Ben Bennett, Jarod Trice recieve All-America honors at NCAA tournament
Wrestling has a four-time All-American for the first in program history after senior 184-pounder Ben Bennett earned a 1-0 win on Friday.
Joining him as an All-American was senior heavyweight Jarod Trice, who earned the honor for the third time, only the fourth Chippewa to reach that feat.
Bennett won his match up against Jimmy Sheptock of Maryland, 1-0, to put himself into the semifinals and separate himself as the only four-time All-American in program history. However, that is where Bennett's success in the NCAA tournament would end, as he lost in the semifinal.
“We have a competitive program with such high expectations that sometimes accomplishments like these get swept under the rug," said head coach Tom Borrelli.
Bennett was up against Lehigh’s Robert Hamlin, who Bennett is 2-2 against in his career. Hamlin would earn an early take down to put himself up 2-0 and eventually win the dual with a 3-2 decision to give Bennett his first loss of the season. Bennett would wrestle in the consolation round against Ethan Lofthouse of Iowa on Saturday and win 3-1 but would lose in the third-place match against Steve Bosak 2-0, giving him a fourth-place finish.
"It’s almost like it’s not a big accomplishment, but it is," Borrelli said. "Just shows how competitive we are when kids are disappointed with being (fourth) in the country."
After Trice lost to Anthony Nelson of Minnesota in the quarterfinals, 1-0, he was then matched up with Joe Stolfi to try to gain his All-American status. Trice would do just that, with a 7-3 decision against Stolfi of Bucknell.
After Trice beat Stolfi, he then went on to beat Matthew Gibson of Iowa State 3-0 to advance to consolation semifinals against conference foe Dom Bradley of Missouri.
Trice would lose to Bradley 5-2 and again in the fifth-place match, 3-1, to Zac Thomusseit of Pittsburgh, giving him a sixth-place finish.
The All-American honors made it the ninth time in the last 10 years that multiple wrestlers represented CMU.
