For the second straight season, Bryce Carr suffered a one-point loss to Northern Iowa’s Drew Foster in the Southern Scuffle wrestling tournament.
And for the second straight year, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 184-pounder found a way to rally.
Carr’s career-best third-place finish highlighted the Mocs in the the two-day event at McKenzie Arena. The senior was one of three UTC wrestlers to place Tuesday night, with 197-pounder Scottie Boykin finishing fifth and 149-pounder Roman Boylen placing eighth.
Carr rebounded after the 2-1 loss in the championship semifinals to defeat North Carolina State’s Nick Reenan 4-3 in the third-place match.
“I’ve lost a lot of 2-1 matches over time,” Carr said. “I’ve just got to find a way to get over the hump. I’m right there; I’ve just got to put in the work day in, day out and believe in my abilities. I’ve seen what the best have, and I’ve shown I can stick with them.
“I’ve just got to put the work in and hopefully finish well in March.”
Boykin lost to the Penn State duo of Shakur Rasheed – named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler – and Anthony Cassar but took fifth with an 8-6 win over Cal State Bakersfield’s Matt Williams on a takedown in the final seconds.
“It was a good weekend overall,” Boykin said. “It’s not where I wanted to be, but I got over a mental edge in this tournament that I think I had in the past. I have room to grow. To see the top-level competition that I did really exposed what I needed to work on, and I think the sky is the limit for me. I proved I belonged there.”
Defending national champion Penn State won the event, putting seven wrestlers in the finals, winning six titles and totaling 197 points. Northern Iowa was a distant second with 127 points. UNI had no champions but four runner-up finishes.
Lehigh (102), Navy (87) and Duke (80) completed the top five, with the host Mocs coming in at 11th with 51 points.
“I thought we really got better in some places,” UTC coach Heath Eslinger said. “This tournament will battle-test you a little bit because you have to win close match after close match after close match, so I think overall that’s why we’re here.
“I think we left some points on the board a little and we knew we had to wrestle great or we were going to, so we’ve got to keep the end in mind, know our wrestling, our training, everything points to having a great weekend in March. Hopefully we’ll take this information, use it the right way and continue to get better.”
Eslinger praised the performance of Boylen, who was 5-4 entering the Scuffle and one of three Mocs competing for the full-time spot at 149 pounds.
“Roman was definitely the highlight of the weekend,” the coach said. “He came in and really just battling for the spot – we weren’t sure what to do, but he came in and put an exclamation on it and said, ‘I want to be the guy.’ That’s good.”
Penn State’s Rasheed was dominant throughout the Scuffle with three pins – each in less than a minute – and a pair of major decisions. PSU 157-pounder Jason Nolf won the award for most pins in the least amount of time, with four in 10 minutes and 51 seconds.
They were just two of the Nittany Lions’ champions, with Zain Retherford (149), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Mark Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (184) the others.
Lehigh’s Darian Cruz (125), Virginia’s Jack Mueller (133), Oklahoma State’s Kaden Gfeller (141) and Duke’s Jacob Kasper (285) were the other title winners.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.
SOUTHERN SCUFFLE TEAM SCORES
1. Penn State, 197. 2. Northern Iowa, 127. 3. Lehigh, 102. 4. Navy, 87. 5. Duke, 80. 6. Drexel, 77.5. 7. Virginia, 71. 8. Cal State Bakersfield, 69. 9. Stanford, 68. 10. Lock Haven, 64.5. 11. UTC, 51. 12. (tie) Appalachian State, 46; Northern Colorado, 46. 14. North Carolina State, 34.5. 15. Air Force, 32. 16. Campbell, 29.5. 17. Oklahoma State, 27. 18. Hofstra, 26. 19. Cleveland State U. 20. (tie) Gardner-Webb, 9.5; George Mason, 9.5. 22. North Carolina, 9. 23. The Citadel, 8. 24. Virginia Tech, 3.5.
