Chattanooga Wrestlers Drop Home Match To Virginia Tech, Pick Up 2 Individual Wins

Friday, November 17, 2017

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team dropped a closer-than-the-score 28-7 match against No. 8 Virginia Tech in Maclellan Gym Friday night. UTC won two matches and were tight in five others against the top-10 ranked Hokies.

UTC gave up bonus points in the first two matches, but senior Michael Pongracz answered with one of his own at 141. He posted a 10-2 major decision against Brent Moore to improve to 5-1 overall.

"Mike Pongracz is Mike Pongracz," stated head coach Heath Eslinger. "Dude it just a winner. He knows his wrestling, puts himself in there and he brings his A-game every time."

Junior Roman Boylen had an impressive showing despite a loss. He battled No.

7 Solomon Chisko to a 3-1 decision at 149.

Senior Chad Pyke also had a tough match against No. 5 David McFadden at 165. Pyke was the aggressor early, opening the scoring with a takedown. McFadden eventually posted a 9-5 win that gave the Hokies a 19-4 lead in the team points.

Senior Justin Lampe won the second match for the Mocs at 174, scoring a 6-4 decision in sudden victory over Hunter Bolen. Lampe gave up an early takedown, and trailed 3-2 in the third, before wining in overtime.

One of the most anticipated bouts of the evening came at 184 between Chattanooga's No. 12 Bryce Carr and Virginia Tech's Zack Zavatsky. Zavatsky won last year's meeting 2-1, and tonight was also a low-scoring affair. Zavatsky took the 3-1 win with a takedown in overtime.

The 197 match also got top billing for Mocs fans. Senior Scottie Boykin was a top-10 wrestler in 2016, but redshirted last season. He matched up against No. 2 Jared Haught and came out with two takedowns in the first period to get the big Whiteout Crowd going.

An escape early in the second period gave him a 6-3 lead, but Haught closed the gap with a takedown. The period saw Haught go up 8-6 after an escape and a takedown, but Boykin got the crowd on their feet again with a reversal to tie the match. Haught escaped and added riding time for a 10-8 win.

"Scottie Boykin lost, but he tried to win," added Eslinger. "He tried to earn the win and made that kid beat him. Same at 165, Chad Pyke made the other guy earn a win.

"When you are willing to go out and try to earn it, it makes the other guy work really hard and a lot of times he will crack."

The evening ended with junior Connor Tolley dropping a 5-2 decision at heavyweight.

The Mocs are now 1-1 overall and have an early wakeup call for a flight to the Black Night Invitational in West Point, N.Y.. Action takes place at Army on Sunday and a link for live scoring is available on the wrestling schedule page on GoMocs.com.

Chattanooga 7 – No. 8 Virginia Tech 28
125: Kyle Norstrem (Virginia Tech) over Alonzo Allen (Chattanooga) (MD 17-6) – VT 4-0
133: No. 18 Dennis Gustafson (Virginia Tech) over Wade Cummings (Chattanooga) (TF 17-1 4:39) – VT 9-0
141: Mike Pongracz (Chattanooga) over Brent Moore (Virginia Tech) (MD 10-2) – VT 9-4
149: No. 7 Solomon Chishko (Virginia Tech) over Roman Boylen (Chattanooga) (Dec 3-1) – VT 12-4
157: BC LaPrade (Virginia Tech) over Dylan Forzani (Chattanooga) (MD 16-7) – VT 16-4
165: No. 5 David McFadden (Virginia Tech) over Chad Pyke (Chattanooga) (Dec 9-5) – VT 19-4
174: Justin Lampe (Chattanooga) over Hunter Bolen (Virginia Tech) (SV-1 6-4) – VT 19-7
184: No. 7 Zachary Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) over No. 2 Bryce Carr (Chattanooga) (SV-1 3-1) – VT 22-7
197: No. 2 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) over Scottie Boykin (Chattanooga) (Dec 10-8) – VT 25-7
285: Andrew Dunn (Virginia Tech) over Connor Tolley (Chattanooga) (Dec 5-2) – VT 28-7