Wrestling team prepares for Michigan State at Rose
The CMU wrestling team can prevent a sweep of Michigan for the Michigan State Spartans at 7:30 tonight at Rose Arena.
The Spartans have already defeated Eastern Michigan on Dec. 3 and Michigan Jan. 29, but will have to break a CMU eight-match winning streak over MSU that dates back to 2001.
Headlining the match will be two bouts between ranked wrestlers at 133 pounds and 149 pounds.
Coming off his first loss of the season against No. 3 Daniel Dennis (Iowa), No. 4 Franklin Gomez — last year’s national champion at 133-pounds — will take on sophomore No. 8 Scotti Sentes.
A win will move Sentes up the rankings, but the focus for him is on improving his own ability for Nationals, said coach Tom Borrelli.
“To us, it is just another match,” he said. “We’re not going to try to hype it up or anything. We have wrestled ranked guys a lot this year. He isn’t the number one ranked guy anymore, he is just another ranked guy.”
Sentes is coming off a weekend where he did not allow a point scored against him against Virginia Tech’s Brock Livorio (13-0) and Old Dominion’s Justin LaValle (12-0). He is riding a five-match winning streak.
At 149 pounds, senior No. 14 Tony D’Alie will wrestle sophomore No. 12 David Cheza. Cheza (17-6) is 1-2 in his career against CMU wrestlers, losing twice to Steve Brown last year and beating Ryan Cubberly in a major decision Dec. 30, 2008, at the Midlands Championships. He is 3-4 against Mid-American Conference opponents in his career.
Sandwiched between the ranked bouts is senior Conor Beebe in his eighth match of the season at 141 pounds after originally competing against fellow senior Matt Steintrager for the spot at 125 pounds.
Borrelli said Beebe is starting to become accustomed to wrestling at the higher weight class and it shows when he gets on the mat.
“I think he is starting to gain some confidence at that weight class,” said Borrelli. “He wrestled with the 10th ranked guy in the country a pretty tight match.”
Huskies
The Chippewas face a Northern Illinois team Sunday that has dropped its first two MAC matches of the year.
The Huskies are getting healthier with juniors Patrick McLemore and Tristen DeShazer back in the lineup after missing time.
McLemore won the MAC Championship at 141 pounds two years ago and DeShazer broke NIU’s single-season record for pins last year with 17, while placing third in the MAC Tournament last year. A third junior in reigning 157-pound MAC champion Bryan Deutsch is riding a six-match winning streak and will face CMU’s Donnie Corby. CMU sophomore No. 3 Jarod Trice comes in with a 14-match winning streak and, although neither of his opponents are ranked this weekend, he said his goal is to try to score bonus points for the team. “I got my mind now that every match I got into, I want to get bonus points,” he said. “I want to beat them by eight points or better.”
