Matches Notes: Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle
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The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is set to host the 2015 Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1-2. Billed as the top in-season collegiate wrestling tournament in the nation, the Southern Scuffle is held in the McKenzie Arena.
Gates open at 8:00 a.m. (E.S.T.) and wrestling starts each day at 9:00 a.m. Tickets are on sale now on GoMocs.com, or by calling the UTC Ticket Office at (423) 266-MOCS (6627).
The field is stacked again with 31 teams, including 14 of this week’s Intermat Tournament Top 25. All totaled, there are 29 All-Americans, three NCAA Champions, four former NCAA runners-up, six former Scuffle winners, eight former Scuffle finalists, 95 currently ranked and 45 ranked in the top 10.
#LetsScuffle Previews
125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184 | 197 | 285
Links to each of the #LetsScuffle previews from www.TheSouthernScuffle.com are listed above. For a full list of participating teams, click here.
TOURNAMENT PRESEEDS
A full list of Scuffle preseeds is available here. The Mocs have four seeded in the tournament. Senior Sean Boyle is No. 11 at 125 and Senior Nick Soto is No. 6 at 133. Soto finished fourth at 133 last season and was second as a freshman in 2012. Senior Shawn Greevy is No. 12 at 149, while junior John Lampe is No. 12 at 184.
CHATTANOOGA MOCS PROBABLE LINEUP
125: No. 20 Sean Boyle (Sr. – 10-3)
133: No. 18 Nick Soto (Sr. – 10-5)/Jared Browning (So. - 4-3)
141: Mike Pongracz (So. – 10-6)/Jacob Murphy (Fr. - 5-6)
149: Shawn Greevy (Sr. – 8-5)
157: Austin Sams (Jr. – 5-9)
174: Levi Clemons (Sr. – 1-2)/Sean Mappes (So. – 8-4)/McCoy Newberg (So. – 10-3)
184: John Shrader (So. – 7-2)/John Lampe (Jr. – 9-5)
197: Scottie Boykin (So. – 9-5)/Clay Dent (Jr. - 4-4)
285: Jared Johnson (So. – 13-4)
125: Senior Sean Boyle leads off at 125. He is No. 20 in the Intermat rankings and the No. 11 seed in the tournament. He has a pair of second place finishes at the Hokie Open and Navy Classic to go with a 10-3 overall record. Boyle is 6-1 against the field with wins over Virginia’s Nick Hermann, Cleveland State’s Ben Willeford and North Carolina’s Cody Karns. His lone loss was an 11-8 setback to Bucknell’s 16th-ranked Paul Petrov at the Navy Classic.
133: Two-time Scuffle placer Nick Soto carries the UTC flag a 133 as the No. 6 seed. The senior from Spring Hill, Fla., is 10-5 overall and No. 18 this week. He was a runner-up as a freshman in 2012 and placed fourth last year.
Soto is 4-2 against the field with wins against Kent State’s No. 14 Mackenzie McGuire, Bucknell’s Zachary Valley, George Mason’s Vince Rodriguez and Navy’s Colton Rasche. His losses include an injury default to Virginia’s No. 10 George DiCamillo and a 7-5 decision to North Carolina’s Troy Heilmann.
Also taking the mat 133 for Chattanooga is sophomore Jared Browning. He placed third in the Fr.-So. draw at the Hokie Open and is 4-3 overall. He 2-3 against the field with wins over Gardner-Webb’s Brayden Hartley and Phillip Anderson. He lost to Rasche and Rodriguez at the Navy Classic and Appalachian State’s Jacob Grigg at the Hokie Open.
141: Sophomore Michael Pongracz is in at 141 with a 10-6 mark. This includes a third place finish at the Navy Classic. Pongracz is in a brutal stretch of the schedule that includes matches against three-straight ranked opponents.
He is 6-3 against the field with wins against Nate Harper (The Citadel), Kent State’s Kyle Bauer and Chance Driscoll, George Mason’s Zach Isenhour, North Carolina’s Cody Ross and Bucknell’s Tyler Smith. His losses are against Duke’s Evan Botwin and Grant Leeth and North Carolina’s No. 14 Joey Ward.
Freshman Jacob Murphy is also in the lineup at 141 for Chattanooga. He is 4-4 overall and finished sixth in the Fr.-So. draw at the Hokie Open.
Murphy is 3-2 against the field, including wins against N.C. State’s Chandler Pyke, Virginia’s Benjamin Hutchins and Bucknell’s Colling Boylen. His two losses were to the Cavalier’s Cameron Perry and NCSU’s Kevin Jack.
149: Senior Shawn Greevy is the lone Moc at 149 and is the No. 12 seed. He is 8-5 overall and has wins in five of his last seven matches, including a second place finish at the Navy Classic.
