After earning solid finishes last week at the Eastern Michigan Open, the CMU wrestling team will travel to East Lansing at 9 a.m. Sunday to take part in the Michigan State Open.

“Like the Eastern Open, we’re not going to have too many starters compete,” said head coach Tom Borrelli. “We might see (sophomore) Donnie Corby and maybe (junior) Eric Cubberly, who has an injury that might keep him out.”

Three wrestlers finished in the top six spots in Ypsilanti.

Sophomore Christian Cullinan finished second in the 125-pound class, while redshirt freshman Scott Mattingly finished fifth in the 141-pound class and Zack Cline finished sixth in the 157-pound class.

“Mainly we wrestled our freshman and redshirt freshman, and all of our redshirt freshmen wrestled in the open division instead of the freshman/sophomore division, which they were eligible to wrestle in,” Borrelli said. “We had a lot of youth in the tournament and I was happy with the way they competed.”

CMU has had success in the past at Michigan State. In 2009, Cullinan finished fifth in the 125-pound class at the MSU open.

“I’m really excited for (the open) this year,” Cullinan said. “My weight management is a lot better than last year, when I took fifth, and this year I’m pretty excited to do better.”

Corby (149) also had a fifth place finish while Cubberly wrestled unattached, finishing fourth in the 165-pound class.

CMU also saw success in the freshman/sophomore division last year. Four wrestlers finished in the top five spot of their respective weight classes, led by Adam Miller, who finished third in the 157-pound group.

The wrestlers competing in these tournaments to open the season do so to gain experience on the mats as well as show potential for starting roles in their respective weight classes.

While some weight classes already have their starters, others are wide open, Borrelli said, including the 125-pound class.

“I’d say we’re going to have a spirited competition there for most of the year,” he said. “We’ll see what happens at Michigan State and Cornell and the Body Bar tournament and go from there.”

One of the wrestlers hoping to solidify a starting spot, Cullinan said he has to look at the battle for the starting job as it being his spot.

“I think me taking second last week puts in me in good position and definitely gave me some confidence for this coming up week and for the rest of the season,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s my spot and I’m going to keep it that way.”

His competition includes redshirt freshmen Kyle Waldo and Joe Roth, both of which also have limited experience. Waldo finished fourth at the Eastern Open Saturday, and Roth won his first match 15-0 before suffering a 7-6 decision in the third round.

“(The EMU and MSU opens) are the same size as far as quantity of wrestlers, but I think MSU will have a slightly better quality of wrestlers,” Borrelli said. “We’d like to bring home some champions, and we didn’t last weekend.”