Despite a 30-6 overall record this season, the junior 133-pounder began the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships Thursday as the No. 11 seed in his weight class.

While his record looked impressive, he was 2-5 against Top 20 opponents during the regular season – hardly attractive to a tournament selection committee.

“Being from a (Mid-American Conference) school, it’s hard to come in with a higher ranking,” Sentes said Saturday afternoon outside the CMU locker room at Wells Fargo Center. “You got to do really well at the beginning of the year. You can only go down because everyone else you wrestle is low.”

Sentes was able to prove his worth over the weekend, placing fourth at the NCAA tournament with a 5-2 record.

He opened the tournament with a 7-0 decision win over West Virginia’s Nathan Pennesi, dominating early and accumulating more than five minutes of riding time. In the second round, he knocked off No. 6 Tony Ramos (Iowa) 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Sentes was on his way to pulling off an upset over No. 3 Andrew Long in the quarterfinals, taking a 2-0 lead and controlling the riding time, but he got too high and was suffered a pinfall loss.

Facing elimination, he responded with a pinfall victory Friday against No. 10 Rollie Peterkin, of Pennsylvania.

“I’m definitely surprised,” Sentes said of his upsets. “That’s what this tournament is. It’s a bunch of upsets – to see who’s better in that match and who comes out on top.”

After pulling off wins against Bernard Futrell (Illinois) and No. 4 Tyler Graff (Wisconsin), both of which beat him during the regular season, Sentes met Long again in the third-place match.

And while it started out similarly, Sentes took a 5-2 lead midway through the second period, Long found himself and scored a pair of takedowns to secure the win.

“He just came out on top those two times,” Sentes said. “I could’ve beaten him, I felt like I should’ve beaten him, but I didn’t. I’m sure he’s excited about it, but we’ll wrestle again.”

Bennett takes eighth

Sophomore 174-pounder Ben Bennett started hot, winning a pair of matches on Thursday by a combined score of 24-2, but fizzled out as the tournament went on.

Bennett, claiming All-American honors for the second consecutive season, shut out Rutgers’ Alex Caruso with an 8-0 major decision and had no problem against Michigan State’s Curran Jacobs, winning 16-2, but fell quickly to eighth place at the end.

“It’s not where I wanted to finish,” Bennett said. “Obviously my goal coming in here was to win and I wasn’t able to accomplish that.”

But technique issues began to show in the quarterfinal round, where he suffered a 7-3 defeat to No. 3 Mack Lewnes (Cornell).

In his consolation fourth round match, Bennett was able to beat No. 12 Mike Benefiel (Oklahoma State) before losing in the consolation quarterfinals (via pinfall) and seventh-place match.

“Ben has some things he has to work on technically,” said CMU head coach Tom Borrelli. “Those things were exposed. “But still, I thought he had a real good tournament. He’s on pace to be a four-time All-American. There’s not too many (of them) anywhere.”