BOONE, N.C.- Senior heavyweight Josh Wine became the fifth Keydet wrestler in school history to win a trio of SoCon championships Sat., March 5 at the 2011 SoCon Wrestling Championship, punching his ticket for the 2011 NCAA Tournament March 17-19 in Philadelphia, Pa. As a team, the Keydets placed four wrestlers, including a third-place finish from redshirt-senior John Pope who wrestled in his final career match and finished fifth as a team with 27 points.
Wine's championship run at heavyweight commenced in the semifinals after a first round bye, where Wine avenged his lone SoCon loss of the season as he pitched a 4-0 shutout against Marc Tyson of Appalachian St. In the finals, Wine defeated Greensboro's Peter Sturgeon by a 3-2 count to take the championship.
Pope earned a bye in the first round as the No. 2 seed, and faced Appalachian State's Tony Gravely in the consolation semifinals for his second victory over Gravely this season. He took the match 11-1 over the Mountaineer to advance to the semifinals against Chattanooga's Prescott Garner. In the semis, Garner bested Pope 7-5 before the senior from Hoover, Ala., defeated Matt Zarth of Davidson 11-7 to place third in the tournament, his best SoCon tournament finish of his Keydet career.
Junior David Yost went 2-2 on the tournament, as he earned a 2-1 win over Jordan Dix of The Citadel in the opening round, and collected his second win on the day against Mike Crowley of UNCG in the consolation semifinals. In the semifinals against top-seeded Cody Cleveland of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Yost suffered his first defeat via pinfall at the 4:25 mark. Yost was eliminated from the tournament in the third-place match by a 12-8 count against Davidson's Vitaly Radsky.
Fourth-seeded 174 pounder Matt Brock began his tourney against No. 5 Carter Downs of Appalachian St., falling by a 4-2 decision. However, the junior began his run to the third-place match with a 6-0 shutout upset victory over second-seed J.C. Oddo of The Citadel. The win was followed by another bout with Downs in the third-place match, where Brock was knocked off by a 2-0 score to end his run at the title.
Senior Ronnie Ellsworth, competing at 197 pounds as a fourth seed, earned a 9-5 win over Appalachian State's No. 5 Jon Hartley 9-5. After a bye into the semifinals, Ellsworth was defeated 10-1 by UNC Greensboro's Caylor Williams and fell in the consolation final to Kelby Smith of The Citadel 8-1 and concluded his tenure as a Keydet with his second fourth-place SoCon finish in his career and 1-2 mark in the SoCon tournament.
"It feels great to represent the Institute and go out my senior year with another championship," said Wine. "I'm really looking forward to making some noise at the NCAA Tournament. It's been a long four years for me and it feels good to be where I am at right now. Coach Trudgeon and coach Skretkowicz have stuck with me through thick and thin, as well as my family and teammates to help me gain this opportunity, and I extremely grateful for each and every one of them."
With four
runners-up and one third-place finisher to go along with its four
conference champs, UTC totaled 98 points to dethrone defending champion
UNC Greensboro (87.5 pts.). Host Appalachian State placed third with
57.5 points, followed by The Citadel (44.5 pts.), VMI (27 pts.) and
Davidson (18 pts.).
Chattanooga, UNC Greensboro and Appalachian accounted for nine of the league's 10 individual champions. UTC's Demetrius Johnson (133 lbs.), Cody Cleveland (141 lbs.), Josh Condon (157 lbs.) and Brandon Wright (174 lbs.), UNCG's Manuel Ramirez (125 lbs.), Ivan Lopouchanski (149 lbs.) and Caylor Williams (197 lbs.) and ASU's Kyle Blevins (165 lbs.) and Austin Trotman (184
lbs.) won SoCon titles and the accompanying automatic berths to the
NCAA Championships, which will be held March 17-19 in Philadelphia.
