Like a leadoff batter in baseball, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 125-pounder Alonzo Allen knows a good performance when he wrestles first can set a tone for the rest of the team.
The redshirt junior also knows a good performance over the next two days can set the tone for the rest of this season.
The Mocs will host their annual Southern Scuffle starting at 10 this morning at McKenzie Arena. It's one of the premier tournaments in the country, and UTC is one of 26 programs participating, with eight of the top 25 teams in the country in attendance: No. 1 Penn State, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 5 North Carolina State, No. 6 Lehigh, No. 10 Virginia Tech, No. 14 Northern Iowa, No. 20 Lock Haven and No. 24 North Carolina. (N.C. State, Virginia Tech and North Carolina are sending partial teams.)
Navy, Utah Valley and Drexel, teams receiving poll votes, will also compete.
Four wrestlers in the field are ranked No. 1 in their weight classes nationally, with all of them competing for Penn State: Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Vicenzo Joseph (165) and Bo Nickal (184).
SOUTHERN SCUFFLE
At McKenzie ArenaDoors open at 9 a.m. each dayToday10 a.m. — Pigtail round10:45 a.m. — Championship round of 321:30 p.m. — Consolations, 1st round2:15 p.m. — Championnship round of 164 p.m. — Consolations, 2nd and 3rd rounds7:30 p.m. — Championship quarterfinals; consolations, 4th roundTuesday10 a.m. — Consolations, 5th roundNoon — Championship semifinals; consolation quarterfinals2 p.m. — Consolation semifinals7 p.m. — Championship finals; medal matches
The Mocs' three dual losses this season are to N.C. State, Virginia Tech and second-ranked Ohio State, so they've seen this level of competition.
"I don't think it's going to be news to us," UTC coach Heath Eslinger said recently. "Most of these guys have wrestled in this event before. We've got to be ready. You can't wrestle good at the Scuffle; you have to wrestle great. If you wrestle good, you're going to be out, so we've got to get these guys excited about wrestling great.
"We have the arsenal. We have some guys that can come in and do some damage, so I guess it's all on us coaches."
Eight wrestlers are seeded for each of the 10 weight classes, and three Mocs are among them. Allen is seeded seventh, while fifth-year seniors Bryce Carr (184) and Scottie Boykin (197) are No. 3 seeds.Although Allen competes in the lowest weight class, that doesn't mean he always gets to wrestle first at duals - teams sometimes draw to determine the first match. But this season, every dual involving UTC has started at 125, which has been a delight for Allen's teammates.
"I delay my warmup a bit to watch Zo," Boykin said. "He's electrifying. He's so fast, he makes it look easy. He gets me fired up, and I feed off his momentum. It's a very nice kick-start into our lineup, so I'm not mad if we start at 125 (against) every team because we have that every time, so it's awesome.
"Zo's on fire right now. The sky's the limit for him, and it sets the tone for all of us."
Last season, Allen was 3-7 headed into the Scuffle. Things started to turn in a positive direction for him during the two-day event as he went 3-2 and was one round short of placing. He went 12-4 the rest of the way and finished fourth in the Southern Conference tournament.
He is 8-3 this season and looking for an even better finish this time around.
"The Scuffle last year jump-started my season," Allen said. "It built my confidence up and I started winning matches, so I'm going into this with the same mentality as last year, only I want to get into the placing rounds and do some damage."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.