EMU didn’t lead in any match until the fifth match of the night, when 157-pounder Ryan Cubberly fell behind early 1-0. But the deficit was short-lived as Cubberly came back with an escape to tie the match, forcing the only overtime match of the dual.

Cubberly’s match also provided the only controversy of the night as EMU nearly earned a victory in the first overtime period. The Eagles’ Aaron Sulzer was close to earning a two-point takedown, but the referee never awarded the points, allowing Cubberly to stay in the match and eventually get the win.

EMU’s coaches were irate when the points weren’t awarded, and were even more animated after the match, giving the referee an earful until the next match started.

Head coach Tom Borrelli said he was extremely happy with his team’s performance in the dual.

“That might be the most comfortable win we’ve had all year,” he said. “We’ve been pretty inconsistent most of the year. This was the first time we were real consistent throughout the whole dual meet. That’s a good time for that to happen.”

CMU earned two major decisions in the dual. Junior 133-pounder Scotti Sentes won 17-6, and sophomore 174-pounder No. 7 Ben Bennett shutout his opponent 13-0.

No. 11 Sentes handily defeated EMU’s Filiberto Colon, who came into the match 17-9 on the season. Sentes won his sixth consecutive match, improving to 25-6 this season.

“I know he’s really funky. He either wanted to pin me or get pinned,” Sentes said about Colon. “The guy I have from Kent State is kind of like that too. So it was real good to go out there and wrestle a kid similar to a kid I’m going to wrestle later on.”

Borrelli said Sentes has wrestled well all season, facing some opponents’ best wrestlers.

“Scotti’s been wrestling really good. He’s wrestled really, really good competition this year, our whole team has,“ he said. “Like Scotti said, the guy he wrestled is kind of a flip-flopper, and Scotti’s really good at wrestling those guys.”

CMU improves its all-time record against EMU to 53-9-1, winning 20 straight meetings. The Chippewas have beaten the Eagles more than any other team in program history, and haven’t lost to EMU since 1991.

CMU now turns its attention to Kent State Sunday in its regular season finale in a dual meet that will determine the MAC champion.

KSU (14-5 overall, 4-0 MAC) sits atop the conference as the only undefeated team in MAC play. The Golden Flashes come into the match, winners of eight in a row and will look to hold off CMU to win the MAC title outright.

If CMU wins, both teams will have an identical 4-1 record in conference play and will share the regular season title. Ohio can also earn a three-way tie of the conference crown with a win against EMU Sunday, paired with a CMU victory over Kent State.

Borrelli said he expects the match against KSU to be a very close, exciting match. He said it will be a pivotal match for both teams.

“This is a real important event for Kent State every year. Kent State has tried to gauge the success of their program on how they do against us,” he said. “Obviously we’re fighting to stay at the top of the MAC and it’s big for us too.”