Following his team’s 19-16 victory over Oklahoma last Sunday, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling coach Heath Eslinger talked about winning as opposed to getting close to winning matches or meets.
“You have to get in a habit of winning. Programs like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Cornell, Missouri — they’re in the habit of winning,” Eslinger said after his Mocs rallied to beat the Sooners. “People will say all the time, ‘I wrestled that guy close’ or ‘We wrestled that match close.’ Well, there’s a big difference between wrestling it close and winning.”
UTC will be surrounded today by teams with the winning habit. The Mocs are the only unranked team in today’s NWCA National Duals quarterfinals at Iowa City, Iowa, joining No. 12 Illinois, No. 11 Lehigh, No. 6 Cornell, No. 4 Minnesota, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 2 Missouri and No. 1 Iowa. The eight teams include 57 wrestlers ranked by Intermat.
Iowa has been ranked at the top of the NWCA poll since the preseason, and that’s the team UTC will wrestle at 1 p.m. EST. The winner will face Minnesota or Cornell later in the afternoon, and the championship match is set for Sunday, when the Mocs are scheduled to be at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville for a Southern Conference meet.
“We obviously have our hands full,” Eslinger said of facing the Hawkeyes.