ASHEVILLE, N.C. — For University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestler John Shrader, just getting to the Southern Conference wrestling tournament was a battle — and it only got harder from there.
But the ultimate result was another SoCon team championship for the Mocs.
Shrader, a redshirt sophomore from Franklin, Tenn., was sidelined last year because of injury and had been locked in a season-long battle with teammate McCoy Newberg at 184 pounds. When time came for selection for the conference tournament, UTC coach Heath Eslinger went to a wrestle-off between the two teammates to see who would represent the team at Kimmel Arena.
“I’ve been battling for this job for three years straight,” Shrader said after finishing third to help the Mocs win the team title. “I actually earned the job last year and got hurt, and this year I earned the job and had to sit out and (Newberg) stepped in and won every match they put him in.
“So it came down to there’s nothing else we can but have you guys wrestle each other. We had to weigh in, we brought in a real ref and it was real match. It was super serious. It means a lot, and I’m glad to represent the team.”
Shrader’s hopes for a title were derailed when he injured his knee and lost 4-2 to Gardner-Webb’s Hunter Gamble in the semifinals, but he fought back through consolations to help the Mocs make up for a rough semifinal round.
UTC advanced nine of 10 wrestlers to the semifinals, with the only early loss being Justin Lampe at 165, but only four Mocs — Sean Boyle (125), Nick Soto (133), Mike Pongracz (141) and Sean Mappes (174) — made it to the championship round. Notable upset losses for UTC were top-seeded Scottie Boykin at 197 and No. 2 seed Shawn Greevy at 149.
While Schrader and the other four defeated UTC wrestlers were disappointed to not be wrestling for SoCon titles, Eslinger ralled them all to fight back threw the consolation rounds and win third-place points in all five matches.
Sean Boyle wrestles at the Southern Conference wrestling tournament Saturday, March 7, 2015.“It’s disapointing because I ultimately was here to win. I mean, our whole team was,” Shrader said. “But Coach got us all in the locker room after the semis, because we had a rough round, and just said you’ve got to do it for the team now, and third place matters for the team to come back.”
In the championship rounds, Boyle defeated Jaoquin Marquez of The Citadel 10-1 and Soto pinned Appalachian State’s Vito Pasone to become a four-time SoCon champion. Top-seeded Pongracz lost 7-4 to Appalachian State’s Michael Longo, but No. 4 seed Mappes survived to win 6-5 on a riding-time point over second-seeded Forrest Przybysz of ASU.
Joining Boyle, Soto and Mappes with NCAA tournament bids for UTC was Greevy — who will advance to nationals because the SoCon was allocated three NCAA bids at 149 — and heavyweight Jared Johnson, who had to wrestle again at the end of the competition for a true second-place spot and the league’s second bid at that weight. Johnson defeated The Citadel’s Joe Bexley 4-2 to earn the NCAA berth.
UTC finished atop the team standings with 89 points, well ahead of Appalachian State at 70.5 and The Citadel at 62.
Eslinger was not happy to have had to pit two of his wrestlers against each other to determine who his representative would be at 184, but in the end having more than enough good wrestlers is a good problem to have.
“It’s been a very competitive weight for us this year,” he said. “And Shrader is the one who emerged out of the competition, so we’re very excited for him to compete.
“I’m not a fan of wrestle-offs, but it came down to that, and you know, Shrader got the job.”
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.