Wrestling finishes third at Body Bar Invitational
The Central Michigan wrestling team finished third in Body Bar Invitational Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.
A day after beating CMU, host Cornell finished first in the tournament with 134 points. Kent State finished second with 94 points, while CMU posted 83.5 points.
“I feel we did pretty well since we didn’t have a point scoring heavyweight or a point scorer at 184, and we did not have one of our returning All-Americans, Mike Miller, at 165,” said assistant coach Mark DiSalvo.
Junior Scotti Sentes lead the way as seven Chippewas finished in the top six spots of their respective weight classes. Sentes finished first in the 133-pound class. He opened the bracket with back-to-back pins in the first and second round (1:43, 2:11). In the next two rounds, Sentes posted 9-0 and 10-3 major decisions, respectively, to capture the top spot in the division.
“Scotti Sentes has really adjusted to the weight class and I think he could have a really great year,” DiSalvo said.
Sophomore Ben Bennett pinned his opponent 1:51 into the first round, and followed it up with two major decisions to get into the finals. He lost 13-5 to Cornell’s Mack Lewnes in the title match, finishing runner up in the 174-pound class.
“Ben Bennett competed well and took second to the No. 1 in the country at Cornell,” DiSalvo said. “(He’s) obviously in the top three or four in the weight class.”
Junior Eric Cubberly finished third in the 157-pound class, defeating Cornell’s Craig Eifert 7-3. Cubberly won his first three matches before losing 3-2 in the semifinals.
In a continued battle for the 125-pound starting spot, CMU entered three wrestlers into that division of the tournament.
Redshirt freshman Joe Roth suffered a 3-0 decision to Kent State's Nicholas Bedelyon in the first round. Bedelyon went on to finish first in the 125 pound class.
Redshirt freshman Kyle Waldo and sophomore Christian Cullinan finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 125-pound weight class after going head-to-head in the fifth-place match. Both Chippewas recorded a pin earlier in the tournament before Waldo ended on the winning side of a 2-1 decision.
“Kyle won that match, but it was in the maximum amount of overtimes,” DiSalvo said. “We still have some very highly competitive competition there. As we’ve seen in years past, the more competition at a weight class the better they end up doing in the national championship.”
Redshirt freshman Craig Kelliher (197) finished fourth and sophomore Donnie Corby (149) finished fifth in their weight classes.
“I think that it was a good weekend in competition with the dual meet last night,” DiSalvo said. “With our full lineup, and Jarod Trice and Mike Miller, we’re going to really be competitive.”
The team will travel to Rochester, Minn., to compete against North Dakota State, Appalachian State and Minnesota in the Minnesota Quad on Nov. 27.
