Wrestling wins twice over weekend
What took the Central Michigan wrestling team about two months to accomplish last season was accomplished in one day this season.
The Chippewas clinched their first two wins today after needing six games to do so last year.
“I think it’s good, especially for a young team,” said CMU sophomore wrestler Scott Mattingly. “I know me being a freshman last year, having a rough start, that made the season tough at the beginning. Finally we turned it around later, but I think coming off these two wins we have something to build on.”
The Chippewas and Chattanooga faced off after they both defeated No. 12 Stanford.
The Mocs were energized by a supportive home crowd that welcomed two top 25 opponents.
“I think that gave them a little bit of a boost, but it’s always fun wrestling in front of people,” Mattingly said. “It kind of gives you an extra fire underneath you to shut them up.”
Six-of-10 matches between the defending Mid-American and Southern conference tournament champions resulted in victories that were determined by less than three points. CMU was 4-2 in those matches.
Chippewas wrestlers sophomore Joe Roth, junior Ben Bennett and senior Peter Sturgeon made the margin of victory substantially larger for CMU by combining for 13 points to win 24-8.
Head coach Tom Borrelli took on his son Jason, who is in his fourth season as head coach at Stanford.
The former CMU wrestler led a depleted team a year after having arguably the best season in program history. They lost 50 percent of their starters and two NCAA qualifiers.
The Chippewas beat the Cardinals 22-13 with matchups that featured many lopsided losses.
No. 6 Stanford wrestler Ryan Mango pinned CMU’s Tyler Kesselring to take its lone lead, 6-4. No. 1 Cardinal Nick Amuchastegui also tallied a major decision against Anthony Bill.
Six Chippewas wrestlers came away with two victories each. Roth had the most impressive day, tallying the first two duel meet victories of his CMU career via major decisions.
“(On both occasions), I just stuck to my game plan,” Roth said. “I wrestled tough on my feet, I got to his legs, finished all of my shots, road him tough on top, was able to get away really fast. I was pretty dominant.”
He was one of five wrestlers entering their first duel meet. They were a combined 6-3 and freshman Mike Ottinger was also undefeated.
“We’re good! We have solid guys throughout the lineup and everyone wrestled tough today and I think that we are going to keep getting better,” Mattingly said.
