UTC 26, UNC-GREENSBORO 12(Meet started at 174 pounds)125 — Bucky Johnson (UTC) major dec. Eric Chandler, 11-3;133 — Josh Statum (UTC) dec. Casey Boyle, 6-3;141 — Iva Lopouchanski (UNCG) dec. Ben Johnson, 5-4;149 — Dean Pavlou (UTC) tech. fall over Alejando Soto-Perez, 5:37;157 — Josh Condon (UTC) major dec. Travis Sheehy, 13-4;165 — Brandon Wright (UTC) major dec. Victor Hojilla, 14-5;174 — Byron Sigmon (UNCG) pinned Jake Young, 4:41;184 — Andrew Saunders (UNCG) dec. Jason McCroskey, 5-4;197 — Niko Brown (UTC) dec. Ryan Sughrue, 6-3;285 — Tom Minwell (UTC) dec. Peter Sturgeon, 4-0.Records: UTC 8-6, 3-0; UNCG 3-6, 2-1.
Caught flat-footed by upset losses from two of their top performers, the University of Tennessee wrestling team rebounded from a nine-point deficit to take a convincing 26-12 victory over UNC-Greensboro.
The win gave the Mocs a 3-0 record and sole possession of first place in the Southern Conference and dropped UNCG to 2-1.
“In my mind this was for the conference championship. We really wanted to beat those guys,” UNCG coach Jason Loukides said. “I was real excited about the start. That’s two of their tougher weights and then Byron (Sigmon) got that pin.”
That pin, the only one of the meet, came in the first bout and staked the Spartans to a 6-0 lead. Then Andrew Saunders followed with a 5-4 decision.
Sigmon pinned Mocs freshman Jake Young, who entered the meet ranked 20th nationally. Young, a true freshman with a 16-5 record, was leading 2-1 in the second period when he got caught and taken to his back.
“You hurt for the kids that lose. Sometimes you get caught on your back and pinned,” Mocs coach Heath Eslinger said. “What am I going to do — get mad at a kid that’s doing all the right things?”
Saunders got an escape with 32 seconds left and avoided repeated takedown attempts to secure a 5-4 win over Jason McCroskey.
“It was a good team performance,” said Mocs 125-pounder Bucky Johnson. “It was definitely a gut check after those matches. They are definitely two of the strongest guys on the team. We know they’re capable.”
Eslinger was proud that the Mocs continue to battle back.
“Those are our two studs but we lost our only returning all-American ( Cody Cleveland, 141) and we kept trucking. Then we lose our only other senior (Joey Knox, 157) and we kept trucking. There is a lot of character in our wrestling room.”
With the shocked home crowd of more than 500 still urging them on, the Mocs made up ground at 197 and heavyweight thanks to strong, if not dominating decisions from Niko Brown and Tom Minwell. Johnson then gave his team a 10-9 lead by avenging a loss earlier this season to the Spartans’ Eric Chandler.
“It was payback. The guy beat me earlier this year (at the Virginia Tech open) and he kind of owned me,” Johnson said.
He knew when he went out to start his match that the Mocs were close but also behind.
“(The coaches) told me before I went out to wrestle and I was looking for bonus points,” the Memphis product said.
He manhandled Chandler and his 11-3 major decision — an extra team point — gave the Mocs a lead they’d not relinquish.
“Bonus points were huge,” Eslinger said.
Without those bonus points — provided by major decisions from Johnson, 157-pound Josh Condon and 165-pound Brandon Wright and a technical fall from Dean Pavlou (149) — the final score would have been 22-12. The extra-point victories allowed the Mocs to make a declaration of their intentions regarding the conference title they’ve owned for five straight seasons.
It was Condon’s 13-4 victory over Travis Sheehy that put the meet out of UNCG’s reach.
“Josh looked good today. That was a good kid he beat,” Eslinger said.
“Our big thing is to wrestle every match like we’re wrestling a ranked team,” Johnson said.
The Mocs’ other win — they took seven of the 10 matches — came from 133-pound Josh Statum, a 6-3 winner.
The Spartans’ only other victory came at 141 pounds when their touted Iva Lopouchanski got his 27th win of the year with a last-second takedown of Ben Johnson.