Featuring a freshman recruiting class that was ranked in the top 10, the North Carolina wrestling team was anxious to start the season to see what all the fuss was about.
And if Sunday’s match is any indication, the Tar Heels will be just fine for the foreseeable future.
True freshman Evan Henderson opened his collegiate career by claiming the top spot at 141 pounds at the Hokie Open. Henderson opened with a pin of Air Force’s Carter McElhany in 4:06 and followed that up with a major decision against Ohio’s Darrin Boing, 8-0.
After another pin against Justin LaValle of Old Dominion in 4:28 and a 9-5 decision against Darrius Little of North Carolina State, Henderson defeated Ugi Undrakhbayar of The Citadel to a 7-4 decision win to claim the title.
“As a true freshman, to win this tournament, it is pretty tremendous,” coach C.D. Mock said in a phone interview. “For his
first time ever wrestling in college, he just had a phenomenal day.”
Even after winning the title in his first ever collegiate match, Henderson admits that he still has a lot of work to do.
“I wrestled pretty smart overall, but there is a lot of room for improvement,” Henderson said. “There were a lot of little mistakes that I made that I need to clean up.”
In addition to Henderson, Alex Utley, another true freshman, went 6-1 at 184 pounds to finish third in his weight class.
“We had what I would consider a great day,” Mock said. “For this young of a team to have three guys in the final, it feels awesome.”
Other top-three finishers for the Tar Heels were redshirt senior Kyle Kiss (2nd, 165-lb), sophomore Corey Mock (3rd, 157-lb) and redshirt junior Jon Burns (2nd, 149-lb).
After missing last season due to injury, Burns was eager to get back onto the mat.
“I haven’t competed since last December, so I thought I wrestled pretty well overall,” Burns said. “But I got complacent with just getting to the finals, so I need to focus on finishing the match all the way through.”
After spending last year wrestling in a truck depot with no bathrooms and holes in the wall, the Tar Heels were rewarded with a brand new facility this year.
“It raises expectations,” Mock said. “It allows you to believe that your sport is being respected and supported by the University.”
“In this sport, if you are having a bad day there is no one to pass the ball to, so it is critical that you believe in yourself … What we can take away from this match is that we can believe in what we are doing and that is huge.”
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