Trott Punches Ticket To NCAA Championships, Mosley And Cortez Finish Third At SoCon Championships
March 09, 2014 | Wrestling
BUIES CREEK, N.C. --- Redshirt freshman Austin Trott (Kingsland, Ga.) fought through the consolation bracket following a quarterfinal setback to finish third at the Southern Conference Wrestling Championships and book a ticket to the NCAA Division I Championships on Saturday evening.
Trott is the second wrestler since 2011 to qualify for nationals, joining current teammate Hunter Gamble (McDonough, Ga.), who qualified last season at 174 pounds. Cortez Starkes (Greenville, S.C.) and Ryan Mosley (Stone Mountain, Ga.) each joined Trott as third place finishers at 125 and 141 pounds, as Robbie Golde (Charlotte, N.C.) and Boyce Cornwell (Conyers, Ga.) both finished fourth.
Starkes easily advanced out of the quarterfinal round at 125 pounds, registering a 9-3 decision over SIUE's Dakota Leach. The 5-7 sophomore was bounced in the semifinal round by Appalachian State's Dominic Parisi in a 3-1 sudden victory, forcing Cortez into the consolation bracket. Starkes quickly asserted himself in the consolation semifinals, defeating Philip Elias of Davidson by an 8-2 decision before taking third in the consolation final with a 6-3 decision against Joaquin Marquez of The Citadel.
Golde rebounded from a 7-4 decision in the quarterfinal round of the 133-pound bracket, edging SIUE's Patrick Myers, 5-3, in the consolation first round. The senior then advanced to the consolation final with a medical forfeit against Davidson's Anthony Elias. Golde fought hard throughout the third-place bout, as Aaron Hanson edged the senior with a 7-6 decision.
After Mosley fell by a 3-1 riding time decision in the quarterfinal round at 141 pounds, the redshirt freshman posted an impressive 20-3 technical fall victory against Davidson's James McCord to advance to the semifinals in the consolation bracket. He continued his bounce-back afternoon with a 16-0 tech fall of SIUE's John Petrov, pushing through to the third-place bout against Campbell's Michael Dahlstrom.
Davidson's Kevin Birmingham sent Tyler Ziegler (Cincinnati, Ohio) to the consolation bracket with a 5:49 fall victory in the quarterfinal round of the 149-pound bracket. Chattanooga's Austin Sams then edged Ziegler by a 5-1 decision in the first consolation round.
Cole Graves (Owings, Md.) and Grant Blumenthal of Campbell delivered one of the highest scoring matches of the quarterfinal round at 157 pounds, as Blumenthal edged Graves by a 12-11 decision to send the 5-10 freshman to the consolation bracket. Graves responded with a 7-4 decision over SIUE's Logun Taylor to reach the consolation semifinals. His road would end there, as VMI's Edward Gottwald held on for an 8-7 decision to advance to the third-place match.
Trott fought back from a tough 3-1 decision to Appalachian State's Zachary Strickland with a dominating 15-0 technical fall victory over Davidson's Patrick Devlin in the first consolation round, advancing to the semifinals in the consolation bracket. Following a 5-0 decision against SIUE's Matthew Lester, Trott made quick work of Campbell's Paul Duggan in the third-place match, earning the third and final automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with a 14-2 major decision victory.
Brett Stein (Woodbridge, Va.) fell to SIUE's Jake Residori by a 12-7 decision in the quarterfinal round, before Appalachian State's Colin Hedash edged the 5-9 freshman, 8-7, in the first consolation round.
Zach Bennett (Franklin, Tenn.) bounced back from a major decision loss to John Duane of The Citadel in the quarterfinals with a 10-5 decision over VMI's Hardy Hendren, pushing through to the consolation semifinals. The junior fought hard throughout the semifinal bout with John Lampe of Chattanooga, as Lampe held on for a 14-6 major decision.
Cornwell fought his way through the consolation bracket as well, registering a fall victory over Jake Koch in just 59 seconds to reach the consolation semifinals. The 6-0 redshirt freshman quickly followed with a 4-2 decision against Appalachian State's Kacee Hutchinson to reach the finals, where he fell by a 5-2 decision to Josh Wood of SIUE, finishing in fourth place.
Justin Kozera (Taneytown, Md.) battled to the consolation semifinals, defeating The Citadel's Joseph Bexley by a 6-2 decision in the first round before falling to Dawson Peck of Chattanooga by a 2-0 decision in the semifinal round.
The Runnin' Bulldogs, aside from Trott, will now await word on possible at-large bids to the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which will take place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from March 20-22.
