CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The Chattanooga wrestling squad fell in a pair of tough matches Saturday afternoon at Maclellan Gym in its home opener. Princeton beat the Mocs 29-13 and UTC fell to its second Big 10 foe of the season 41-3 to Purdue.
 
CHATTANOOGA vs. PRINCETON
The Mocs opened with three straight wins over Princeton in UTC opening match of the tri-dual meet.
 
Noah Castillo, ranked 28^th, opened with a tech fall decision over the Tiger's Christopher Martino. The Orlando, Fla., senior had five take downs in the match and a four-point near fall for a 20-2 decision. Jackson Hurst and Sergio Desiante claimed back-to-back major decisions to give UTC a 13-0 lead.
 
Hurst began with a takedown in the opening round of the 165 match and recorded two more to win 10-2. At 174, Desiante started strong with a takedown in the first and won 8-0.
 
Princeton began clawing back into the match beginning with a pair of tech falls. Logan Webster fell to Mikey Squires and David Harper dropped his match to #16 Luke Stout, cutting UTC's lead to 13-10.
 
Ethan Vergara dropped his 285 bout to Sebastian 8-5. Vergara was leading 4-1 headed into the final round but an escape and a pair of takedowns proved to be the difference tying it up 13-13.
 
Tyler Tice and Bryce Luna each fell by major decision giving Princeton the lead. Tyce was outdueled 10-1 by Ethan Rivera and Luna's match ended 12-3 in favor of Dan Jones, putting the Tigers up 21-13 with two matches remaining.
 
Eligh Rivera beat the Mocs 18^th-ranked Isaiah Powe at the 141 weight, the closest bout of the match, 12-5 and Dayne Dalrymple was beaten by tech fall in the 149 match to #8 Ty Whalen.
 
CHATTANOOGA VS. PRINCETON
157: Noah Castillo (CHAT) over Christopher Martino (PRIN) (TF 20-2 5:21)
165: Jackson Hurst (CHAT) over Cody Tavoso (PRIN) (MD 10-2)
174: Sergio Desiante (CHAT) over Xavier Giles (PRIN) (MD 8-0)
184: Michael Squires (PRIN) over Logan Webster (CHAT) (TF 18-1 4:05)
197: Luke Stout (PRIN) over David Harper (CHAT) (TF 17-1 6:56)
285: Sebastian Garibaldi (PRIN) over Ethan Vergara (CHAT) (Dec 8-5)
125: Ethan Rivera (PRIN) over Tyler Tice (CHAT) (MD 10-1)
133: Dan Jones (PRIN) over Bryce Luna (CHAT) (MD 12-3)
141: Eligh Rivera (PRIN) over Isaiah Powe (CHAT) (Dec 12-5)
149: Ty Whalen (PRIN) over Dayne Dalrymple (CHAT) (TF 20-4 6:52)
 
SERIES HISTORY
The series is tied 1-1. The Mocs claimed a 27-10 win in the first meeting between the two in 2012 at Princeton.
 
CHATTANOOGA vs. PURDUE
Chattanooga's Eli Knight scored the lone win for the Mocs against Purdue of the Big 10.
 
Castillo (157) and Hurst (165) opened up the match, falling by major decision, putting UTC 8-0 in the hole. Three straight pins stretched Purdue's lead to 26-0. Another major decision at 285 and tech fall at 125 added to the Boilermaker's lead.
 
Luna started his math at 133 with a takedown in the first. An escape by Purdue's Dustin Norris made it 3-1 in the first.   It was looking good for the West Coach freshman who took a 6-2 lead into the final round. However, Norris started the round with an escape from the bottom, a takedown and a four-point near fall to win 10-6.
 
The Mocs lone win against the Boilermakers came in the 141 match with Knight beating Greyson Clark 10-7. He had a pair of takedowns in the match and led 7-1 in the third period. Clark scored on a reverse and a four-point near fall to tie it up 7-7, but Knight held on adding three more points that included riding time for the win.
 
The final match was close at 3-0 with Dalrymple falling to Isaac Ruble in the 149 matchup.
 
CHATTANOOGA VS. PURDUE
157: Joey Blaze (PUR) over Noah Castillo (CHAT) (MD 11-3)
165: Stoney Buell (PUR) over Jackson Hurst (CHAT) (MD 16-5)
174: Brody Baumann (PUR) over Sergio Desiante (CHAT) (Fall 3:56)
184: James Rowley (PUR) over Logan Webster (CHAT) (Fall 1:48)
197: Ben Vanadia (PUR) over David Harper (CHAT) (Fall 2:44)
285: Hayden Filipovich (PUR) over Ethan Vergara (CHAT) (MD 11-0)
125: Matt Ramos (PUR) over Tyler Tice (CHAT) (TF 19-4 3:33)
133: Dustin Norris (PUR) over Bryce Luna (CHAT) (Dec 10-6)
141: Eli Knight (CHAT) over Greyson Clark (PUR) (Dec 10-7)
149: Isaac Ruble (PUR) over Dayne Dalrymple (CHAT) (Dec 3-0)
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Mocs are 0-8 against the Boilermakers. Today was just the second meeting in Chattanooga.
 
QUOTES FROM THE COACH
On the team's performance today
"Giving up bonus points, giving up pins is unacceptable. The first duel led into the second duel and it was bad performance on my part and the team. We've got to get a lot better. Got to get a lot tougher."
 
On Eli Knight winning against his Purdue opponent
"It's good. I mean, that's a ranked opponent, Big 10 opponent. But Eli's got even more in him. He needs to continue to look to score. He could rack up a lot of points if he really wanted to.
  
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