The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team put two on the podium at the Southern Scuffle, presented by Compound Sportswear, today. Senior
Alonzo Allen finished fifth at 125, while junior
Chris Debien was sixth at 141.
Penn State set a tournament record with 216.5 points on its way to an eighth team title. The Nittany Lions had six individuals win, led by the Tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler Bo Nickal. Nickal pinned his way through the field to also take the Gorrarian Award.
He had five pins in just 10:32 of action at the two day event. He is just the fourth in tournament history to pin every opponent and the first since Missouri's Ben Askren in 2006 to take home both individual honors.
Allen started off the day with a 9-7 win over Stanford's 18
th-ranked Gabe Townsell. He earned a stalling penalty point and an escape in the second overtime period. He got the crowd on their feet by riding out Townsell for the win in the final OT frame.
Allen lost to Lock Haven's Luke Werner in the consolation semifinals, before winning a tight match against Iowa State's Alex Mackall to take fifth place. Trailing 5-4 with less than a minute to go, Allen tied the score with an escape, then scored the win by forcing a stalling call against Mackall.
Debien opened with a 10-8 win over Pittsburgh's Cole Matthews. He dropped a 2-1 decision to Navy's 15
th-ranked Nicholas Gill before falling to Lock Haven's Kyle Shoop in the fifth place bout.
Chattanooga finished tied for 14
th in the team race with 37.5 points. Oklahoma State has four individual winners and scored 188.5 points to finish second overall. That point total would have won 11 of the past 16 Scuffles. Iowa State had its best showing in four trips to the Scuffle with a third place finish and 104 points.
Stanford also had a program best fourth place showing with 82.5 points in its seventh time in the Scuffle. Navy rounded out the top five with 75.5 points.
Complete brackets and team scores are attached to the story. Up next for the Mocs is a trip to the Virginia Dual on Jan. 11-12. Be sure to check back to GoMocs.com for the full schedule.
