Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 1/15/16. UTC's Kamaal Shakur wrestles Garner-Webb's Chris Vassar in the 157-lb weight class at Maclellan Gymnasium on Friday, January 15, 2016. Shakur won the bout. SoCon standingso
1. UTC (9-3, 4-0)2. Appalachian State (9-3, 4-1)3. Gardner-Webb (4-5, 3-1)4. The Citadel (4-6, 1-2)5. Campbell (1-11, 1-2)6. SIU-Edwardsville (3-10, 1-3)7. Davidson (4-9, 0-1)8. VMI (2-7, 0-4)
As they have most of the season, freshmen will occupy half of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's lineup when the Mocs wrestle this afternoon at Davidson.
Those freshmen are Alonzo Allen (125 pounds), Cody Minnick (133), Kamaal Shakur (157), Dominic Lampe (165) and redshirt 149-pounder Chase Zemenak, the midseason transfer from Bloomsburg. Another freshman who has been in and out of the lineup is Roman Boylen (141).
"We're actually having a pretty good year, too," Mocs coach Heath Eslinger said. "Our expectations for them were high, and they have stepped up to the plate."
In a sport where starting freshmen is a rarity, especially in such numbers as those at UTC, Eslinger let the newcomers know in the recruiting process that possibilities were there.
"I hope most of them had an idea they could start and most of them wanted that opportunity," the coach said. "There have been ups and downs, but they have continued to get better."
Minnick (4-11) stepped into a spot that had been occupied by fellow freshman Chris DeBien, who had a 9-2 record before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
Shakur leads the group and the team with a 19-5 record, Allen is 10-9 and Lampe is 14-8. Zemenak is 2-2 going into his second Southern Conference bout, while Boylen is 7-6.
"Kamaal has been the best of the bunch results wise, and still I think he has come a long way, and Dominic just continues to get better every time out," Eslinger said. "Alonzo has shown his potential. We just have to figure out how to get it out of him consistently. And Roman has been a big help."
Shakur also is one of six Mocs ranked in the top 33 of their respective weights in the latest coaches' RPI. The others are Michael Pongracz (141), Sean Mappes (174), John Lampe (184), Scottie Boykin (197) and Jared Johnson (285).
There are more freshmen waiting in the wings and likely getting redshirt seasons, including Demarco Gatti (165), Jake Huffine (133), Rodney Jones (197), Toribio Navarro (125), Zach Shareef (149), Chad Solomon (174), Connor Tolley (285), Trey Watson (157) and Andrew Webb (149).
"I'm not a guy who likes talking about the next year, but if we can get one kid in at the right weight it could be pretty special," Eslinger said.
The freshmen have also helped the team's academic standing. The Mocs, for the first time in the program's history, had an aggregate grade point average above 3.0 (3.04) for the fall semester. There were 22 wrestlers on the dean's list or honor roll.
Eslinger indicated he planned to go with the normal lineup today although Davidson is 4-9 despite a modest two-match win streak against Anderson and Belmont Abbey. The Wildcats are 0-1 in the conference after a match versus SIU-Edwardsville was postponed due to weather issues, and UTC is the first in a five-meet SoCon gauntlet.
"It's a conference match and we have to take care of business there first," Eslinger said.
The Mocs are 9-3 overall and 4-0 in the SoCon.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfree press.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.