Individual medalists Tuesday at UTC
125 pounds
For 1st: Darian Cruz (Lehigh) dec. Jay Schwarm (Northern Iowa), 11-4; For 3rd; Louie Hayes (Virginia) tech. fall Korbin Meink (Campbell), 19-4 (7:00); For 5th: Anthony Decesare (Air Force) dec. Sergio Mendez (CSU-Bakersfield), 9-4; For 7th: Gabe Townsell (Stanford) dec. Ibrahim Bunduka (George Mason), 3-2.
133 pounds
For 1st: Jack Mueller (Virginia) major dec. Gary Wayne Harding (Oklahoma State), 10-0; For 3rd: Colby Smith (Unattached) dec. Rico Montoya (N. Colorado), 8-4; For 5th: Jamel Morris (NC State) won by forfeit; For 7th: Sean Nickell def. Isaac Jimenez (Air Force).
141 pounds
For 1st: Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma State) pinned Nick Lee (Penn State), 4:50; For 3rd: Josh Alber (Northern Iowa) tech. fall Kyle Shoop (Lock Haven), 18-3 (6:03); For 5th: Nic Gil (Navy) won by forfeit; For 7th: Evan Cheek (Cleveland State) major dec. Russell Rohlfing (CSU-Bakersfield), 10-1.
149 pounds
For 1st: Zain Retherford (Penn State) pinned Josh Heil (Campbell), 4:39; For 3rd: Jared Prince (Navy) dec. Sam Krivus (Virginia), 5-2; For 5th: Max Thomsen (Northern Iowa) def. Trevor Elfvin (Drexel); For 7th: Jarod Verkleeren (Penn State) dec. Roman Boylen (UTC), 2-1.
157 pounds
For 1st: Jason Nolf (Penn State) pinned Mitch Finesilver (Duke), 0:51; For 3rd: Paul Fox (Stanford) won by forfeit; For 5th: Garrett Hammond (Drexel) dec. Zack Davis (Navy), 20-14; For 7th: Ian Brown (Lehigh) pinned Laken Cook (Appalachian State), 2:16.
165 pounds
For 1st: Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) major dec. Bryce Steiert (Northern Iowa), 8-0; For 3rd: Chance Marsteller (Lock Haven) dec. Makhi Lewis (Virginia Tech), 6-4; For 5th: Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) def. Ebed Jarrell (Drexel); For 7th: Keilan Torres (N. Colorado) dec. Drew Longo (Lehigh), 9-7.
174 pounds
For 1st: Mark Hall (Penn State) dec. Jordan Kutler (Lehigh), 4-0; For 3rd: Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) pinned Forest Przybysz (Appalachian State), 2:42; For 5th: Keaton Subjeck (Stanford) won by forfeit; For 7th: Austin Rose (Drexel) won by forfeit.
184 pounds
For 1st: Bo Nickal (Penn State) major dec. Drew Foster (Northern Iowa), 10-2; For 3rd: Bryce Carr (UTC) dec. Nick Reenan (NC State), 4-3; For 5th: Michael Coleman (Navy) pinned Alan Clothier (Appalachian State), 6:35; For 7th: Gary Jantzer (Unat. Utah Valley) dec. Stan Smeltzer (VT), 6-2.
197 pounds
For 1st: Shakur Rasheed (Penn State) pinned Jacob Holschlag (Northern Iowa), 0:46; For 3rd: Anthony Cassar (Penn State) dec. Stephen Loiseau (Drexel), 4-1; For 5th: Scottie Boykin (UTC) dec. Matt Williams (CSU-Bakersfield), 8-6; For 7th: Luke Farinaro (Duke) won by forfeit.
285 pounds
For 1st: Jacob Kasper (Duke) dec. Mike Boykin (NC State), 5-1; For 3rd: Nathan Butler (Stanford) dec. Nick Nevills (Penn State), 2-0; For 5th: Mike Hughes (Hofstra) won by forfeit; For 7th: Joey Goodhard (Drexel) won by forfeit.