CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College men's wrestling squad brought the Templeton Gymnasium audience to their feet on multiple occasions throughout Friday evening's Southern Conference tilt against Chattanooga, one of the strongest mid-major programs in the sport and an opponent yet to be defeated by a fellow leaguer. In the end, despite trimming an early deficit down to a single point, the Mocs took the final two bouts by pin and decision to exit Clinton with a 28-15 victory.

Starting closer to the midway point of weight classes before finishing off in 141, the Blue Hose (3-8 overall, 0-4 SoCon) shuffled back-and-forth wins against a UTC traveler that had gained their prior two conference wins by a combined margin of 57 points. Presbyterian seesawed with their Volunteer State foe more than anyone else in league play to this point, picking up a quartet of W's from Tyler Chittum, Cordel Duhart, Malcolm Wiley, and Dominic Chavez.

The team leader in total pins going into Friday's bout, Chittum added another to his impressive freshman season for program director Mark Cody's club, needing only 32 seconds to put PC on the board in an ultra-quick fall over Jackson Hurst that flittered the UTC advantage to 8-6.

Following a visitors' technical in the 174-lb. tussle, Duhart and Wiley tag-teamed consecutive decisions by an added score of 13-7, proving PC's tenacity by whittling the lead down to 13-12 with four matches still left on the docket.

Chattanooga was consistently able to keep the Blue Hose at bay after each rally from Cody's group, balancing their comfortable lead's disappearance with a 285-lb. pinfall to stretch the score back to 19-12. A six-point victory from Chavez against UTC's Logan Ashton – the sixth W of the year for the junior – steadied Presbyterian's pulse once more, although the Mocs put together a winning result in the final two outings to secure the close call.

Wiley – the most efficient performer on the roster to this point purely based off of statistics – checked off his 14^th win of the campaign, while Duhart and Chittum grasped their 10^th and 12^th victories respectively (the former improving to 10-4 after getting past injury in the season's early stages).

In three of the team's past four Templeton appearances (vs. Duke, VMI, and now the Mocs), the Blue Hose have either possessed the lead, achieved a tie, or trailed by a margin as small as one. Unfortunately for the young PC roster, the bad luck bug continued to strike in a result that, despite the loss, reaffirms Presbyterian's state as a SoCon squad climbing up the ladder.
 
RESULTS
 
149 – Noah Castillo (UTC) def. Khalid Brinkley (PC) by MD, 14-3 – 4-0 UTC
157 – Lincoln Heck (UTC) def. Michael Ramirez (PC) by MD, 13-4 – 8-0 UTC
165 – Tyler Chittum (PC) def. Jackson Hurst (UTC) by Fall, 0:32 – 8-6 UTC
174 – Rocky Jordan (UTC) def. Zach Wells (PC) by TF, 19-3 – 13-6 UTC
184 – Cordel Duhart (PC) def. Matthew Waddell (UTC) by Dec., 4-3 – 13-9 UTC
197 – Malcolm Wiley (PC) def. Thomas Sell (UTC) by Dec., 9-4 – 13-12 UTC
285 – Logan Andrew (UTC) def. Morvens Saint Jean (PC) by Fall, 2:16 – 19-12 UTC
125 – Dominic Chavez (PC) def. Logan Ashton (UTC) by Dec., 8-2 – 19-15 UTC
133 – Eli Knight (UTC) def. Jacob Brasseur (PC) by Fall, 6:40 – 25-15 UTC
141 – Dayne Dalrymple (UTC) def. Trenton Donahue (PC) by Dec., 2-1 – 28-15 UTC
 
UP NEXT
 
In a rare occurrence of two different events involving the same team on the same date, PC will undergo a very busy Saturday afternoon in another quick turnaround between meets. The next Southern Conference obstacle, Campbell, awaits in Buies Creek tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., but not before nine other Blue Hose grapplers compete in the Appalachian Open from Boone, North Carolina, a tournament that Presbyterian submitted their names for recently.

Hosted by SoCon powerhouse Appalachian State, tomorrow's tourney – involving nine Division I members and over 150 competitors – will be held at the same site as the conference championship bracket to be held in the first week of March, becoming the fourth multi-team event connected to PC this year.

The Fighting Camels dual, meanwhile, will serve as another challenging conference set for a team seeing their fourth outing in a seven-day period, battling a 10-win squad in the midst of a five-match series of dates on their home turf.