Wrestlers seek motivation for MAC duals
CMU wrestled MSU in front of a little more than 3,000 fans on Friday.
On Sunday, the Chippewas took on Northern Illinois in front of a little more than 600.
The disparity between the two Rose Arena matches over the weekend was noticeable, said sophomore 133-pounder Scotti Sentes.
“It is really hard to go from wrestling a Big Ten school like Michigan State with a stadium packed to wrestling a (Mid-American Conference) school with less people, so it’s hard to get motivated,” he said.
In his second year in the starting lineup, Sentes said he remembers how big of a difference it was for him last year, and he knows that each match is important because it could affect seedings at the MAC Tournament and at Nationals.
“We have to think that we are setting ourselves up for Nationals,” he said. “We got to get the best seed at MAC if we want the best seed at Nationals.”
Sometimes, it is up to the individual and his teammates to get up for the match, and athletes cannot always rely on the crowd because they also need to be ready for road matches and Nationals, Sentes said.
“Just the crowd alone, it is a big difference,” he said. “We have the people cheering for us, and it is rumbling real loud and you get really pumped. Here, you have to motivate yourself when there are not as many people in the crowd.”
Scoring Coach Tom Borrelli said he was happy with most of his team’s performance against NIU, with each individual’s ability to make matches competitive even if they did not score the win.
“To be in every match with an opportunity to win everyone is really important,” he said. “That is going to be the difference at the MAC Tournaments if we want to win a MAC Championship.”
Redshirt freshman Ben Bennett said he goes into every match knowing he needs to work on things in order to obtain the ultimate goal of winning a national championship, and that is what he and all his teammates think about heading into matches.
“No matter who I am wrestling, my focus is to get my offense going and just try to get out in the first period and get on top,” he said.
The Chippewas’ focus is on being the aggressor in the match and going for points.
“Coach makes us to try to keep scoring, scoring, scoring, and he isn’t really worried about the outcome of the matches as long as we are trying to score the whole time,” Sentes said. “We’re worried about Nationals, and we are going to need to be able to score points at Nationals in order to win.”
