Borrelli went to the tournament with high expectations for his team and came away with five individual championships, eight automatic bids to the NCAAs and his ninth consecutive MAC tournament title.

“Our goal was to get ten guys into the national tournament, then the MAC tournament would take care of itself, and that’s what happened,” Borrelli said.

Seniors led the Chippewas as 125-pounder Matt Steintrager, 141-pounder Conor Beebe, 165-pounder Tyler Grayson and 157-pounder Steve Brown all came away with individual titles.

“This really means a lot to our seniors,” Borrelli said. “It is pretty special to be on the team for four or five years and come away with a tournament title their last year.”

Also earning a tournament title for CMU was 174-pound redshirt freshman Ben Bennett.

Likely to add to the list of Chippewas heading to the NCAA tournament are sophomore heavyweight Jarrod Trice, as his national ranking should garner an at-large bid.

“Our main goal has always been to take 10 guys to nationals,” Brown said. “We are glad that we took home this MAC title, especially here in our home stadium. But, we were much more pleased with the eight guys who earned automatic bids to Omaha.”

No. 6 CMU strives for its ninth consecutive tournament title Saturday and Sunday at Rose Arena.

“It is a good year for us to host the tournament with six seniors on our roster,” said coach Tom Borrelli.

Central dominated the tournament last season, scoring 111.5 points, fourth-most in school history. Kent State finished second with 82.5.

CMU returns three conference champions in sophomore Scotti Sentes, senior Steve Brown and junior Mike Miller. The team also returns four wrestlers who placed second in last year’s tournament.

The Chippewas go into the tournament with eight wrestlers ranked in the top 20 in their weight classes. The only other MAC team with a national ranking is Kent State at 18.
Eight CMU wrestlers have undefeated conference records and five went 5-0, including senior 125-pounder Matt Steintrager.

“I am going into the tournament to take first,” Steintrager said. “I haven’t lost a single conference match, and there is no reason I should start to lose now. My closest match was three points, and I want to go in and beat those guys worse.”

The first round of the tournament begins at 1 p.m. Saturday and the event will wrap up with the championship and consolation matches at 11 a.m. Sunday.

The NCAA has allocated 22 guaranteed spots for the Mid-American Conference in the national meet, up from the 16 last season.

The 133-pound weight class earned the most automatic bids with four, the second-most of any other conference. The MAC also was awarded three spots for the 149, 184 and 197-pound weight classes.

Three weight class have been allocated one spot, including at 141. For senior Conor Beebe, this means the only guaranteed path to nationals is through a conference title.

CMU coach Tom Borrelli decided Beebe would drop down to 125 pounds before the season began. However, Beebe now will finish the season at 141.

“He has really progressed through the season,” Borrelli said. “I am happy with the way he has performed, especially with the challenge he has had.”

Senior Matt Steintrager battled Beebe for the starting spot at 125 to begin the season. The two split time at 125 until the end of December, when they faced each other at the Midlands tournament. Steintrager scored a 3-2 victory and secured the spot for the rest of the season.

Beebe then was forced to make another change. With sophomore Scotti Sentes ranked in the top 10 nationally in the 133-pound weight class, Beebe had to make a move to 141.

“Coach put me on a weight lifting plan to get bigger and add on a lot of muscle,” Beebe said. “It’s a lot more fun to get big than having to get small.”

Beebe struggled at his newest weight early in the first month of competition, losing to two nationally ranked opponents. However, an upset against then-ranked

No. 11 Germaine Lindsey (Ohio) has put him in position to win the MAC tournament and make a run at nationals.

“Every day in the practice room I am feeling 100 percent,” Beebe said. “I don’t have to cut a bunch of weight. It’s a really good feeling.”

One last shot

Beebe advanced to the national tournament every year despite never clinching a MAC title. The closest he came to the title was a runner-up finish last season to Kent State’s Dan Mitcheff.

“I am not going into the tournament thinking that it is going to be my last,” Beebe said. “I will have time after wrestling is over to look back on all my memories. But for this weekend, I am just taking it one match at a time.”

