DEKALB, Ill. _” Three CMU No. 1 seeds lost in Mid-American Conference Wrestling Tournament semifinals in Friday’s second session.

CMU is still leading the tournament with 63.5 points. It has seven wrestlers in Saturday’s championship matches. Three others have a chance to place second. 

Senior 133-pounder Jason Borrelli was one of the Chippewas who were upset. The defending MAC Champion was beaten by Eastern Michigan’s Phillip Plowman.

Plowman scored on a takedown after Borrelli missed a shot. Plowman added a two-point nearfall to take a 4-0 lead after the first period.

Plowman rode Borrelli for almost the whole second period. Borrelli’s furious comeback attempt did not come to fruition in the third period.

“I don’t want to take any thing away from Plowman, he wrestled a great match,” coach Tom Borrelli said. “Jason was down 4-0 in the first period and after (Plowman) added a riding time point it was tough to come back.”

Jason Borrelli rebounded in the wrestlebacks in a 14-6 win against Northern Illinois’ Chad Vandiver. He will wrestle Drew Opfer of Kent State Saturday.

Junior Andy Keller also was upset at 157 pounds. The No. 1 seed fell to Ohio’s Jason Frerichs 3-1 in sudden victory. Frerichs scored a takedown with 23 seconds remaining in the first overtime period.

Sophomore heavyweight Bubba Gritter was the third CMU No. 1 seed to fall in Friday’s second session. Kent State’s Jermail Porter overpowered Gritter in the third period, scoring a takedown and a three-point nearfall in one move to break a 1-1 tie. Porter went on to win 7-1.

Sophomore 197-pounder No. 1 Wynn Michalak continued his dominance with a pin in 6:37 against NIU’s Derek Hunsinger. Michalak was up 17-5 before the pin. This is Michalak’s second pin against Hunsinger and 14^th this season.

Buffalo’s No. 2 Kyle Cerminara won his semifinal match to set up the match against Michalak for the MAC title.

“I really don’t feel much hype. I don’t read much of the newspapers or the chat rooms,” Michalak said.

Both Brandon and Christian Sinnott cruised to easy wins at 174 and 184 pounds, respectively. Brandon won 5-1 against Buffalo’s Mike Ragusa, while Christian beat Garrett Hicks of Buffalo 10-5.

Brandon will wrestle Kent State’s Aaron Miller, while Christian will battle Kent State’s Alex Camargo.

Freshman Trevor Stewart used a reversal with 55 seconds remaining to advance to the finals in a 4-2 decision. Stewart also had an impressive takedown in the second period.

He will wrestle NIU’s Johnny Galloway in the finals.

Senior 149-pounder Mark DiSalvo overpowered Buffalo’s Dana Gingerich with seven takedowns in a 17-7 major decision win. He will face Kent State’s Jason Bake in the semis.

Sophomore 125-pounder Luke Smith used two reversals to win 4-3 in a back and fourth bout against EMU’s No. 19 Sean Clair.

Session 1 -

The wrestling team barely broke a sweat during the first session at the Mid-American Conference Tournament Friday.

All six wrestlers who competed advanced to the semifinals. The other four had first round byes. CMU finished the round with 30 team points.

The highlight of the session was Stewart’s pin of Eastern Michigan’s Chad Roush.

Stewart made his tournament debut in style pinning Roush in just 58 seconds.

“We were a little worried about that match because Roush is real dangerous, he’s a pinner himself,” Tom Borrelli said. “Trevor took him right out of the match, got an early takedown and turned him on his back and pinned him.”

Gritter used a takedown and a two-point nearfall in one move in the second period against EMU’s Timothy Wood in a 13-4 major decision. Gritter had four takedowns.

Brandon Sinnott used five takedowns in a 13-4 major decision against EMU’s Josh Lewis at 184 pounds.

Keller used two takedowns in his 5-1 decision against Northern Illinois’ Aaron Owen.

Jason Borrelli won his first match of the day against Kent State’s Drew Opfer 5-4 at 133 pounds. Borrelli used a first period takedown and scored a reversal in the second. Opfer used a late takedown to make the score closer.

Smith kicked off the tournament with a 5-0 win against Ohio’s Caleb Metcalf. Smith used a reversal and a two-point nearfall in the second period to advance to the semifinals.

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