Sophomore 133-pounder Scotti Sentes pinned three of his four opponents at the Northeast Duals to lead his team to four consecutive victories.

Two of the wins were against top 20 opponents in No. 18 Virginia and No. 6 Maryland.

“I probably should have pinned my first kid,” Sentes said. “But I wrestled pretty well and it was nice to go out there and prove ourselves as a program.”

Sentes faced one ranked opponent, No. 7 Steve Bell from Maryland, and was able to put his shoulders to the mat in two minutes, 19 seconds. The only bout he did not earn a fall was against American 133-pounder Thomas Williams, who Sentes beat with an 8-0 major decision,
Sentes is 5-0 with four pins after the weekend performance.

“I am still getting a lot of my points off other people’s shots and I need to work on scoring off my own shot and not waiting on them,” he said, “But I was glad that I got to take on a ranked opponent and prove myself a little bit.“

Position battles

Coach Tom Borrelli still has tough battles for starting positions at 125 and 174 pounds. Senior 125-pounder Matt Steintrager made a bid for the starting spot as he pulled upsets over No. 18 Jasen Borshoff from American and No. 20 Ross Gitomer from Virginia.

Borrelli said No. 14 125-pounder Conor Beebe also impressed for the starting spot with two wins, including a 17-0 technical fall over Bloomsburg freshman James Bak. Steintrager and Beebe are undefeated in dual matches this season.

“Both guys at 125 pounds have wrestled really well,” Borrelli said. “Steintrager wrestled exceptionally well, beating two ranked opponents. We are looking really tough at that position.”

Freshman 174-pounder Ben Bennett came into the Northeast Duals as the No. 14 ranked 184-pounder, but he has been battling with junior Mike Miller, who is No. 1 at 174 pounds. Bennett got the start at 174 pounds in all four matches and earned three wins, including a technical fall over American sophomore Phillip Barreiro and a 4-2 decision over No. 4 Mike Letts from Maryland.

“Our conditioning was really paying off in our four matches,” Bennett said. “We can compete with anyone right now.”

Miller started at 184 pounds in three matches and earned decisions in each of them.

Also earning three wins for Central was senior 149-pounder Tony D’Alie, senior 165-pounder Tyler Grayson and sophomore heavyweight Jarod Trice.

The Chippewas have an extended break before heading to Nebraska for a pair of dual matches Dec. 19.

E-mail the author: D.J. Palomares