Mocs’ Carr reaches day two of NCAA tourney

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will have just one wrestler going this morning in the second day of the NCAA Division I tournament in St. Louis.

That’s 184-pound junior Bryce Carr.

Carr (27-6) won his first match of the day, 4-3 over Army’s Samson Imonode, but the 184-pounder then dropped a round-of-16 bout, 3-2 in an overtime tiebreaker against Oklahoma State’s Nolan Boyd.

The former junior college national champion will wrestle the winner of a first-round consolation match: Rutgers’ Nick Gravina (20-10), who won 5-0 over Stanford’s Zack Nevills (6-11) .

Meanwhile, UTC heavyweight Jared Johnson let his final All-America opportunity slip away when he fell 5-3 to Campbell’s Jere Heino in his first consolation bout. It was Heino who knocked the nationally ranked Johnson into the Southern Conference tournament losers bracket with a semifinal upset.

Johnson, who entered the NCAA tournament with a 26-8 record, opened with a close loss, 4-3 to Northwestern’s Conan Jennings.

Mocs 133-pounder Chris DeBien had an 0-for-2 day in his first NCAA appearance. His 11-match winning streak came to an end in his first bout, 10-3 to Michigan’s Steven Micic, the No. 5 seed in the weight class. He then was eliminated in the first consolation round, surrendering a first-period pin to Michigan State’s Austin Eicher.

DeBien finished the season with an 18-11 record.