The wrestling team finished 14th in the NCAA Tournament, won the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the eighth year in a row and was 17-3-1 overall in dual meets this season.

A week after the NCAA Tournament where sophomore 174-pounder Mike Miller finished runner-up in the country, Metro Editor Mike Wayland spoke with head coach Tom Borrelli about the past season, the future of the young team and recruitment.

Mike Wayland: What do you think of this past season compared to others in your career?

Tom Borrelli: I’m very happy with the season that we had this year and knowing what we lost last year; last year we lost one of our assistant coaches who was very instrumental in building the program of where it is today. And we also lost four All-American athletes, so for us to finish 14th in the country and win another MAC Tournament Championship and go 17-3-1 in dual-meets, that’s a heck of an accomplishment.

MW: You said before that you weren’t expecting this out of this team. What were you expecting?

TB: Well I was expecting a little bit more of a rebuilding year. I certainly wasn’t expecting us to beat a No. 5 team in the country, Missouri in a dual meet, I wasn’t expecting us to tie Nebraska in a dual meet at a time they were ranked third or fourth and they finished fourth in the NCAA Tournament, so those kinds of things were very encouraging.

MW: What exactly do you see particularly for Jarod Trice and Scotti Sentes in the future?

TB: I think the sky’s the limit for those guys, I think both of them are capable of winning NCAA championships here at Central, if they continue to improve and enjoy what they are doing.

MW: How has recruitment been going so far?

TB: We have really been evaluating the state of Michigan in the last couple months and we spent (three) weekends ago at the Michigan High School State Tournament. And we really have a good idea who we want to bring in and actually we (had) six young men coming in on visits (last) weekend and probably six or seven more (this) weekend.

MW: Is it hard to recruit against some of the bigger universities, such as Iowa?

TB: Those things kind of vary; it depends on the type of athletes you are recruiting as far as what his goals are coming out of high school. Guys who are looking for a top 10 program and want to kind of make a name for themselves and make a name for the program outside of some of the glamour conferences, it’s not too difficult to get them to come here.

MW: Any predications for next year?

TB: No, I expect us to have a very exciting year next year and continue to improve.We want to move forward from there.

E-mail the author: Mike Wayland