They were unable to secure an All-American, but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs improved their NCAA wrestling standing Friday.
The Mocs, who finished 65th a year ago, were tied for 49th with 3.5 points on wins by Brandon Wright (165) and Nick Soto (133).
Those two were eliminated in the tournament’s fourth consolation round Friday, Soto by pin and Wright by major decision. UTC’s three other representatives — Dean Pavlou (149), Dan Waddell (157) and Levi Clemons (174) — were eliminated Thursday night.
“We aren’t where we want to be,” UTC coach Heath Eslinger said. “We had a bunch of blue-collar guys that wrestled well on a consistent basis, but I don’t think we had any thoroughbreds in our lineup.”
Appalachian State does. The Mountaineers’ 184-pound Austin Trotman, a fifth-year senior, became the 19th Southern Conference wrestler to earn All-America honors and the first since UTC’s Cody Cleveland in 2008. Trotman earned the distinction by beating No. 1 seed Joe LeBlanc of Wyoming in the quarterfinals. He lost in overtime in Friday night’s semifinals to Cornell’s Steve Bosak but will finish no worse than sixth.