Undersized Stacey’s win caps UTC victory
With opponents typically outweighing him by at least 50 pounds, Ben Stacey as a “heavyweight” for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team signifies a loose definition of the term.
His match Friday night against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville had no bearing on the final team score, but his result garnered the most adulation.
Stacey registered a 13-7 decision over Bryce Shewan in the final match of the evening, solidifying the Mocs’ 29-15 win. UTC improved to 5-6 overall and 3-0 in the Southern Conference and will have another league match Sunday at The Citadel.
The coaches asked Stacey — a 197-pounder who currently weighs 195 — to move up in weight to fill in for regular Connor Tolley, who has been injured. Friday was his first win at 285.
“It felt good to go out and get a win,” Stacey said. “I put a lot of work in. Unfortunately our heavyweight is hurt, but Coach asked me to step in, so I give my all for the team and try my best. I love this challenge; it’s why I do it. If it was easy, I wouldn’t be doing it, but there’s something about overcoming the challenge.
Tied at 7 in the final period,
Stacey got a takedown of Shewan, then earned four back points to seal the win.
“I stayed consistently on him and was always going at him,” he said. “I knew he would break late in the match, so I just kept pushing.”
Added Mocs coach Heath
Eslinger: “Ben Stacey is what athletics should produce in young people, that model right there. He’s resilient, tough, a great teammate; that’s what athletics should produce in people. He’s a prime example. That’s why his teammates were going crazy, because he comes
in every day, does what he’s supposed to do and gets the job done, and people cheer for that guy.
“The crowd was going crazy tonight because Ben got in a fight with the guy. It was a horrible technical fight, but what it was was a fight and people like that and we’ve got to do that everywhere. We have some guys that are talented enough that if they would get themselves there, we could be really good, but you’ve got to go there.”
The Mocs got pins from Chris Debien (133) and Bryce Carr (184) and another six points with a forfeit at 174 pounds for Justin Lampe. Michael Pongracz (141) won by technical fall, and Scottie Boykin (197) claimed a 6-3 win.
“All wins are good wins,” Eslinger said. “There are ways to get wins; I thought we could win nine of 10 weights, and we didn’t. We’re going to have some guys that have some off matches, but I thought we had two too many.
“We had a couple of matches where we weren’t off: We just didn’t do the work to win.”