UC News
Sun, Jan 15, 2012 - [Men's Wrestling]

The 2011-2012 University of the Cumberlands (UC) Men's wrestling team continued their winning ways this weekend as they competed at the Spartan Mat Classic invitational in North Manchester, IN.  The tournament featured 9 other teams including 8 Division III teams and Indiana Tech, another NAIA program who is receiving votes in the Top 20 poll. 

The Patriot men went to the tournament this weekend competing without two of their top ranked wrestlers, Jered Medina (Las Vegas, NV) ranked #6 in the NAIA and Anthonie Linares (San Jose, CA) ranked #7 in the NAIA.  UC was still able to dominate the competition en route to their first invitational team title.  With only 9 wrestlers entered in the tournament, the Patriots blew away the competition while amassing 195.5 points.  

The Patriots had 8 individual place winners on the day.  Leading the way for the Patriots was senior captain Larone Madison (Riviera Beach, FL) who won a title at 125 lbs. with a fall and 2 major decision victories.  Grant Burkhalter (Citrus Heights, CA) had one of his better showings of the season while going 2-1 on the day and placing 2nd.  At 149 lbs., Derek Murdock (Lafayette, GA) placed 7th for the Patriots.  Ed Holland (Seymour, TN) went 3-0 on the day in the 157 lbs. class before having to medically withdraw from the tournament.  His 3-0 record put him in the finals but because of his injury, Coach Matt Lowers decided to withhold him from competition to make sure he is ready for their final home dual of the season on Friday, January 20th. 

Zack Barkett (Woodbridge, VA) placed 4th while going 3-2 on the day.  Jeremy Gardner (Frankfort, KY) had an outstanding day going 3-0 and winning the title at 184 lbs.  In a very unusual situation, Jeremy ended up wrestling 3 competitors all from the same university en route to his title.  Courtney Freeman (Riverdale, GA) was the Patriots 5th finalist on the day.  In the most exciting match of the finals, Freeman ended up dropping a decision at the final buzzer in a wild, back and forth 13-11 decision win.  Vince Pezzuto (Las Vegas, NV) capped off the tournament for the Patriots by gaining a fall in his 3rd place match.  Pezzuto was 5-1 on the day with 3 falls. 

Head Coach Matt Lowers commented, "I wasn't sure what to expect today because we were without 2 of our top wrestlers.  We were also without a 174 pound wrestler which generally makes it tough to win tournaments without all 10 of your point scorers.  Our guys stepped up big today.  We didn't wrestle our best today, but we found a way to win.  Not only did we find a way to win, we found a way to win big.  The guys scored bonus points in 15 of their 25 individual wins.  That is how tournaments are won.  We will use the momentum from this tournament and hopefully carry it over into our last home dual of the season as well as into the Mid-South Conference tournament on January 28th."

The Patriots will be back in action at home on January 20th as they host Cumberland University for a dual.  That match is set to begin at 7:00 pm. 

For more information on the Patriot men's wrestling program as well as other Patriot athletics, please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com.