McCoy ready for college wrestling's big show

   While returning from a recruiting visit to another school, Justin McCoy decided that the University of Virginia was where he wanted to chase his collegiate wrestling dreams.

   Now with a year of open competition as a redshirt under his belt, McCoy feels he's ready to begin that pursuit in earnest. 

   McCoy, the former Chestnut Ridge star and Bedford County's all-time leader in high school victories, recently won the starting spot at 157 pounds for the Cavaliers. He's coming off a broken hand at the end of last season, but that has healed and also kept him focused.

   "I'm very excited for the upcoming season," said McCoy. "I feel like I put a lot of work in throughout the summer. (The broken hand) was disappointing because I didn't get to wrestle for a while, but I feel like it made me more hungrier to compete. And I feel that I've made a lot of progress since I came back."

   McCoy's accomplishments in high school are well chronicled. He was 167-18 at Chestnut Ridge with four district championships, two regional titles, and a state championship at 145 pounds in 2017. He's one of only four county wrestlers in history to be a four-time state medalist (Jan Clark, Ryan Easter, Jared McGill). 

   That said, when he walked into his first practice last fall at Virginia, McCoy was just another wrestler in the room.

   "For the first couple of months, I got beat up by everybody," he said. "It was hard to stay positive when was getting my butt kicked every day. But I had to just keep being persistent and try to get one-percent better every day."

   When he stepped onto the mat for real last season, McCoy was awfully strong, going 25-3 in open tournaments. He won titles at the Hokie Open, Wolfpack Open, and Patriots Open, and was a placewinner in three other events. Overall, he had five technical falls, three pins, and three major decisions. McCoy was also named to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll.

   McCoy has been working on his offense in preparation for the season.

   "Everyone is always looking to score points," he said. "It doesn't matter what position they're in, everyone's always trying to better their position to score more points. 

   "There is so much technique that I never learned before that is so helpful in college wrestling. And there is so much attention to detail. I think those are big differences from high school."

   McCoy is ranked 33rd at 157 pounds by TrackWrestling. Many of the other collegiate ranking services do not include freshmen or redshirt freshmen until the season begins.

   None of that matters to McCoy, who eyes the top of the NCAA Division I podium in Minneapolis in March.

   "My biggest goal is to be a national champion. Many people might think that's crazy, but my belief in myself is the only thing that matters. 

   "Another goal of mine is to 'compete in such a way' for every match. That's one of the pillars of UVA wrestling. It means that when I go out on the mat, I want to compete in a way that I give everything I have for seven minutes or however long the match is. And when I walk off the mat, I know I gave it all I got no matter if I win or lose."

   Virginia's season begins on November 2 with the Cavalier Duals. McCoy could compete three times in Pennsylvania. The Keystone Classic in Philadelphia is on November 24, while the University of Pittsburgh will host the Cavaliers on February 8 in a dual meet and also hold the ACC Championships on March 8.