Campbell wins SoCon wrestling; 3 Mocs advance to NCAA tournament

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Campbell University, one of the newest Southern Conference wrestling members along with Gardner-Webb and SIU-Edwardsville, won its first league championship Saturday.

The previous best for the Fighting Camels, whose first SoCon tournament appearance came in 2012, was a distant runner-up to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2013.

UTC, meanwhile, finished a disappointing fourth, the team's worst since 2010 when UNC Greensboro, The Citadel and Appalachian took the top three spots.

The Mocs did leave with three NCAA qualifiers and two champions, Chris DeBien and Bryce Carr.

DeBien, who went through the conference schedule unbeaten, was extended to overtime before posting a 7-4 victory over Appalachian's Colby Smith in the tournament 133-pound final. The freshman, participating in his first college postseason event, opened the day with a pin of Davidson's Dustin Runzo and followed with a semifinal decision over John Muldoon.

Carr, who will return next season, also opened with a pin - 10 seconds into the second period. The 184-pounder also had an overtime match, his coming in the semifinals (4-2), before dispatching Campbell's top-seeded Ville Heino 4-2. The two had split during the regular season, Carr taking a major decision at the Southern Scuffle and Heino taking the regular-season match by a single point.

This one gave Carr, a junior college transfer who redshirted last season, his first league title.

Campbell finished with 89.5 points but was far enough ahead that even a pin by Appalachian heavyweight Denzel Dejournette would have left the Mountaineers shy of the team title. Appalachian closed with 86 points while surprising SIUE placed third with 69.5 points with UTC at 66.

Gardner-Webb was a distant fifth with 37.5 points, followed by The Citadel's 33.5, VMI's 9.5 and Davidson's 7.

Dejournette was the top-seeded heavyweight and the seeding process had predicted a championship fight with the Mocs' Jared Johnson. It failed to materialize as Johnson was upset by Campbell's Jere Heino in the semifinals.

Johnson, however, rallied to finish third. The senior will be going to the NCAA tournament because of the three event allocations at 285 pounds made to the conference.

Although they will not advance to the nationals in St. Louis, UTC's Chase Zemenak (141), Justin Lampe (165) and Sean Mappes (174) also had third-place finishes while Alonzo Allen was fourth. Lampe was the only wrestler in the tournament to get two pins. He, Zemenak and Allen will return next year.

For the first time since the 2003 and 2004 seasons, the Mocs now have gone back-to-back years without a conference tournament title. They finished second last year by a half-point to Appalachian. They were also fourth in 2004 and finished second in 2003.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com.