From a very early piece of the team lead, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga plummeted on the NCAA wrestling tournament team scoreboard.
With their seven wrestlers having competed, the Mocs had but one competitor in the championship round of the three-day even in St. Louis.
Fifth-seeded senior 125-pounder Sean Boyle won his opening match, escaping Lehigh’s Scott Parker 6-5 but then joined his teammates in the losers-bracket following a 12-7 loss to Edinboro’s 12th-seeded Kory Mines (35-7). The setback dropped Boyle to 30-6 on the season.
He was the first of the Mocs to wrestle Thursday evening at the Scottrade Center with the others competing later in the first round of consolations.
Following Boyle’s opening win, UTC lost the rest of its first-round matches including senior Nick Soto, a four-time tournament qualifier who got caught and pinned in the waning moments of the first period by Cornell’s Mark Grey.