The senior has one last chance at a MAC title Saturday and Sunday at Rose Arena. The 141-pound weight class has been allocated just one spot into the NCAA Tournament, so Beebe will have to win the conference title to guarantee a spot at nationals.

“I am going into the tournament to win it,” Beebe said. “It has always been my goal to win the MAC tournament and get on the All-American pedestal at nationals, and my weight class doesn’t change that.”

CMU opens the weekend at 7:30 p.m. today at Rose Arena against Ohio University, then travels to Kent State to take on the defending regular-season champions.

“(Ohio is) going to be coming after us,” said 133-pound sophomore Scotti Sentes. “They just lost a close match against Kent State and they are going to be thinking that they can beat us.”

No. 6 Central is on a seven-match win streak and has not lost to an unranked opponent since last season against Virginia Tech. The team beat Ohio last season, 35-3.

Ohio opened the season with six consecutive dual-match victories, but has struggled recently with two losses in the last four matches, including to Kent State. A loss to CMU eliminates it from championship contention.

Senior 141-pounder Conor Beebe said exterior factors will not help in preparation.

“It is hard to get pumped up for a MAC match like this because it’s going to be small,”
he said. “But it will be my last match at home, so it will be exciting.”

His opponent, No. 11 141-pounder Germaine Lindsey, is the favorite to win an individual MAC title at the tournament. The junior earned a pin for the Bobcats in his last match against West Virginia and is undefeated against MAC opponents.

The Chippewas are coming off a pair of wins against Michigan State and Northern Illinois. Freshman 184-pounder Ben Bennett earned MAC Wrestler of the Week honors with two shutout victories.

“It is going to be an exciting weekend for us, as the MAC championship will come down to these two dual matches,” said coach Tom Borrelli. “It is nice to have something to wrestle for and have the rivalry that we have developed with Kent State and Ohio.”

Kent State

The Golden Flashes stole a victory from CMU last season to end a streak of 10 consecutive MAC titles. The Chippewas look to return the favor at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“They kind of rubbed it in our faces last year,” Sentes said. “They took a picture of themselves out on our mat. So, it will be nice to get a little payback this year.”

No. 20 Kent State has two ranked wrestlers, including returning MAC champion No. 8 133-pounder Danny Mitcheff. Mitcheff is undefeated in the conference with his closest match being a 11-9 major decision against Buffalo sophomore Kevin Smith.

Ohio and Kent State are the last tests for the Chippewas before they host the MAC tournament March 6.

“The tournament is what it is all about,” Borrelli said. “Obviously, it would be nice to win the dual meets, but its more important to do well in the conference tournament and get into nationals.”

The win stretches the team’s dual-match win streak to seven.

“We won the matches we needed to win to keep moving forward,” said coach Tom Borrelli.

Senior 149-pounder Tony D’Alie started with a 19-4 technical fall against freshman Chris Conti. The win was the first time D’Alie scored bonus points since Jan. 31 against Old Dominion.

“In the past couple matches, I have come out a bit hesitant,” D’Alie said. “And it was important for me to come out and really get my offense going.”

Senior 165-pounder Tyler Grayson earned the first pin of the match, taking down Buffalo sophomore John-Martin Cannon halfway through the final period.

Freshman 174-pounder Ben Bennett followed Grayson’s pin with a 16-0 technical fall against junior Brian Sheehan.

Also scoring bonus points was sophomore heavyweight Jarod Trice, with a 19-7 major decision against senior Jason Weber.

“We are still not getting the other guys’ legs as much as we need to,” Borrelli said. “But other than that, I think we have been looking pretty good.”

Senior 157-pounder Steve Brown returned to the mat after missing 10 dual matches with an injury. He narrowly defeated senior Andrew Stella with a 6-5 decision.

“Steve looked pretty good. We needed to get him back on the mat so he could start getting into a rhythm and getting used to match competition,” Borrelli said. “Wrestling in practice is not the same as wrestling in matches.”

Senior Eric Simaz also scored a one-point decision in a 5-4 win against junior Jimmy Hammel.

“It was a good win, but we still have the best two teams left in the conference,” Borrelli said. “We will have a lot better indication of the conference after those matches.”

