Jan. 14, 2012

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Just two days removed from defeating Boise State at home, the Utah Valley University wrestling team dropped two duals to No. 12 Oklahoma and Chattanooga Saturday at the annual Lone Star Duals in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The Wolverines (3-4) fell 27-7 to the Mocs and 43-0 to the Sooners.

"Our guys wrestled hard here. We just need to do a better job of attacking and finishing," Wolverine head coach Greg Williams said. "Chattanooga has a good team this year and Oklahoma is always tough, but we have high expectations for ourselves. We'll go back and work on things and I'm confident that we'll keep progressing."

The Wolverines opened the day against Chattanooga and UVU's Colby Christensen (125 pounds) and No. 8 Josh Wilson (149) were the Wolverines that picked up victories.

Christensen started off the dual with a 14-3 major decision win over Cole Gallagher and two matches later Wilson kept the team score close at the time with a 6-3 victory over UTC's Dean Pavlou. Ethan Smith (165), Monte Schmalhaus (174), and Brian Chamberlain (197) all also had close matches against their Chattanooga counterparts but in the end found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard as they lost their matches by a combined seven points.

Later in the day against No. 12 Oklahoma, who had six of their 10 wrestlers ranked, the Wolverines wrestled hard but finished winless.

At 174-pounds, UVU's Schmalhaus and OU's Marcus Armato found themselves in the tightest match of the dual. Armato jumped ahead early with a first period takedown but the UVU redshirt sophomore quickly answered back with an escape. Schmalhaus then controlled the second period with another escape and a takedown to jump ahead 4-2. The third period was then a battle as Armato got a couple of takedowns but Schmalhaus kept answering back with consecutive escapes to keep the score tied at 6-all. With the clock winding down, Armato then picked up a takedown to pull ahead 8-6. Schmalhaus escaped his hold once again to receive a point but ended up dropping the close bout 8-7.

The Wolverines will now prepare for their Western Wrestling Conference portion of their schedule that they will begin on Jan. 19, at Air Force. UVU will then make the trek from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Laramie, Wyo., to meet up with No. 13 Wyoming on Jan. 21.

FINAL RESULTS

Chattanooga 27, Utah Valley 7
125 - Colby Christensen (UVU) MD, Cole Gallagher (UTC), 14-3
133 - No. 14 Nick Soto (UTC), MD, Derek Malan (UVU), 12-4
141 - Shawn Greevy (UTC), MD, Avery Garner (UVU), 18-8
149 - No. 8 Josh Wilson (UVU) Dec., Dean Pavlou (UTC), 6-3
157 - Dan Waddell (UTC) MD, Napoleon Aniciete (UVU), 10-2
165 - Brandon Wright (UTC) Dec., Ethan Smith (UVU), 6-5
174 - Levi Clemons (UTC) Dec., Monte Schmalhaus (UVU), 10-7
184 - Robert Prigmore (UTC) Dec., David Prieto (UVU), 6-0
197 - Niko Brown (UTC) Dec., Brian Chamberlain (UVU), 9-6
285 - Kevin Malone (UTC) Dec., Dustin Dennison (UVU), 12-7

No. 12 Oklahoma 43, Utah Valley 0
125 - No. 8 Jarrod Patterson (OU) Dec., Colby Christensen (UVU), 6-1
133 - No. 11 Jordan Keller (OU) MD, Derek Malan (UVU), 9-0
141 - No. 1 Kendric Maple (OU) Fall Avery Garner (UVU), 2:36
149 - No. 7 Nick Lester (OU) Dec., Glenn Terrano (UVU), 6-0
157 - No. 14 Matt Lester (OU) Fall Napoleon Aniciete (UVU), 2:35
165 - Bubby Graham (OU) Dec., Ethan Smith (UVU), 6-2
174 - Marcus Armato (OU) Dec., Monte Schmalhaus (UVU), 8-7
184 - No. 20 Erich Schmidtke (OU) MD, David Prieto (UVU), 11-2
197 - Keldrick Hall (OU) Tech. Fall Brian Chamberlain (UVU), 16-1
285 - Kyle Colling (OU) Fall Dustin Dennison (UVU), 4:56
Exhibition - Nolan McBryde (OU) Fall Dominic Borelli (UVU), 2:52