CHATTANOOGA, TENN. – After wrestling away from the friendly confines of Maclellan Gym for the last 90 days, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's wrestling team returned home to host The Citadel Bulldogs on Friday evening. The Mocs came away with a 29-11 victory with two pins and two major decisions.

With the win, the Mocs improve to 5-9 overall and 3-1 in SoCon action. The Citadel dropped to 4-4, 2-2.  

Drew Nicholson (165) got the match started with a 9-1 major decision after logging a takedown with less than 15 seconds in the third period to secure the bonus point. Carial Tarter at 174 continued the home success with a 3-1 decision to put the Mocs on top 7-0. Thomas Sell picked up UTC's third straight win with an 8-2 decision at 184.
 
"It was good, still not great and where we want to be, but we saw a lot of progress at our upperweights tonight. It doesn't matter who we put out there, we expect our guys to get out there for the full seven, and we haven't done that quite yet," said Head Coach Kyle Ruschell. "If we do that, we'll have a chance at winning this conference. We just have to do that Sunday against App State. They are going to bring all 10 guys and wrestle seven minutes and we need to match their intensity."
 
Wrestling at 197 for the third time this season, Matthew Waddell picked up the first pin of the match, winning by fall in 5:50 to give Chattanooga a 16-0 advantage.
 
"We are eliminating some of the outside factors with him [Matthew Waddell]," Ruschell said about the performance of Waddell after moving up a weight class. "We don't have to cut weight, we can just go out there and wrestle. When he is feeling strong, he's really good. I'm proud of him for stepping up and taking care of business."  
 
After The Citadel picked up a major decision at 285, No. 22 Fabian Gutierrez pinned his opponent 1:24 into the second period for his second pin in as many weeks and the fifth this season.

Brayden Palmer (133) and Franco Valdes (141) rounded out the wins for Chattanooga with a decision (3-1) and major decision (16-3), respectively.
 
The Bulldogs picked up a decision and a major decision at 149 and 165 to round out the match.
 
SERIES HISTORY:
UTC improves to 42-3 all-time against The Citadel and is 18-2 at home.
 
UP NEXT:
The Mocs return to the mat on Sunday to take on the SoCon preseason favorite Appalachian State Mountaineers inside Maclellan Gym at 2 p.m. The match is alumni day. Chattanooga alumni can purchase discounted tickets using the code – wrestlingalumni.
 
125: No. 22 Fabian Gutierrez (CHAT) over Malik Hardy (CIT) (Fall 4:36)
133: No. 21 Brayden Palmer (CHAT) over  Jake Rotunda (CIT) (Dec 3-1)
141: Franco Valdes (CHAT) over Jackson Bradford (CIT) (MD 16-3)
149:Ethan Willis (CIT) over Grant Lundy (CHAT) (Dec 6-4)
157: No. 30 Dazjon Casto (CIT) over Lincoln Heck(CHAT) (MD 11-2)
165: Andrew Nicholson (CHAT) over Selwyn Porter (CIT) (MD 9-1)
174: Carial Tarter(CHAT) over Cole Burke (CIT) (Dec 3-1)
184: Thomas Sell (CHAT) over Benjy Haubert (CIT) (Dec 8-2)
197: Matthew Waddell (CHAT) over Ben Stemmet (CIT) (Fall 5:50)
285: No. 30 Michael McAleavey (CIT) over Grayson Walthall (CHAT) (MD 12-2)


Extra Matches
285: Matthias Ervin (CHAT) vs. Jacob Thompson (The Citadel) (DEC 4-0)
157: Weston Wichman (Chattanooga) over Grant Speer (The Citadel) (MD 9-0)
 
 
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