With an ice pack and sleep on his mind Wednesday night, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestler Matthew Waddell was already preparing for his 184-pound Southern Scuffle semifinal after a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Campbell's Chris Kober.
Waddell's second-period takedown gave him the lead, and an escape early in the third period followed by staying in good position helped the former three-time Georgia state champion from Gilmer High School keep his title hopes intact in the grueling tournament that continues Thursday at McKenzie Arena.
"If you keep yourself focused and ready the whole time while staying relaxed, you can put yourself in a position to be really successful," said Waddell, a sophomore. "Now it's time to get weight off, go to bed, then wake up and eat a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and drink a coffee to get me going before my match at noon tomorrow."
After spending the previous two seasons at Oklahoma, Waddell has taken off in his brief time with the Mocs, with his season record 11-4 after Wednesday.
Waddell, his bracket's No. 4 seed, opened his time at the 17th edition of the Scuffle with a second-round pin of Drexel's Owen Brooks and followed with a 9-2 victory over Air Force's Jake Thompson in the round of 16.
As the lone championship contender remaining for UTC, which was 14th in the team points race with 33.5, Waddell will go against second-ranked Trent Hidlay from North Carolina State. Hidlay is one of four brothers on the team for the Wolfpack, who are ranked sixth in the country, and is the younger brother of two-time All-American Hayden Hidlay, who will compete in the 157-pound semifinals.
"Matthew has done a great job all season for us, and he has been locked in throughout every big match here," Mocs coach Kyle Ruschell said. "He has gotten to his scores and tightened up a lot of screws. If he can dictate the pace and position tomorrow and not let his opponent get the underhook, then we can win. I believe in him, and he will be ready to attack tomorrow."
Ninth-ranked Oklahoma State enters the final day in first place in the standings with 70 points - the field has 28 full teams - and has five semifinalists: two-time Scuffle champion Kaden Gfeller - who made his season debut Wednesday - and Dusty Hone are in opposite matches at 141, and they're joined by Nick Piccininni (125), Wyatt Sheets (157) and Travis Wittlake (165).
North Dakota State (63 points) is second and North Carolina State (61.5) third, with Rider and Stanford tied for fourth.
UTC 133-pounder Colton Landers, a former Tennessee state champion from Cleveland High School, won four straight matches to close the day after falling 13-4 to Oklahoma State's Reece Witcraft to open. Landers won two major decisions, 13-3 and 16-2, a 7-5 sudden victory over Cal State Bakersfield's Chance Rich and a 7-3 decision against Iowa State's Ramazan Attasavov.
Landers and teammate Tanner Smith (149) will earn podium spots if they win their first matches Thursday.
"To get through the back side, I had to wrestle hard and with emotion like my coach had been telling me all day long," Landers said. "When I was turning people, I got mean with it and was able to rack up points."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.