On January 1st and 2nd, The Chattanooga Mocs hosted their Southern Scuffle Wrestling Tournament. The tournament featured some of the best wrestlers in the country along with their teams. There were very good match-ups throughout the tournament, but the #1 Penn State Nittany Lions came away leading first in the tournament, with 6 wrestlers in the finals.
At 125 lbs. #2 Nico Megaludis from Penn State finished 2nd place falling short to Nashon Garret from Cornell. Garret is #1 seed, and defeated Megaludis 6-4. Megaludis dominated the tournament as well as Garret. Garret and Megaludis are expected to wrestle later in the year at the NCAA finals.
At 197 lbs. Bethel’s own Nick Bonaccorsi from the Pittsburgh Panthers took 6th place at the tournament. Bonaccorsi, along with teammate Tyler Wilps, made it to the semi-finals. Bonaccorsi took out Pat Gillien from Virginia, Tyler Luster from Bucknell, and Phil Wellington from Ohio before falling to the #1 seed, Scott Schriller from Missouri. Scott Schriller went on to win the tournament as he defeated Kvyen Gadson from Iowa State in the finals.
There was an NCAA rematch at 174 lbs. between Matt Brown from Penn State and Chris Perry from Oklahoma State. Perry defeated Brown last year in the NCAA finals in an ultimate ride-out victory. Perry and Brown mostly dominated the tournament, until Perry had to wrestle Pitt’s own, Tyler Wilps. Wilps gave the #1 seed a run for his money, with Perry only defeating Wilps 2-1. Perry beat the #2 seed, Matt Brown 4-0.
One of the most anticipated match-ups was at 184 lbs. between the #1 Ed Ruth from Penn State and the true freshman from Cornell, Gabe Dean. Dean was an underdog at the contest, but he ended up besting the #1 seed 7-2. Ruth was behind for much of the match. The whole arena was shocked to see a freshman hand out Ruth’s first lost since 2011.
The Southern Scuffle once again delivered to be one of the best tournaments of the year. It features quality teams along with quality wrestlers. Mark another great tournament in the books, thanks to The Southern Scuffle.