The previous NCAA wrestling tournaments in which Cody Cleveland has appeared were in St. Louis, so he won’t be as comfortable with this year’s venue in Philadelphia.
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UTC's Cody Cleveland wrestles in a 141-pound match against Jordan Dix of The Citadel at MaClellan Gym in January. Staff photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press
That said, the only time he has wrestled in a Philadelphia-based tournament the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout won the University of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Classic.
For Cleveland, getting back to the NCAA is big — and he did so by winning his third Southern Conference championship — because he has sacrificed six years in order to have a shot at becoming UTC’s first NCAA champion.
“He’s been through a lot more than other kids,” Mocs assistant Mike Hatcher said. “He’s had a lot of injuries and this year he hasn’t been as consistent training-wise because of injuries. He is wrestling pretty well right now and he has been training hard.”
In the Mocs’ final regular-season meet with VMI, Cleveland looked as good as he has all season and dominated his opponent.
“He showed the confidence and he’s the one guy on our team who has that kind of confidence, and when he wrestles he can wrestle with anybody in the country,” Hatcher said.
Cleveland has a 3-0 record against Oklahoma’s Zack Bailey, Cleveland’s opening-round opponent Thursday in Philadelphia. He also has a past win over Michigan’s Kevin Russell, a three-time Big Ten champions and the tournament’s top seed in their 141-pound weight class.
“Is he capable of winning it all? I would say so, if he really, really believes it. He needs to get hot at the right time,” Hatcher said.
Cleveland knows what it feels like to be on the awards platform at tournament’s end. He was there in 2007 when he earned All-America honors.
“If I’m feeling good and I’m moving my feet I can get [back] there,” he said. “I’m looking forward to wrestling people that don’t know me that well. A lot of times when you wrestle in the conference, people know what you do and wrestle defensively. I hope people open up and wrestle me because I’m usually pretty good in scramble situations and I feel like I can score from a lot of positions.”
To win the tournament, a wrestler will have to compete in at least five matches. That’s nothing to Cleveland, who lost his opener three years ago and then reeled off four straight wins to reach the All-America (top eight finisher) rounds.
Cleveland’s goal is to become the Mocs’ third multi-year All-American, joining Charlie Heard and Matt Keller, and he began zeroing in on the task at hand last week after getting a graduate-level exam out of the way.
He plans to make the most of his second-chance sixth season, the two shoulder operations and the knee surgery.
“Sitting there two weeks after surgery and unable to move an appendage sometimes leaves you frustrated but all the practices and all the surgeries have been worth it. The benefits outweigh the worries and the injuries,” he said.
Cleveland is unseeded this year and might be considered a sleeper, which Hatcher believes could be to his advantage.
“I tell you right now, he’s not a good draw for a top guy in the quarterfinals because he’s really good in a lot of positions and he does some things a lot of people don’t,” Hatcher said.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6288.
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 ...
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