The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team dropped a 33-3 contest at No. 9 Oklahoma tonight. Sophomore Jason McCroskey posted the Mocs' only win at 184 in tonight's contest. With the non-conference loss, Chattanooga drops to 10-7 on the year.
The Mocs struggled in the first four matches on the night, falling behind 17-0 while allowing the Sooners to score five bonus points. Things got much more competitive in the middle of the line-up beginning with the 157 match. Freshman Josh Condon pushed No. 12 Shane Vernon all the way to the end. However, it was a takedown by Vernon with six seconds left that gave him the 4-3 win.
There was another close battle at 165 with the Mocs' 20th ranked Brandon Wright taking on No. 15 Tyler Caldwell. A second period penalty on Wright, plus riding time, allowed Caldwell to take the 3-0 win.
McCroskey used a first period takedown to grab control of his match at 184 with Erich Schmidtke. He held on for the next four minutes to earn a 4-0 shutout win. The Mocs dropped the final two matches to provide the final score on the evening.
UTC will be back in action on Feb. 16 when they travel to VMI. A win against the Keydets will wrap up Chattanooga's sixth consecutive SoCon regular season championship.
125: No. 18 Jarrod Patterson (OU) - Dec. 11-6 - Demetrius Johnson (UTC) - OU 3-0
133: Kendric Maple (OU) - TF 16-1 - Josh Statum (UTC) - OU 8-0
141: No. 3 Zack Bailey (OU) - MD 12-1 - Ben Johnson (UTC) - OU 12-0
149: No. 3 Kyle Terry (OU) - TF 22-7 - Dean Pavlou (UTC) - OU 17-0
157: No. 12 Shane Vernon (OU) - Dec. 4-3 - Josh Condon (UTC) - OU 20-0
165: No. 15 Tyler Caldwell (OU) - Dec. 3-0 - No. 20 Brandon Wright (UTC) - OU 23-0
174: No. 15 Jeff James (OU) - Dec. 8-2 - Jake Young (UTC) - 26-0
184: Jason McCroskey (UTC) - Dec. 4-0 - Erich Schmidtke (OU) - OU 26-3
197: No. 6 Eric Lapotsky (OU) - Dec. 9-3 - Nate Brown (UTC) - OU 29-3
HWT: No. 15 Nathan Fernandez (OU) - MD 18-5 - Matt Lettner (UTC) - OU 33-3