No. 6 Central returns home Friday to take on Ohio, its last MAC opponent at Rose Arena. The team then travels to take on the defending regular-season champion, Kent State.

“We have two pretty big dual meets between Ohio and Kent,” Borrelli said. “We will have to get through those first before we can start focusing in on the tournament.”

The Chippewas defeated Michigan State 23-10.

“I’m a little frustrated at some of the weight classes,” said coach Tom Borrelli. “But we performed well overall. I expected this dual meet to be a little closer considering the lineup we were putting (out).”

Senior 165-pounder Tyler Grayson also scored bonus points for CMU with a 12-4 major decision over senior Kyle Bounds.

“Our conditioning is paying off,” Borrelli said. “We can wrestle a really hard third period when other guys are starting to tire out.”

Michigan State earned wins from both its ranked wrestlers, including No. 4 senior 133-pounder Franklin Gomez, who earned a tight 5-3 victory of No. 8 Scotti Sentes.

“I’m starting to figure it out now,” Sentes said. “I’ve been taking on the best, and I am going to be ready in March for Nationals.”

CMU returns to Mid-American Conference competition at 2 p.m. Sunday at Rose Arena when it takes on Northern Illinois.

But with the state’s reputation in the dregs of the wrestling world, Sentes, from Fort Myers, Fla., and Gomez, from Brandon, Fla., have dedicated their collegiate careers to boosting the image of Florida wrestlers.

The two are the only wrestlers from the state in the top 20 national rankings at the 133-pound weight class. They face each other when CMU and Michigan State meet at 7:30 p.m. today in Rose Arena.

“I didn’t know anything about college wrestling,” Sentes said. “I had never seen a dual meet until I came up to visit Central. A lot of guys down there want to keep on wrestling, but they don’t know how to do it.”

Adding to the lack of exposure is a chilling effect — not having Division-I wrestling in the state causes students to avoid involvement in the sport.

Only the top wrestlers get the chance to move on to the Division-I level because they are the ones who are awarded scholarships, Sentes said. Going out of state for college is expensive and, without a scholarship, some wrestling careers are ended at the high school level.

“If there was Division-I wrestling in Florida, more kids would be motivated to get into the sport,” Gomez said. “At a young age, kids don’t really think about going on and wrestling in college but, as they get older, it starts to affect their decisions.”

Because wrestling is prominent in the Midwest, most of the national tournaments for high school wrestlers are held in the north, Sentes said. College coaches do not get the opportunity to see wrestlers from the South because it is too expensive for them to travel to the tournaments.

Sentes and Gomez were awarded scholarships to move their careers forward.
In the process, they have begun to debunk the idea of weak wrestling in Florida. Gomez took home a national championship at 133 pounds last season and Sentes earned All-American honors at 125 pounds as a true freshman.

“I think coaches are starting to understand that wrestlers from Florida are pretty good,” Gomez said. “Before, there wasn’t much respect for a wrestler coming out of Florida but, today, coaches are seeing that they can be as good as from any other state and maybe better.”

First meeting

Despite growing up in rival high schools, Sentes and Gomez have never faced each other on the mat. Gomez graduated the year before Sentes began high school.

“He went to Brandon, which is a big-name school in Florida,” Sentes said. “I went to Riverdale, but I was known for knocking off Brandon guys so, hopefully, I can add Franklin Gomez to that list.”

Gomez came into the season as the top wrestler in the 133-weight class and was the favorite to repeat as a national champion. However, a narrow 3-2 loss to Iowa senior Daniel Dennis last week dropped him to fourth in the nation.

The lost snapped a 29-match win streak, which Gomez will look to jump start with a win in Mount Pleasant.

“I want to be my best, just like in any other match,” Gomez said.

Sentes won his last four matches and has allowed his opponents a total of four combined points. Since bumping up to the 133-pound weight class, Sentes has taken on four opponents in the top 10, but has come away with only one victory.

“I am either going to be the hero or be embarrassed,” Sentes said. “Trying to take on the number one wrestler, I am hoping to be the hero.”