Wrestling drops final dual meet to Wisconsin
Tom Borrelli was not pleased with his team's final dual-meet performance of the season.
The Central Michigan wrestling team ended the regular season with a 19-17 road loss to No. 18 Wisconsin Sunday, snapping the team's six-match win streak.
“We had our chances to win the dual,” Borrelli said. “We lost some matches where we didn’t wrestle hard enough."
Carrying a 17-11 lead with senior Austin Severn up for CMU, a chance was present to end the regular season with seventh consecutive dual meet victory, but Severn lost 1-0 to Ricky Robertson, putting those hopes on hold.
It all came down to the battle of the heavyweights. Wisconsin's Connor Medbery defeated backup Tyrus Kemp by technical fall to clinch the victory for the Badgers.
This was Kemp's second straight meet competing in place of starter Newton Smerchek.
“(Newton) is just fine,” he said. “We’re just trying to get him ready for the conference tournament.”
The Chippewas finished the regular season 9-3, with all three losses coming against ranked opponents.
Sunday's dual meet started at 125 pounds, with junior Brent Fleetwood falling 2-0 to Johnny Jimenez in sudden victory.
Senior Corey Keener got the Chippewas on the board with a 6-3 victory over Eli Stickley at 133.
In the matchup of 149 pounders, sophomore and No. 7 ranked Justin Oliver was upset 14-5 by Andrew Crone.
“(Oliver) competed hard,” said Borrelli. “He got caught on his back twice, it’s hard to come back from that.”
Junior and No.10 ranked Colin Heffernan was nearly upset as well in the 157 bout. Trailing 5-2 after the first period, Heffernan scored a reversal, a riding time point and two takedowns to earn a 9-7 win in sudden victory over TJ Ruschell.
“(Ruschell) got a big lead early,” Heffernan said. “I knew going into (sudden victory) that there was no way he was going to be able to take me down. I got in my shot, took him down and it was over.”
Trailing 11-9 after six matches two juniors CJ Brucki and Jordan Ellingwood scored wins to get CMU back on track. Brucki scored a 17-2 technical fall victory over Jared Scharenbrock.
“I knew I wanted to score a takedown early,” said Brucki. “I was thinking (technical) fall or pin fall if I had the opportunity to."
Sixteenth ranked Jordan Ellingwood trailed 1-0 entering the third period. An escape, a takedown and a point for riding time secured a 4-2 victory for him.
CMU will be back in action for the MAC Championships March 4-5 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
