2008 Woodie Awards
Wrestlers face eighth-ranked team in first competition
Jacob Vannucci
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Sports
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According to Head Coach Chris Bono, the Buckeyes, ranked eighth by Intermat, are going to be taken very seriously.
"We're going to go out there and compete and we expect to win," said Bono, who is in his second year of coaching the Mocs.
Chattanooga will also be facing off against unranked schools Anderson University and Cumberland University.
This season will prove a testing ground for the UTC wrestling program, which is the only Division I team in the Southeast to garner a top-25 preseason ranking.
"We definitely want to be ranked in the top-10 nationally and have 4 or 5 All-Americans," Bono said, as he discussed his goals for this season.
Several Mocs recently traveled to Atlanta to compete in the Kennessaw State Open, where they won seven division titles, including five by true freshmen Demetrius Johnson, Ben Johnson, Kelly Felix, Dan Waddell and Matt Letner.
More recently, UTC conducted its Blue-Gold wrestle-offs to decide starting positions at the different weight classes.
The varsity line-up includes six upperclassmen and three underclassmen as starting positions this season.
However, Bono has decided to redshirt all the freshmen this year to keep their eligibility open for the future.
This year's squad will be lead by upperclassmen like Javier Maldonado, a senior who has been a Southern Conference champion and NCAA qualifier for the past two years, Matt Koz, who took the SoCon heavyweight division and qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year, and other seniors like Josh Edmondson and Lloyd Rogers.
The Mocs will host the tournament this Saturday at Maclellan Gymnasium. They will play Anderson University at 1 p.m., Cumberland at 3 p.m., and Ohio State at 6 p.m. All games are free for students.