Greevy 4-3 against the field, including a pin against Kent State’s 20th-ranked Michael Depalma at the Navy Classic. He split at pair with North Carolina’s Chrisitan Barber and also has wins over George Mason’s James Hunsberger and The Citadel’s Matt Frisch.
157: Junior Austin Sams is the Mocs pick at 157. He is 5-9 overall and 4-3 against the field. He defeated UNC’s Chris Mears in a dual match with the Tar Heels on Dec. 14. He also has wins against Gardner-Webb’s Kyle Ash and UNC’s Robert Henderson. He split a pair with Kent State’s Andy Candiello.
174: 174 is crowded for the Mocs with three wrestlers at this weight. Senior Levi Clemons is back in action after missing part of the year with an injury. He is 1-2 overall.
Sophomore Sean Mappes will get to compete at his regular wieght after moving up to 184 in the dual against North Carolina on Dec. 14. He is 8-4 on the season, including third place finishes at both the Hokie Open and the Navy Classic. He is 6-1 against the 174 bracket. He split with Kent State’s No. 17 Caleb Marsh. He defeated Marsh 5-3 in overtime at the Hokie Open and lost in a tech fall 15-0 at the Eastern Michigan Duals.
Sophomore McCoy Newberg has been battling for a spot in the lineup after transferring to Chattanooga from Nebraska. He is 10-3 overall and 4-2 against the field. He finished fourth at the Navy Classic.
184: Junior John Lampe and sophomore John Shrader are in the lineup at 184 for the Mocs. Lampe just missed a huge win in his last match, falling to Old Dominion’s No. 4 Jack Dechow in overtime.
Lampe is 9-5 overall and finished fifth at the Navy Classic. He is 6-2 against the field, including a 3-1 win over Navy’s Mike Woulfe. He is also the No. 12 seed at 184.
Shrader is off to an impressive 7-2 start after missing last season with an injury. He placed third at the Hokie Open and is 7-1 against the field. His lone loss was to Virginia’s Tyler Askey at the Hokie Open.
197: Sophomore Scottie Boykin is riding a three-match winning streak into the 197 bracket at the Scuffle. He already has a third place finish at the Hokie Open under his belt and is 10-5 overall. He posted one of UTC’s biggest wins of the year when he took out Purdue’s then-No. 8 ranked Braden Atwood (6-4) in overtime on Dec. 12.
Boykin is 7-1 against the field. His lone loss is a narrow 0-2 decision to Duke’s fifth-ranked Conner Hartman at the Hokie Open.
Junior Clay Dent is also on the list at 197 for Chattanooga. He is 4-4 on the year, having competed at the Hokie Open and the Navy Classic.
285: Current Southern Conference Wrestler of the Week Jared Johnson represents the Mocs at heavyweight. He is 13-4 overall and coming off a 2-0 win over Old Dominion’s No. 20 Jacob Henderson his last time out.
Johnson is 5-3 against the field, including another 2-0 win against North Carolina’s Frank Abbondanza.
#LETSSCUFFLE
Be sure to use the hashtag #LetsScuffle when tweeting about the Southern Scuffle. Follow @GoMocs and @UTCWrestling for the most up-to-date information on the 2015 Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle.
SCUFFLE NOTES
• This is the 12th year of the Southern Scuffle. It was held in Greensboro, N.C. from 2003-10 and moved to Chattanooga in 2012.
• Appalachian State, Duke, N.C. State, North Carolina, The Citadel and Virginia are the only teams that have competed in the Southern Scuffle every year since it began in 2003.
• Records do not show a Southern Scuffle in 2011, but the event did not skip a season. The 2010 tournament was held in late December while the 2012 event was Jan. 1-2.
• Only four different teams have won the Southern Scuffle, including Cornell (2008, 2009 & 2010 (tie)), Minnesota (2004, 2005 & 2007), Missouri (2003 & 2006) and Penn State (2010 (tie), 2012, 2013 & 2014).
• There are six former Scuffle Individual Champions in the field, including Cornell’s Nahshon Garrett (125) and Gabe Dean (184), Missouri’s Drake Houdasheldt (149), Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer (157) and Penn State’s Nico Megaludis (125-’13) and Zain Retherford (141).
• There are three NCAA Champions set to compete, including Missouri’s J’Den Cox (197), N.C. State’s Nick Gwiazdowski (285) and Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer (157).
• There are four No. 1 wrestlers in the field, according to the Dec. 23 Intermat Top 20 individual rankings. These include Iowa State’s Kyven Gadsen (197), Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer (165), Pittsburgh’s Max Thomusseit (184) and Nebraska’s Robert Kokesh (174).
LIVE VIDEO & LIVE SCORING
Flowrestling is back to provide live video of each match as a part of its FloPro subscription. Free live scoring is available through Trackwrestling. Links to both are on www.TheSouthernScuffle.com.
SOTO CLIMBING CAREER WINS CHART
Senior Nick Soto is 96-30 in his career at UTC. He is currently eighth all-time at UTC.