The Citadel finishes 11^th at Southern Scuffle

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The Citadel’s Ugi Khishignyam posted a two-day record of 5-1 to receive a second-place finish in the 141-pound bracket at the Southern Scuffle hosted by Chattanooga on Tuesday and Wednesday. Odie Delaney collected his 100th career win en route to earning a sixth-place finish in the heavyweight bracket.

Khishignyam opened up the action on day two with a semifinal matchup against Old Dominion's Chris Mecate. The Bulldog grappler handled Mecate with a 3-1 advantage to move on to the finals match of the championship bracket, where he was matched against ninth-ranked Mike Nevinger of Cornell.

The two battled it out closely for three periods, but it was Nevinger who gained the advantage and won the bracket with a 3-1 decision. Khishignyam, who was most recently ranked fourth by InterMat Wrestling, now holds a 24-3 record.

Delaney, who was pegged against nationally ranked wrestlers in five of his seven bouts, had an impressive two-day performance, earning sixth place with a 4-3 record.

Entering day two with a 2-1 record, Delaney opened Wednesday with a consolation bracket matchup against Henry Cherino in which he dominated the Northern Colorado grappler with a pin in the second minute.

The win advanced the Bulldog heavyweight to a consolation semifinal against 14th-ranked Levi Cooper of Arizona State. The two met earlier in a dual matchup in which Cooper earned a 6-2 decision.

Delaney earned revenge against Cooper in the Southern Scuffle as he took control of the match and topped the Sun Devil grappler by a score of 5-1. The win was Delaney's 100th of his career. He now holds a four-year mark of 100-41.

A loss against third-ranked Alan Gelogaev by technical fall left Delaney in the fifth place-bout, where he was set to face No. 17 Jeremy Johnson for the second time in two days and eighth time of their careers, but a minor injury forced the Bulldog heavyweight to forfeit the match and drop to sixth place by default.

In the 157-pound consolation bracket, Matt Frisch opened day two with an impressive 6-3 decision over Minnesota's Pat Smith before falling to Gopher teammate Daniel Zilverburg. The loss landed Frisch in the seventh-place bout against Navy's Robert Burg, where he dropped a 7-6 decision to fall to eighth place.

Turtogtokh Luvsandorj and Marshall Haas were eliminated earlier in the morning of day two when they dropped close consolation bouts. Luvsandorj fell to No. 13 Jon Fausey in a tiebreaker, 5-3, while Haas lost a 2-0 decision to Duke's Connor Hartmann.

The Bulldogs closed out the tournament in 11th place out of 24 teams, collecting 45 points, while two-time defending NCAA champion Penn State earned the team title with 178.5.

The Citadel will be back in action on Jan. 11-12 when it heads to Hampton Roads, Va., to compete in the Virginia Duals.

 

Chattanooga finishes 14^th at Southern Scuffle

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The 2013 Southern Scuffle, presented by Defense Soap, lived up to its hype with an outstanding second day of competition in Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena. Chattanooga senior Dean Pavlou led the Mocs with a seventh-place showing, while the fans set another attendance record for the Scenic City tournament.

Pavlou, competing at 141 pounds, defeated Penn State's Bryan Pearsall (4-2) to claim seventh in the championship. It was the only win for Chattanooga on the day as the Mocs finished 14th in the team standings with 31.5 points.

Penn State repeated as Scuffle champion with 178.5 points. No. 2 Oklahoma State was second with 158 points while No. 6 Missouri was third with 147.5. No. 3 Minnesota (139.5) and No. 8 Cornell (136.0) rounded out the top five in the team standings.

Three of Wednesday's finals pitted the top two ranked wrestlers in the class according to this week's InterMat NCAA Division I rankings.

The Mocs went 0-3 in the opening consolation matches today. Senior Niko Brown (197) and sophomores Nick Soto (125) and Kevin Malone (285) all lost their first match on Day 2. Brown moved his overall record to 19-3 while Soto is 16-5. Malone improved to 9-7 on the year.

UTC set another single-day high with 2,856 fans in attendance. The two-day attendance total of 5,399 was a 23 percent increase from last year's inaugural tournament on the campus of UTC.

 

Campbell 17^th at Southern Scuffle

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Campbell finished 17th overall with 20.5 points and freshman Eric Montoya finished seventh at 125 pounds at the Southern Scuffle on Wednesday. The Camels moved up two places from 19th Tuesday.

No. 1 Penn State remained in first place after both days of competition, earning 178.5 total points.

Campbell ranked above seven other teams including Southern Conference foe Appalachian (18th) and ACC teams NC State (21st) and North Carolina (22nd).

The lone Camel continuing competition in the final day of action was Montoya, who went 3-1 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he finished 2-1, recording a 4-2 sudden victory win over American's David Terao to clinch seventh place.

On Tuesday, Montoya fell to Old Dominion's Jerome Robinson but excelled in the wrestleback bracket, earning a technical fall (16-0) over Northern Colorado's Jesse Meis, as well as two decisions.

Campbell returns to action Jan. 9 in Buies Creek as it takes on its first SoCon opponent, VMI, at 5 p.m. and NC State at 8:30 p.m. in Gore Arena.

 

Appalachian wrap Southern Scuffle in 18^th place

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Redshirt freshman Zack Strickland led the way for Appalachian State’s wrestling team Wednesday, closing his 2013 Southern Scuffle campaign with a team-best sixth-place finish at 165 pounds.

With Strickland's performance, the Mountaineers tallied 18.5 points and moved from 22nd to 18th in the 24-team field, filled with some of the nation's best teams.

Strickland's road was brutal, as he was matched up with four ranked opponents and closed with a 5-3 record, his best finish in a tournament this season.

The redshirt freshman's day opened with a narrow 4-3 decision over ninth-seeded Nijel Jones of NC State, followed by a sudden victory against fifth-seeded Cody Yohn of Minnesota.

With five victories and advancing into the consolation semifinals, Strickland suffered back-to-back setbacks against third-seeded Tyler Caldwell of Oklahoma State and sixth-seeded Zach Toal of Missouri, placing Strickland is sixth place.

With the five victories in the tournament, Strickland eclipsed the 30-win mark for his career, giving him 32 in two seasons at Appalachian. The Muncy, Pa., native now has 15 victories for the season and is perfect in dual meets this season.

The Mountaineers return to the mats on Sunday when they travel to Southern Conference newcomer SIUE, where they will face the Cougars and nonconference opponent Northern Illinois. The dual with SIUE is slated for noon, while the dual with NIU is set for 2 p.m.