No. 7 Missouri edges past CMU wrestling Sunday, 16-15
Central Michigan wrestling held tight with No. 7 Missouri Sunday, arguably its strongest conference competition this season.
Unfortunately for the Chippewas, they came up short, falling to 3-2 in the Mid-American Conference after the 16-15 loss at McGuirk Arena.
"I felt like we were capable of winning the dual meet, unfortunately we didn't make it happen," said head coach Tom Borrelli. "I think we had some guys that wrestled good matches and they competed real hard in a couple of weight classes where we may have been outmanned. We did everything we could to try to win the dual meet."
CMU was kept on the defensive the first three matches of the dual, with Missouri earning three victories by large margins. Early in the lineup, the Chippewas suffered from troubles on bottom, being kept down thanks to strong arm-bars from Missouri.
"Our team is improving," Borrelli said. "There are some things we need to get better at. Getting off the bottom – that was probably our weakness. That comes from having people who are forcing you to be in those situations in practice. I don't think were getting what we need in practice all the time."
Freshman Corey Keener changed the tone of the afternoon, earning the first win for CMU in the 125-pound match. Keener set the pace of his match by aggressively pursuing MU's Zach Synon for three takedowns to win by decision, 6-3.
The win was desperately needed for the Chippewas, who faced a 10-0 shutout after the heavyweight match. The momentum began to swing back in favor of the Chippewas after No. 16 senior Joe Roth and No. 9 sophomore Zach Horan won by decision to put the score within striking distance, 10-9.
"At 184 and 197, their guys are ranked nationally and at heavyweight, this is our guy's first year in the program. He's wrestled very hard but is just not ready yet," Borrelli said. "That's the difference in the upper-weights."
Horan wrestled the first three periods of his 141-pound match against Lavion Mayers to a standstill with neither wrestler earning a takedown. Moving into extra time, Horan quickly took a shot that was countered by Mayers sprawling back near the boundary of the mat.
His efforts were not enough, with Horan finishing the takedown to win by decision, 3-1.
MU increased its lead to 13-9 after a win at the 149-pound match from No. 1 Drake Houdasheldt.
While senior Scott Mattingly lost, he was able to prevent a major decision and prevented MU from earning a vital team point. His last second reversal scored two points and kept the score difference under eight points, 13-6.
"Going out, you always want to wrestle tough and wrestle solid," Mattingly said. "He started scoring points on me, but I wanted to keep competing. It may not be the last time I wrestle that guy, you always want to wrestle hard and see what things you can do."
Ultimately, the Chippewas could not pull ahead despite junior Mike Ottinger winning in the 174-pound weight class by decision, 5-4. Ottinger took his opponent into six extra periods, and was awarded the victory for having the riding time advantage.
"Obviously, I want to win, too. We train hard and it hurts to lose," Ottinger said. "So I just wanted to keep going and win the match for myself."
CMU will be back in action Jan. 26 on the road against Kent State.
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