University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Southern Scuffle
Tar Heels' Scotton Takes Southern Scuffle Title
December 30, 2009 | Wrestling
Dec. 30, 2009
GREENSBORO, N.C. - North Carolina junior Thomas Scotton defeated a pair of nationally-ranked opponents Wednesday to take the 157-pound title at the 2009 Southern Scuffle at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. With four grapplers earning top-eight finishes, Carolina placed ninth in the team standings with 68.5 points. No. 8 Cornell took the team crown with 164 points.
In addition to the No. 7-ranked Scotton's first-place finish, other place-winners for the Tar Heels were No. 14 Dennis Drury, who took fourth at 197 pounds, Ziad Haddad, who was fifth at heavyweight, and Jeremy Shaw, who grabbed seventh place at 133.
After winning twice Tuesday, Scotton opened with a 7-1 decision over Penn's Matt Dragon in the quarterfinals and then defeated No. 9 Bryce Saddoris of Navy for the second time this season by a 5-3 margin. In the final against No. 12 Kurt Kinser of Indiana, Scotton scored a 2-1 overtime victory. After posting a 5-0 mark in Greensboro, Scotton, who has three wins over top-10 opponents on the year, is now a team-best 21-2.
Drury, who also won twice on the opening day of action, posted a 4-3 decision against Riley Orozco of Cal State Bakersfield to advance to the semis, but suffered a 14-3 major decision loss to No. 6 Cam Simaz of Cornell. Drury bounced back to defeat Sonny Yohn of Minnesota, 4-2, to reach the third-place bout against No. 5 Anthony Biondo of Michigan, who posted a 15-8 decision to take third. With his 4-2 record and fourth-place finish, Drury stands 16-6 on the year.
After logging two wins Tuesday, Haddad bested NC State's Eloheim Palma with a 9-4 decision in the quarterfinals but fell to Navy's Scott Steele, 6-4, in the semis. Haddad was then pinned by Gardner-Webb's Dustin Porter in 2:09 to drop to the fifth-place match, where he won via medical forfeit over No. 14 Joshua Arnone of Cornell. Haddad went 4-2 at the Scuffle en route to fifth.
Shaw dropped his first match Tuesday but ran off four straight victories in the consolation bracket before falling to Penn's Bryan Ortenzio, 7-4, Wednesday to drop to the seventh-place bout. There, he blanked Edinboro's Ashton Osterberg by a 5-0 margin to lock up a seventh-place finish. Shaw went 5-2 at the Southern Scuffle to improve to 11-8 for the season.
Unattached freshman Zac Bennett, who also reached the quarterfinals at 197, dropped his first two bouts Wednesday to finish the event with a 2-2 record. Sophomores Kyle Kiss (165) and Nick Tenpenny (184) were also eliminated on day two with records of 4-2 and 3-2, respectively.
Carolina returns to action Tuesday, Jan. 12 against Duke at 7 p.m. at Carmichael Auditorium.
Players Mentioned
