Wrestling Mocs have 11 medalists at Hokie Open

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There was no team title but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team came back with 11 medals from two divisions of Virginia Tech's Hokie Open.

The lightweights, 125-pound Sean Boyle and 133-pound Nick Soto, led the way with runner-up finishes. Soto didn't get to finish his championship match.

"He was a little banged up, so we pulled him," Mocs coach Heath Eslinger said from the team bus during the ride home. "It wasn't anything serious, but it was the first time out so why take a chance?"

Soto is expected to be ready in time for the Mocs' trip next weekend to the Eastern Michigan duals where the Mocs will wrestle Michigan State, Northern Illinois and Kent State.

Other open division medalists Sunday were Scottie Boykin (third, 197), Sean Mappes (fourth, 174), John Shrader (fourth, 184) and Jared Johnson (fifth, 285).

In the freshman/sophomore grouping, Conner Tolley (285) and Jordan Davis (197) took seconds, Jared Browning (133) third and Jacob Murphy (141) sixth.

"It was a good day; no real injuries," Eslinger said. "I thought we wrestled hard, and I thought for the most part we wrestled well. It's hard to keep up with all of it at once with 12 mats going."

One wrestler that did not take part was 174-pound Levi Clemons. He's recovering from surgery two weeks ago to repair torn meniscus in his knee.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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