Cody Cleveland had mixed emotions Saturday after he was pinned and finished eighth at the NCAA wrestling tournament in St. Louis.
Yes, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore had attained All-America status and most likely became the cornerstone for Mocs wrestling for the next two seasons. But he lost that last match to fifth-seeded Manuel Rivera of Minnesota.
“That’s the one I’ll remember,” he said Saturday afternoon after completing his first season as a starter with a 29-9 record. “I went for a tilt and I don’t know if he hipped over or what. I’m still upset about that.
“I want to get back and look at the tapes of my matches, figure out what I did wrong and start working to correct mistakes and get better.”
Still, Cleveland hasn’t felt so good since winning his second state championship while wrestling for McCallie. He plurged Saturday afternoon with a steak-and-shrimp dinner — complete with mashed potatoes — and a couple of Dr Peppers.
“I’m sore. Very sore,” he said after wrestling his seventh match in three days and finishing with a 4-3 tournament record. “I had some close calls.”
He was ahead of Oklahoma’s Zach Bailey 11-1 and had to rally for a 15-13 win. While he had two shutout wins — 3-0 over Cornell’s Corey Jantzen and 5-0 over Liberty’s Tim Harner — his best match may have been a 7-6 win over third-seeded Kellen Russell of Michigan.
“Russell was one of the better guys I wrestled all year, but I was moving my feet well and I was moving my hands,” he said.
Cleveland was behind by a point with 30 seconds left but got a takedown to go up by one and then had riding time for a two-point victory.
“That win defined his tournament. That’s when he became an All-American,” Mocs coach Chris Bono said. “Cody did the things we have taught him. He did the things he was supposed to do in situations where it counted the most. He did it all year long and he did it in the tournament, and that’s what got him to All-American.”
Cleveland was the only one of eight Mocs in the tournament to win more than two matches.
“It was a terrible team finish, but we got an All-American and that’s all that matters,” Bono said.
Of the eight tournament qualifiers, only Cleveland, 149-pound Joey Knox and 157-pound Seth Garvin will definitely return. Steve Hromada, the Mocs’ fifth-year 133-pounder, is going to appeal to the NCAA for a sixth (hardship) year because of injury.
The Mocs finished with a combined record of 10-17 in St. Louis. Matt Koz (197) and Lloyd Rogers (174) were 2-2, Garvin and Javier Maldonado (125) were 1-2 and Hromada, Knox and Josh Edmondson (184) were 0-2. However, eight of the losses were to eventual All-Americans.
Ward Gossett is an assistant sports editor and writer for the Times Free Press. Ward has a long history in Chattanooga journalism. He actually wrote a bylined story for the Chattanooga News-Free Press as a third-grader. He Began working part-time there in 1968 and was hired full time in 1970. Ward now covers high school athletics, primarily football, wrestling and baseball and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling. Over a 40-year career, he has covered ...
