Pine Reaches Finals at Southern Scuffle, Highlights Second Day at Tournament

CHATTANOOGA, Tn. — Cam Pine reached the finals of the 184-pound bracket at the Southern Scuffle, winning a semifinal match before falling in a tight championship bout in Chattanooga.

That wrapped a successful two-day stint at the prestigious midyear tournament, with the Golden Eagles entering the day with three wrestlers still competing.

Pine picked up right where he left off on Monday with a dominant win in the semifinal round, beating Indiana’s second-seeded Roman Rogotzke by major decision. He was the aggressor from the very first whistle, picking up his first of four takedowns on Rogotzke just 1:17 into the action.

The deficit extended to 6-2 before the end of the first period as Pine notched another takedown, and midway through the third period Pine connected on a double-leg to up his lead to 9-3.

That led to a showdown in the finals with Gardner-Webb’s fourth-seeded Jha’quan Anderson, a two-time NCAA qualifier. Both wrestlers played things close to the vest for the first six minutes and change, with the only scoring coming on escapes to open the second and third periods, respectively.

Anderson finally connected on a shot with less than 10 seconds to go, bringing Pine down with three seconds left for a 4-2 decision.

The subsequent ride on that takedown pushed Pine’s riding time advantage up over a minute, and now the junior began to work for a major decision. Up 12-5 in the third period, Pine benefitted from a stalling call against Rogotzke, and then added the riding time point to clinch the bonus point win.

Also competing on Tuesday was 174-pounder John Worthing, who fell in his only match of the day to Northern Colorado’s Travis Mastrogiovanni.

Mastrogiovanni led 6-2 after the first period of action and was up 10-3 in the third, but Worthing continued to push the action and ended up forcing a stall call against his opponent, making it an 11-4 final score.