CHATTANOOGA, TN - Cleveland State wrestlers competed in day one of the 2015 Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle Thursday (Jan. 1) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

Ben Willeford and Riley Shaw reached the quarterfinals of the Southern Scuffle navigating through some of the toughest competition in the country.  Willeford won two matches to go undefeated on the day.  He defeated Kyle Larson of Iowa State in his first match.  In the round of 16, he pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far knocking off #5 in the nation Jordan Conaway of Penn State who was the number three seed at 125.  He will wrestle Eddie Klimara of Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals.  Shaw won three matches to go undefeated and reach the quarterfinals.  As the number five seed, Shaw beat Joe Scanlan of Iowa State, Connor Tolley of Chattanooga, and Ethan Hayes of Virginia.  He will face Nick Nevills of Penn State in the quarterfinals.

 

Four other CSU wrestlers remain in the tournament for day two tomorrow.  Dan King won two matches today after losing his first round match to the number four seed at 133.  Also at 133 Alfredo Gray won two matches after losing to the number nine seed in the first round.  At 141, Mike Carlone reached the round of 16 after decisively winning his first two matches before falling to highly ranked Joey Ward of North Carolina.  At 184, Xavier Dye also picked up two wins including one over teammate Nick Corba in the consolations.

 

The quarterfinals and third round consolations begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.