Tony Robie is confident his Virginia Tech Hokies are in a good spot heading into St. Louis for this weekend’s NCAA Championships.

Whether seven qualifiers will be enough to propel the Hokies higher than their fourth-place finish in last year’s team race is debatable. What isn’t is the individual success the Hokies will look to continue inside the Scottrade Center.

“I feel like we kind of knew what we had coming into the season and we knew that if we wrestled well, we could be right there with anybody,” Robie told Trackwrestling.com. “We feel good about the seven guys that we’re bringing to the NCAA tournament. Our focus is just individually on going out and giving our best effort. When we have opportunities to get bonus points, we understand the importance of bonus points and the team race. It’s critical if you want to compete for a national championship, so that’s something that we will continue to emphasize as we move forward.”

Virginia Tech leads all ACC teams with five Top 5 seeds, five All-Americans and two others hungry to add similar laurels to their resumes.

Joey Dance is the Hokies’ highest seed. Fresh off his third ACC championship, Dance is looking to return to the NCAA podium for the first time since a fourth-place finish in 2014.

In the past, Dance has been the victim of close matches. He’s focused on unleashing his offense this season and will try to do the same in a 125-pound bracket that includes seven wrestlers Dance has beaten this year, four of them seeded in the Top 10.

His only loss came on a late reversal to fourth-seeded Darian Cruz of Lehigh earlier this season.

“He’s going to go out there with the mindset that he’s going to wrestle the entire time,” Robie said. “Try to continue to score points and not let guys hang around when they don’t need to be hanging around and staying in close matches because he’s got the ability to win by five, six, seven or eight points in certain situations.”

Heavyweight Ty Walz, a two-time All-American, is coming off his first ACC title. It came in a much-needed bout against the last wrestler to beat him — Duke’s Jacob Kasper.

Seemingly on cruise control having won 11 straight bouts with bonus points in eight of them, Walz got sloppy and dropped a 15-7 major to Kasper on Jan. 29. He tidied up his mistakes and handled Kasper 8-2 in the ACC finals.

“It was important for him, I think, any time you can come back and wrestle guys when things didn’t go your way the first time,” Robie said. “We knew watching that match that it was really just a matter of making a couple of small adjustments. Ty is an incredibly coachable guy and he was able to make those adjustments and really dominate in the ACC finals. I think from a confidence standpoint, it’s great.”

STRENGTH AND THEN SOME

Walz has been the anchor of a lineup that’s been notoriously heavy on the backend and most of Virginia Tech’s firepower in St. Louis will come from 174 and up.

Zach Epperly (174) and Jared Haught (197) are both returning All-Americans and Zack Zavatsky (184) is seeking his first podium finish after spending most of the season ranked in the Top 10.

Robie is confident all three have the arsenals to make deep runs.

“Those guys are all tremendously talented, guys that if they’re on, they’ll be right in the mix on Saturday,” Robie said.

Epperly, the fourth seed, dropped his first bout last season but grinded back through a brutal consolation bracket to finish third. He posted four major decisions and a technical fall in the process.

“He’s been there before so he knows what it’s all about,” Robie said. “And quite honestly, I feel like he’s done his best wrestling at the NCAA tournament the last two years.”

Zavatsky is coming off his second ACC title and is the fifth seed at his weight. He’ll be looking to avenge an exit from last year’s tournament that was earlier than he wanted.

“I know he’s hungry,” Robie said. “It’s really important to him. He’s a tremendously talented guy and he’s another guy if he just let’s it rip and goes out and focuses on scoring points, we have a lot of confidence in what he can do.”

Haught is the fourth seed at his weight and is riding an 18-match winning streak into the final tournament.

They’ll be joined by Sal Mastriani, the No. 15 seed at 157, and ACC champ Solomon Chishko, another returning All-American who’s seeded sixth at 149. Chishko wrestled at 141 last season and has felt much more comfortable up a weight this season.

“141 was tough for him last year. There’s no question about that,” Robie said. “He sucked it up and did a great job.When he’s on his A Game, that guy can wrestle with anybody in the country. I have no doubt about it.”

CHANGE OF WEIGHT, CHANGE OF CONFIDENCE

Count Pittsburgh’s TeShan Campbell among those who’ve changed weight classes and is enjoying the added confidence and improved results that go with it.

The Panther sophomore 165-pounder will make his second tournament appearance. He dropped down a weight this year after making a quick exit from the 174-pound bracket at NCAAs last season.

One of three Panthers to win ACC titles, Campbell told Trackwrestling.com he feels much better about his chances considering he earned the No. 10 seed.

“It was more of an eye-opener last year,” Campbell said. “I got there with an at-large bid and didn’t really feel like I belonged there. As a true freshman, I didn’t really know how good of a wrestler I could be or I was. For me to come off an ACC title (this year) is a huge momentum swing and I look forward to going in there and making a run.”

He’s on one right now.

Campbell hasn’t lost since Dec. 4 and has nine bonus-point wins since. He’ll be joined by teammates Dom Forys, Taleb Rahmani and Ryan Solomon. Forys is the sixth seed at 133 and Solomon is seeded 15th at 285.

N.C. STATE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

The Wolfpack is the only ACC team to qualify all 10 of its wrestlers for the national tournament, five of whom are seeded.

Kevin Jack leads N.C. State as the No. 2 seed at 141 pounds while Mike Macchiavello (184), Sam Speno (149), Sean Fausz (125) and Jamal Morris (133) are seeded 10th, 12th, 12th and 15th at their respective weights.

They’ll be joined by Thomas Bullard (157), Brian Hamann (165), Nick Reenan (174), Malik McDonald (197) and Mike Kosoy (285).

N.C. State is one of just two teams with multiple true freshman qualifiers in Bullard and Reenan.

THE REST OF THE FIELD

North Carolina qualified five wrestlers for nationals where the Tar Heels will be led by seventh-seeded 141-pounder Joey Ward and eighth-seeded 174-pounder Ethan Ramos.

They’ll be joined by Troy Heilmann (149), Daniel Chaid (197) and Cory Daniel (285).

Virginia senior George DiCamillo leads the Cavaliers as the No. 6 seed at 141 and freshman Jack Mueller will make his tournament debut as the No. 10 seed at 125 pounds. Samuel Krivus (149) and Andrew Atkinson (157) also qualified.

Duke’s Jacob Kasper is the No. 4 seed at 285. He’ll be accompanied by teammates Jake Faust (157) and Connor Bass (174). 

(Photo: Senior 125-pounder Joey Dance is one of five Virginia Tech wrestlers seeded fifth or better/HokieSports.com)