Wrestling drops first dual meet Saturday to Oregon State
Pennsylvania senior Zach Horan high fives teammates after his match is announced against Oregon State on Jan. 9 at McGuirk Arena. The Chippewas lost to the Beavers 26-9.
Looking to stay undefeated in dual meets, No. 16 Central Michigan wrestling fell short of picking up its fifth win, falling 26-9 to Oregon State, Saturday.
After the Beavers took a 27-9 beating from Michigan on Thursday, CMU Head Coach Tom Borrelli said the Beavers of Oregon State came to Mount Pleasant with a chip on their shoulders — which his wrestlers were not prepared to face.
“I think we had a lot on our mind today. We have a match tomorrow. We weren’t ready to compete today for whatever reason,” Borrelli said. “When we have success, our team right now, I don’t know if we know how to handle it.”
The Beavers claimed victory in the first three matches, taking a 12-0 lead on a disqualification ruled against CMU’s 14th-ranked, 141-pounder Zach Horan — much to the displeasure of the McGuirk Arena crowd.
Horan latched onto the arm of OSU’s Jack Hathaway, bending it upwards behind Hathaway’s back, which was ruled illegal after an official’s review.
Borrelli explained the ruling, saying he didn’t think the disqualification — which gave OSU six points — affected the meet’s final outcome.
“I don’t think that had a whole lot to do with the score of the dual meet,” Borrelli said. “I think we got out hustled; we got ridden to death. We’ve got to get better at getting off the bottom. Sometimes you lay an egg in athletics and we laid an egg today.”
Having to climb out of an early 12-0 hole, 149-pounder Justin Oliver (18-4), who got the start over injured Colin Heffernan (11-1), defeated Joey Delgado, 8-3, making the score 12-3.
Borrelli said Heffernan, who is the 12th-ranked 149-pound wrestler in the nation, was limited in practice during the week.
“It’s not anything major, but he’s had some physical problems — two things — and we felt he wasn’t quite ready yet,” Borrelli said.
In the 157-pound class, No. 12 Luke Smith followed up Oliver’s win with one of his own over OSU’s Abraham Rodriguez, 7-1, bringing the score to 12-6.
After two consecutive Chippewa victories, 165-pounder Jordan Atienza, hoped to make it three in a row, but OSU’s Seth Thomas wouldn’t allow it. Thomas beat Atienza, 10-8.
“I expected us to be a lot more competitive after Luke (Smith’s) match. The 165-pound match was pretty competitive, but again we just got ridden and couldn’t finish our shots,” Borrelli said.
With a 15-6 deficit, senior and 12th-ranked 174-pounder Mike Ottinger edged the Beaver’s score to five, beating Ali Alshujery, 7-5.
With the score 15-9 and three matches remaining, Central Michigan had the opportunity to complete the comeback, but could not capitalize.
Jordan Ellingwood (184), Jackson Lewis (197) and Adam Robinson (285) all dropped their matches, leaving the final tally Oregon State, 26, Central Michigan, 9.
“Coach (Borrelli) preaches scoring points. That’s what we have to do and we didn’t execute that today,” Luke Smith said. “We didn’t score enough points. I didn’t score enough points. I don’t think in one of our matches we scored enough points. We need to do a better job of being confident and getting to our attacks.”
Coming off its first dual meet loss of the season, the team (4-1, 1-0 MAC) will have 24 hours before facing 21st-ranked Mid-American Conference foe Ohio (5-1, 1-1 MAC), Sunday, at 2 p.m. in McGuirk Arena.
“I expect them to be embarrassed and expect them to respond well,” Borrelli said. “I think they’re embarrassed right now — they should be. We better be able to get off the bottom. If we wrestle like we did off the bottom today, we’re going to be in trouble again (tomorrow).”
