Wrestling hopes to improve on weaknesses in Sunday's MAC opener against Buffalo
Wrestling will host Buffalo on Sunday in the first Mid-American Conference dual meet of the season at McGuirk Arena.
CMU (4-3) is coming off a strong showing last weekend at the Northeast Duals that ended with victories against North Carolina and Sacred Heart. Buffalo (1-2) was also present, earning a win against Sacred Heart.As the semester closes, a grueling winter schedule looms ahead. Head coach Tom Borrelli has been focusing on fixing team weaknesses before entering conference play.
A dual meet against Stanford revealed several points needing improvement, where the Chippewas suffered from poorly executed shots and struggled to maintain control on their feet in the upper weight-classes. Borrelli added that Stanford kept his players in poor positions on bottom, which he has made fixing these problems a priority in the subsequent weeks of practice.
"We've been training pretty hard to work on things we've identified in our early matches," Borrelli said. "I feel like we let a couple of matches slip away from us and if we can shore some of those things up, I'll feel pretty good about where we are at."
After December, wrestling picks up with higher stakes and more frequent competition.
"Any time we wrestle in the conference, it's important," Borrelli said. "It's our goal to win the conference championship each year and first we have to win against our conference opponents to get to that."
Central Michigan will look to their strength in the lower weight-classes, which have been on an impressive early season run. Redshirt freshman Corey Keener and sophomore Zach Horan have dominated the 125 and 141-pound weight-classes with a combined record of 21-2.
Keener is undefeated in dual meets and ranked 10th in the NCAA, while Horan is ranked eight.
Seniors Joe Roth and Scott Mattingly complete a solid first half of the roster, which has been carrying the team thus far. Successes from 174-pound junior Mike Ottinger have begun to drive improvement in the upper weights – something Borrelli is looking to foster.
As this chapter of the season draws to a close, the Chippewas will have to continue moving forward.
"Some matches, we're doing a good job of breaking guys down or attempting the things that we practice, but it's a confidence thing and also not having done those things with enough reps," Borrelli said. "So those are things we need to work on moving forward.
Sunday's dual meet with Buffalo kicks off at 2 p.m. inside McGuirk Arena.
