CHATTANOOTA, Tenn.- Senior Matt Powless captured five wins, including two pins and two major decisions, en route to a fourth-place finish at the 2012 Southern Scuffle. It marks the third time Powless has placed in the elite tournament in as many trips. He placed third as a junior and seventh during his sophomore season.
Indiana finished 13th in the 22-team field with 41.0 team points.
Powless began Day Two at the Scuffle with a pair of major decisions, pounding Zach Nye of Virginia, 12-3, and blanking Campbell's John Weakley, 9-0. The nation's leader with 13 majors last season, has totaled six thus far during the 2011-12 campaign.
His next bout set him up across from 11th-ranked Morgan MacIntosh (Penn State). Trailing 3-2 with less than a minute to go, Powless scored a takedown and held on for the 4-3 win to advance to the third-place bout. There, he faced 2nd-ranked Sonny Yohn of Minnesota; and dropped a 4-1 decision.
Powless (109-40 career record) is now just two wins shy of cracking the top-10 in school history.