WITH SLIDESHOW: Wrestling rolls over NIU Friday, falls in Ann Arbor Sunday
The Central Michigan wrestling team has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success this season.
But in order to be labeled as one of the top teams in the nation, it must beat other top-quality opponents.
CMU lost 23-14 against the University of Michigan Sunday, after defeating Northern Illinois 24-9 on Friday.
“I thought we competed very hard,” head coach Tom Borrelli said. “But I felt like in a few matches we beat ourselves instead of them beating us. We didn’t keep our composure and we took some bad shots.”
The Chippewas had a chance to tie or win the meet Sunday trailing by three points going into the heavyweight bout. But Michigan wrestler Ben Apland halted the Chippewas comeback attempt by pinning senior Peter Sturgeon at the five minute mark.
CMU fell to 12-3 overall, but are still 4-0 in Mid-American Conference action at beating NIU.
Borrelli does not think fatigue played a role in the loss.
“I felt like we were pretty fresh,” Borrelli said. “Our conditioning held up well today.”
For the second time in three days, sophomore Joe Roth gave the Chippewas a 4-0 lead by earning a major decision over sophomore Grant Pizzo.
The Wolverines countered with three-straight decisions taking the 10-4 lead.
CMU tied the score at 10 with decisions by junior Donnie Corby and freshman Mike Ottinger. Ottinger improved his record to 14-6 overall.
“The thing Mike does is he is really hard to take down and then he capitalizes on your mistakes,” Borrelli said.
U-M would later break a 14-14 tie with redshirt freshman Max Huntley defeating senior Chad Friend at 197 pounds.
“I feel like we are making progress," Borrelli said. "I think we can get much better, but I’m happy about our progress."
The Wolverines are ranked 10 in the NWCA/USA Today coaches’ poll, CMU is at 19.
CMU beats NIU Friday
On Friday, Roth started the scoring by posting eight takedowns en route to a 17-8 major decision against NIU sophomore Nick Smith.
Redshirt freshman Tyler Keselring followed with 12-1 major decision of his own extending the Chippewas lead to 8-0.
“I really just executed on my feet really well and was able to get to my shots and take him down,” Keselring said.
CMU junior Ben Bennett also had a 14-4 major decision over sophomore Shane Rosenberry. Bennett is ranked fifth in the nation at 184 pounds.
Sturgeon capped the MAC victory for CMU with a 2-1 decision in overtime against sophomore Jared Torrence.
“He’s had a lot of real big wins for us,” Borrelli said. “The last couple of matches, Peter hasn’t really been himself. But with what we have going on with Jarod Trice, he has been a kind of a Godsend almost.”
The Chippewas return home next 7:30 p.m. Friday to face Lehigh.
