UPDATED: Wrestling dominates Buffalo 30-6
There were few surprises in the Central Michigan wrestling team’s duel meet against Buffalo on Saturday.
The Chippewas defeated the Bulls 30-6 to hold Buffalo win-less for the season and against CMU all-time.
One surprise of the duel favored an unlikely character for the Chippewas.
CMU freshman Mike Ottinger captured the most impressive win of the meet against No. 20 Mark Lewandowski, the only ranked Buffalo wrestler.
“When Mike beat him that kind of broke them,” said CMU coach Tom Borrelli. “He wrestled a very good match, and he stayed out of the situations that the guy was good at and wrestled for the situations we’re good at.”
He defeated Lewandowski on a 6-3 decision. Ottinger avoided his ankle diving style by staying low and using a front headlock twice to clinch the victory.
Ottinger has won 10 of his first 13 matches in his first year at CMU.
“I got to give all the credit to God,” he said. “(At the begging of the season), I didn’t really know what to expect, but I’m just going to keep working hard and hopefully good things will happen.”
The Chippewas closed out with four victories thereafter. Heavyweight Peter Sturgeon continues to fill Jarod Trice’s role adequately.
“It’s just nice to have that confidence at the back end of the lineup that you can go out there and wrestle with some of the better guys in the country and still have a chance to win,” Borrelli said.
CMU began with five highly-contested matches that included three wins by the Chippewas before it took hold of the duel.
Jarod Porter was one of two CMU wrestlers who won in last-second fashion. His 3-2 decision that equated to a 9-6 CMU lead was the first win of his collegiate career.
“It’s just a credit to him,” Borrelli said. “Keep him fighting, keep him battling and he’ll figure out how to win.”
