Wrestling tops Michigan State 23-12 in non-conference dual meet
After winning its first four matches, the Central Michigan wrestling team improved their record to 3-1 with a 23-12 non-conference win against Michigan State in a dual meet.
CMU won six of the ten matches, including two major decisions and a technical fall.
"I thought we wrestled well," said head coach Tom Borrelli. "We were pretty aggresive most of the night. We had a number of bonus point wins in Fleetwood, Oliver, and Brucki. Those are always important."
Junior Jordan Ellingwood (184) began the Chippewa winning streak in the first match by beating MSU's Shawn Shadaia by major decision when leading 8-0 after three periods.
Ellingwood's win was followed by three more matches with the same outcome, a win for CMU.
After the first four wins, CMU could only add two more from Justin Oliver's major decision over MSU's Nick Trimble, and CJ Brucki's technical fall against MSU's Drew Barnes.
"(Brucki) had a real good night on top," Borrelli said. "He got three sets of four near fall points so that's twelve points."
Something to note is that former MAC wrestler of the week junior Colin Heffernan did not wrestle in the meet today. Heffernan is 14-1 on the season so far. Borelli said that he was resting Heffernan for tough upcoming meets including Missouri on Sunday.
"We are just taking precautionary measures," Borrelli stated. "We just didn't want to wrestle him tonight because we have a big match on Sunday."
CMU has two dual meets per week each of the next three weeks, not including this weekend.
Though he is listed at 141 pounds, sophomore Kyle Noonan got the call from Borrelli that he would be wrestling in the 157 pound match against MSU's redshirt freshman Austin Thompson. Noonan lost to Thompson by a score of 8-3.
"(Noonan) is one of our veteran backups," Borrelli said. "We felt like he could handle it and keep Colin (Heffernan) fresh for Sunday."
Chippewa wrestlers Ellingwood, Severn, Smerchek, Fleetwood, Oliver, and Brucki all won their individual matches tallying up 23 points for the team.
The Chippewas travel to Columbia, Missouri to take on Missouri who are ranked No. 8 in the NCAA rankings.
"It will be a challenge," Borrelli said. "Hopefully our guys are excited and we are going to let it fly and see what happens."
