ago, it’s cool. Almost all those Virginia college teams are better than they were 15 years ago. Obviously Virginia Tech has carried the flag and George Mason will be improving under Frank Beasley. Now the Commonwealth added two Division III schools last week with Roanoke College and Emory & Henry. Let’s hope we aren’t adding too many teams, too fast, though. Strategery, right? 

In Duals:

* In case you missed it, we had a number of dual events that went on this past weekend. In Williamsport, Pennsylvania, The College of New Jersey won the 20th annual Budd Whitehill Duals hosted by Lycoming College. In Hampton, Virginia, Rider won the National College Division, beating No. 22 Virginia, while Division II Kutztown downed Division III Ferrum in the finals for the second straight year. * In Louisville, at the 2020 U.S. Marine Corps NWCA Multi-Division National Dual Meet Championships presented by ARMS Software and Defense Soap hosted by NUWAY … St. Cloud State, Wartburg, Grand View, Nassau, McKendree and Menlo were all winners in their respective divisions. St. Cloud State extended its D2 win streak to 58 and won its fourth in a row. Wartburg won its 12th overall title and beat three national champions in their win over Augsburg in the final in Division III. Grand View’s win streak is now 85 after they lost three individual bouts in four duals to capture a ninth-straight title. The NJCAA featured eight non-scholarship teams, which was won by Nassau. It was Nassau’s third title but first since 2005. The women’s division split this year into NCAA and NAIA divisions. McKendree beat Simon Fraser on criteria in the NCAA Division, while Menlo beat Campbellsville to win the NAIA crown. By the way, while Sara Koenig, one of the tournament directors for the Super 32 awesomely pointed out the last time UNC women’s field hockey lost in response to TV pimping Clemson’s 742 days without a loss. Well, the Heels last lost 787 days ago. St. Cloud State last lost 1,094 days ago and Grand View’s last loss was 2,258 days ago. * You noticed I said non-scholarship with the NJCAA portion of the National Duals. You’d be quite punctilious in assuming that, well in Miami, Oklahoma, Clackamas won the NJCAA Coaches Duals by beating Iowa Western 38-15 in the finals. This was basically a national duals for the scholarship division. Clackamas beat Iowa Lakes, top-ranked but fourth-seeded Western Wyoming, Colby and Iowa Western on the weekend. Iowa Central beat host Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for third. 

Notables on the Docket: