Four wrestlers qualify for NCAA championships
Sophomore Donnie Corby will join three of his teammates to represent Central Michigan at the 2011 NCAA Wrestling Championships after receiving an at-large bid Wednesday.
Sophomore Ben Bennett (174 pounds) and juniors Scotti Sentes (133) and Jarod Trice (285) received automatic bids after each winning individual titles at the 2011 MAC Championship Sunday.
The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee chose 50 wrestlers to be added to the 280 that already received automatic bids through conference and regional qualifying tournaments.
The committee made its selections based on criteria, which included coaches’ rankings, qualifying event placement, quality wins, winning percentage and number of matches contested at that weight class.
“It’s kind of bittersweet with Mike Miller,” said CMU head coach Tom Borrelli. “Obviously, if he had been healthy all year we felt like he would have had a real good chance of placing high. Unfortunately, the injuries that have been bothering him for the past two years have caught up to him.”
Corby (23-14) was one of six wrestlers added to the 149-pound bracket. In the first round, he will look to avenge his 6-2 loss to Cornell’s Kyle Dake (fourth seed) from the teams’ dual meet in November.
“I feel like (Corby) really deserved to be in the tournament and I’m happy for him,” Borrelli said.
Sentes (30-6) will wrestle West Virginia’s Nathan Pennesi in the first round Thursday as the 11th seed.
Bennett (27-5) will face Rutgers’ Alex Caruso in the first round as the sixth seed, looking to repeat his Midlands performance in which he beat Caruso by a 1-0 decision.
Coming into the tournament as the second seed, Trice (25-3) will wrestle Virginia Military Institute’s Joshua Wine in the first round.
Sentes, Bennett and Trice are all returning for their second runs at individual national titles, while Corby is making his tournament debut.
Borrelli said he felt Sentes, Bennett and Trice could help Corby in preparing for the tournament, with the three of them having experience at the big stage.
“I think the biggest thing is they’ve got to let him know that it’s just another tournament and you can’t get caught up in anything different than just wrestling your match,” he said.
The tournament, held in Philadelphia, Pa., begins March 17 and wraps up with the final round on March 19.
