Five wrestlers earn bids to NCAA tournament, despite losing first MAC title in 12 years


It has been 12 years since Central Michigan wrestling lost the Mid-American Conference championship until this year.

But there's a consolation: Five Central Michigan wrestlers will compete in the NCAA national tournament later this month in Iowa.

The wrestlers, senior 184-pounder Ben Bennett, sophomore 165-pounder Mike Ottinger, senior 133-pounder Scotti Sentes, redshirt freshman 157-pounder Lucas Smith and senior heavyweight Jarod Trice, earned automatic bids to the national tournament from their performances at the MAC championships at the University at Buffalo.

Bennett (184) became the second wrestler in CMU history with four MAC titles while Ottinger (165) won his second-straight MAC title.

Matches have yet to be determined for the tournament in Des Moines on March 21-23.

In its first year competing in the MAC, Missouri scored 136 points and won the team championship, which ended the No. 11 Chippewas’ 11-year championship streak.

The team beat the Tigers in an exciting 17-16 win in Columbia, Mo.

Sentes won a 5-0 decision against  Mackenzie McGuire of Kent State and then won 11-8 against Nick Smith of Northern Illinois in the third-place match.

During the MAC championships, No. 1 Ottinger defeated No. 3 Mark Lewandowski in an 8-5 decision.

Ottinger's win was the first CMU championship of the tournament.

Bennett defeated No. 2 Ryan Loder of Northern Iowa, 5-3. The win took Bennett's record this season to 26-0 and his career record to 116-22.

No. 5 Smith (157) finished third in the MAC championships after a 3-2 decision against Eastern Michigan's Aaron Sulzer.

Trice (heavyweight) wrestled in the championship match in a rematch against Missouri No. 1 seed Dom Bradley. Bradley won in a 4-1 decision.

Senior Donnie Corby (149), junior Scott Mattingly (141) and redshirt freshman Jackson Lewis (197) competed in the consolation brackets to finish third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Corby won a 6-1 decision against Andrew Romanchik of Ohio.

Mattingly won three consecutive matches after losing his first to Nick Hucke of Missouri. Mattingly faced Hucke again in the third-place match and lost in a 7-4 decision.

No. 8 Lewis won a 4-3 decision over Parker Settecase of Northern Illinois.

CMU will enter the NCAA tournament after a season in which it was ranked No. 2 behind Missouri in the preseason rankings. CMU was polled No. 2 in each month of the MAC rankings throughout the season.

Share: