The Chippewas ended one year and welcomed the next with two top-10 tournament finishes in Reno, Nevada and Chattanooga, Tennessee, but lost their first dual meet of the season to unranked Oregon State at McGuirk Arena.

Central Michigan had to bounce back, Sunday, to avoid losing its first Mid-American Conference meet of the season. They did just that, beating No. 21 Ohio by way of a tiebreak, 16-15.

Jan. 10: No. 16 Central Michigan 16, No. 21 Ohio 15

Tom Borrelli's Central Michigan wrestlers head back to classes Monday with their second Mid-American Conference victory of the season after beating Ohio 16-15 Sunday in McGuirk Arena.

The Chippewas led most of Sunday's dual meet, but needed a victory from heavyweight Newton Smerchek in the final match to tie the score, 15-15. Ohio's 15th-ranked, 197-pounder Phil Wellington beat Jackson Lewis to give Ohio the three-point lead.

Smerchek got the 2-1 win over Ohio's Jesse Webb, sending the decision to a tiebreaker. CMU had 39 individual points — two more than Ohio's 37 — which gave the Chippewas an extra point, setting the score at 16-15.

"Ohio really wants to beat us bad. They haven't beaten us in a long time," Borrelli said. "I could tell after the 157-pound match when their kid (Spartak Chino) stood up and waived to the crowd, saying 'Let's go Cats,' they thought they were going to get us today. Our guys responded well for us."

Beside Smerchek's meet-tying win, No. 12 Mike Ottinger (174) claimed the biggest win of the meet, defeating Ohio's No. 9 Cody Walters 3-2. Ottinger's win gave CMU a 12-9 lead.

Jan. 9: Oregon State 26, No. 16 Central Michigan 9

Central Michigan walked into McGuirk Arena for the first time in 2016 hoping to walk out with its unbeaten dual-meets record intact, but Oregon State delivered CMU its first blemish.

After the Beavers’ 27-9 walloping from Michigan Thursday in Ann Arbor, Borrelli said Oregon State came to Mount Pleasant with a chip on its shoulder — 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, 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 No. 14 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 in a way that was ruled illegal after an official’s video 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.”

Jan. 1-2: No. 16 Central Michigan places eighth out of 31 at the Southern Scuffle

The Chippewas rang in the new year with an eighth place finish at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The two-day tournament featured 10 teams ranked in the USA Today Top 25. Central Michigan finished with 65.5 points — 117.7 points behind first-place Penn State — and advanced three wrestlers to the semifinals and five to the quarterfinals.

“We wrestled well and learned some things I really think we can fix,” Borrelli said. “As you go through the tournament you feel like you could do better in situations, but for the most part we did pretty well.”

The 149-pounder Justin Oliver started 2016 emphatically, claiming a third-place victory while CMU's other 149-pounder, 12th-ranked Colin Heffernan sat out with injuries.

“(Oliver) had a really good tournament. He was aggressive and scored a lot in his matches, but most importantly kept wrestling in every situation,” Borrelli said.

Brent Fleetwood (125) finished fourth in the 125-pound weight class, Horan (141) finished in sixth place after reaching the semifinals and Ottinger (174) also delivered a seventh-place finish.

Top Eight Final Team Scores

1. No. 1 Penn State - 183. points

2. No. 7 Oklahoma State - 158. points

3. No. 10 Lehigh - 104.5 points

4. No. 14 Cornell - 98.5 points

5. No. 15 North Carolina - 97.5 points

6. No. 23 Minnesota - 79.5 points

7. No. 25 West Virginia - 76.5 points

8. No. 16 Central Michigan - 66.5 points

Dec. 20: No. 16 Central Michigan places second out of 27 at the Reno Tournament of Champions

Holiday break for Borrelli's Chippewas began with a trip to Reno, Nevada for the 2015 Reno Tournament of Champions.

Central Michigan trailed the champion, Illinois, by 33 points, finishing with 119 team points and also beating Stanford — coached by Borrelli’s son Jason — by 28.

Six Chippewas finished within the top three of their respective weight classes.

Horan (141), a healthy Heffernan (149) and Corey Keener (133) all advanced to championship matches in their respective weight classes, but each fell just short of claiming first place honors.

“We were pretty scrappy the whole tournament, but we were a little disappointed in our finish as far as we didn’t have any champions,” Borrelli said. “We finished second overall and I’m not sure we could have done much better because Illinois had such a good tournament, but we could have done better in our placing matches.”

Top Five Final Team Scores

1. No. 11 Illinois - 152 points

2. No. 16 Central Michigan - 119 points

3. Stanford - 91 points

4. Wyoming - 90.5 points

5. No. 22 Indiana - 84.5 points