Five former Virginia Tech wrestlers took their weeks-old dispute with the university to court Friday afternoon.

The students filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court asserting that the school and athletic director Jim Weaver breached a commitment to allow no-penalty transfers if the athletes wanted to leave for another school.

Brent Metcalf, Jay Borschel, Joe Slaton, Dan LeClere and T.H. Leet plan to follow former Hokies coach Tom Brands to Iowa but will lose a year of eligibility unless Tech agrees to release them from their scholarship obligations.

The wrestlers and their parents say Weaver assured them during the recruiting process that releases would be granted.

Without that peace of mind, they say, they never would have joined what they considered a mediocre program.

After unsuccessful appeals to Weaver and to a three-person university panel, the families wrote to Tech president Charles Steger last week, said John J. Robertson, the plaintiffs' attorney.

"We certainly didn't want this to happen, for VT or for us," said Jim Borschel, Jay's father. "All we asked for was our release and it just didn't come."

Weaver could not be reached for comment Friday. Jon Jaudon, the associate athletic director who oversees the wrestling program, was on vacation Friday and said he was not aware of the suit.

The lawsuit asks not only for the releases but also for compensatory damages from both defendants and punitive damages from Weaver.

"I just want people to stop lying about what's going on and tell the truth," Slaton said.