Wrestling extends winning streak against Michigan State
No. 11 Central Michigan needed just nine wrestlers to knock off Michigan State Friday, winning the dual-meet 19-18.
Normally, a victory is followed by a cliché quote on how well the team wrestled, but head coach Tom Borrelli was not pleased with his team’s performance over the weekend.
“We felt like we wrestled a little flat in the match, and we weren’t as crisp as we should have been,” he said.
CMU (4-7,1-0 MAC) fell behind early after sophomore Christian Cullinan lost an 8-3 decision to Eric Olanowski at the 125-pound bout. Cullinan came out on top in their first meeting at the Michigan State Open.
That would be MSU’s sole lead of the night, as Scotti Sentes and Scott Mattingly each earned bonus points at the 133 and 141-pound weight classes, respectively, to put CMU up 10-3. Sentes needed just 1:50 to pin his opponent, and Mattingly followed it up with his first major decision of the season.
“I think that was the difference in the dual meet,” Borrelli said. “Those guys picking up bonus points in the dual meet, but also Ryan Cubberly picking up the overtime win. Those matches were real big.”
Cubberly wrestled into a second overtime round before finding himself on top of his opponent by 4-2 decision. Senior Mike Miller and sophomore Ben Bennett each picked up decisions as the team split the last six matches of the contest.
“(Ryan) has been one of those guys who have really stepped in and picked up the program as far as doing what he needs to, and being a role guy,” Borrelli said.
With the match out of reach for MSU, the team did not wrestle junior Jarod Trice to close out the night.
“First of all, we’ve had had some injury issues with him a little bit this week,” Borrelli said. “We wanted to wrestle McClure, who’s their starter and ranked guy, but they didn’t send him out there. We decided it’d be best just to forfeit.”
The win was CMU’s 10th consecutive against the Spartans, improving the all-time series record to 13-13.
After two consecutive interstate matches, the Chippewas will play host to Old Dominion at 2 p.m. Sunday at McGuirk Arena.
Ashland Open
As 10 wrestlers headed down to East Lansing to compete in a dual-meet against MSU, 13 others traveled to Ashland, Ohio, to compete unattached at the Ashland Open Saturday.
Three wrestlers – redshirt freshmen Joe Roth and Kyle Waldo and junior Eric Cubberly — all took first place in their respective weight classes, and three others finished in the top six spots.
“We ended up with six placers, but we had about nine guys really fighting all the way down to the last placings,” said graduate assistant Steve Brown. “We started a little slow, but everyone wrestled really tough.”
Brown said Roth has had some consistency issues this season, but he was opening up and really finding his shots.
His teammate, Kyle Waldo, has wrestled as a 125-pounder when he’s appeared in matches this season, but moved up to 133-pounds for the event and finished first.
“Waldo, who was up to 133, looked 100 times better being up a weight class and he wrestled really well,” Brown said. “Eric Cubberly went up to 165 and I think he’s looking a little fresher.”
Eric has bounced between 157 and 165 this season to fill in for injured Mike Miller and Adam Miller. He came into the contest with a 14-11 season record.
True freshman Ben Matthiesen took third place, knocking off Tyler Keslering, who finished fourth in the consolation round. Freshman Malcolm Martin finished sixth.
Out of the 13 Chippewa wrestlers to participate Saturday, seven of them recorded pins in the event – an unusual occurrence.
“You don’t see (pins) much,” Brown said. “Some of the guys, they just caught fire and next thing I know I wasn’t standing in corners very long. Our guys were rolling people up in the first period and things just started clicking for them.”
Although the event wasn’t an official tournament, the team found it to be useful.
“A lot of it’s confidence, and it helps them to believe in themselves,” Brown said. “When they know that they’re out conditioning their opponents and their technique and training is starting to pay off, the next step is having them believe they can do that. It’s a mini goal; a mini step towards the larger scheme.”
