-
UTC's Nick Soto, top, competes against Chris Dardanes of Minnesota during the 133-pound championship match at the Southern Scuffle wrestling tournament in McKenzie Arena at UTC on Monday. Dardanes won the championship match 7-2.Photo by John Rawlston /Chattanooga Times Free Press.
There wasn't a tie this year and his team had a good showing, so it's likely that Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson will be bringing his team back to Chattanooga for the 2012-13 Southern Scuffle.
After tying Cornell for the title in the Scuffle's last hurrah at Greensboro, N.C., the reigning NCAA champion Nittany Lions broke away from a struggle with third-ranked Minnesota and rolled to the championship Monday at McKenzie Arena with 191.5 points.
"I'm happy with the performance but I also saw a lot of room for improvement," Sanderson said of his team, which entered the tournament No. 5 in the latest National Wrestling Coaches Association rankings.
Minnesota, ranked third, finished with 177.5 points and No. 11 Missouri made a strong argument for a top 10 spot with 136 points and a third-place finish. Fourth-ranked Cornell was fourth with 130 points and No. 16 Oregon State proved to be the only other team breaking the century mark with 103 and a fifth-place finish.
Virginia scored 82 points, just three better than the surprising seventh-place finish by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which was making its debut as the Southern Scuffle host. UTC freshman Nick Soto finished second at 133 pounds.
Mocs coach Heath Eslinger's delight was at least twofold: the apparent success of the tournament and getting five wrestlers into the medals.
"I'm sure we'll evaluate and tweak some minor things where we can better," Eslinger said, "but I think the coaches were impressed with the venue, the support staff and the volunteer workers."
He already has verbal commitments for next season's tournament from a number of the participating coaches.
"I think 95 percent will be back, and from the big dogs that we have to have to [serve as] magnets, I think we've got those back," Eslinger said.
His Mocs' strong showing was anchored by Soto.
"It was a good tournament for him, yeah, but he wanted to win this thing," Eslinger said. "Obviously, we knew he had a tough opponent, but you have to win four or five hard matches to be an All-American or national champion, and that's his goal. He has proved he can be an All-American. He has knocked off two top-five guys, and if you do that in the national tournament you're going to be an All-American."
Soto wasn't satisfied with finishing second in what really was his first major college tournament.
"It was fun," he said. "I wish I could've pulled out that last match, but I think the loss may be good for me in the long run. I have to learn how to wrestle a finals match.
"I can't take anything away from [Minnesota's Chris Dardenes]. He capitalized on my mistakes, but I proved to myself I can wrestle with the best guys. Now I just need to fill in the gaps."
The Mocs got a fourth-place finish from Dan Waddell (157), a sixth from Dean Pavlou (149), a seventh from Niko Brown (197) and an eighth from Brandon Wright (165).
"We went 4-for-4 in [Monday morning] matches to get into the medal rounds, which was huge," Eslinger said. "Dan getting on a roll was big, as was Brandon getting on something of a roll, and Niko continues to get better and that's a reflection of what he's doing in practice. Overall I thought the kids did a great job."
Other than Soto, perhaps no one impressed more than Pavlou, who lost his starting job to Kelly Felix at the beginning of the season.
"He had a great tournament even though he is not our starter," Eslinger said. "We have two really good guys [at 149], and we'll put the guy out there we think will win on a consistent basis. We'd like to have two guys battling like that at every weight."
He noted that Penn State had two guys in the 174-pound final, with Ed Ruth defeating Mathew Brown.
The tournament's outstanding-wrestler award went to Penn State's David Taylor, the 165-pound champion. Ohio's Ryan Garringer won the most-pins award with three in a combined time of 5:00.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.
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 ...
