CLEVELAND, Ga. — One day after Campbellsville men's wrestling moved to No. 8 in the NAIA rankings, the Tigers split a pair of Mid-South Conference duals on Thursday night.
Campbellsville opened the night with a 23-13 loss to No. 10 Life University but capped it off with a 32-12 victory over host Truett-McConnell – which was receiving votes in Wednesday's coaches' poll.
With the split, Campbellsville's season record moves to 8-3 overall and 5-2 inside the Mid-South.
Life 23, Campbellsville 13
The night started with three consecutive victories for Campbellsville. Newly ranked
Adrian Camposano at 125 pounds (No. 3) earned an 8-7 decision over No. 6 Devane Dodgens and
Aaron Rugnao won 6-2 over Lucas Patterson to take a 6-0 dual lead.
Freshman, and also newly ranked,
Kolten Radaz (No. 15) earned a 10-5 decision over Logan Chastain to give the Tigers a comfortable lead, 9-0.
But then it was four straight wins for Life to steal CU's thunder. The Running Eagles earned wins at 149, 157, 165 and 174 before
Chuck Sharon ended the run at 184.
At 149, No. 7 Dallas Brown took down
David Sparks with a 12-4 major decision, while Mason Calvert earned an 11-8 win over
Michael Diemer and Phillip McBride won 11-3 over
Brandon Pledger.
With the dual in Life's favor now, 11-9, the Running Eagles picked up an upset at 174. Jacob Sledge knocked off Campbellsville's No. 6
Justin Brown, 4-3, to put Life in the drivers' seat with only three duals left.
At 184, No. 3 Sharon stopped the bleeding for CU with a 10-1 major decision to pull the score back to one, 14-13. But a pin at 197 sealed the dual for Life, as
Jacob Franklin fell in 4:57 to top-ranked Dalton Bailey.
At 285, No. 16
Terrell Moore went toe-to-toe with No. 8 Jacob Roza but Roza pulled out the victory in overtime, 3-1.
Campbellsville 32, Truett-McConnell 12
With the Bears having to forfeit three weight classes, Campbellsville already had the advantage going in. Camposano gave CU the lead by pinning his opponent at 125 pounds in 2:33 but the Tigers lost three of the next four matches that played out.
Truett-McConnell's Devonte Upshaw, who is ranked No. 13 at 133, took down Rugnao (3-2) and Joseph Hulen upset Radaz (4-3) to even the dual at six-all.
Sparks ended up giving the Tigers a little Life with a 4-0 victory over Drake Barnes and Diemer earned a six-point forfeit win at 157 pounds that swung the advantage back to CU, 15-6.
Truett-McConnell wouldn't go down without a fight, though. Blaine Bird pinned
Lee Johnson at 165 to give the Bears a little life but that was as close as they would get.
Campbellsville won the next four matches – two by forfeit and another by tech fall earning 17 points in those three matches alone.
Brown earned a little revenge after an earlier loss and won 4-2 over Tavion Askew before Sharon delivered an 18-0 tech fall to close out the wrestling. TMC had to forfeit 197 and 285 at the end.
The Tigers now have one final dual before the Christmas break but it doesn't get any easier. Campbellsville travels to the Oklahoma City Duals on Dec. 19 to face the host and sixth-ranked Oklahoma City Stars, University of Central Oklahoma and No. 11 Wayland Baptist.
