NCAA releases first round matchups for wrestling championships
The NCAA released the first round matchups for the NCAA wrestling Championships Wednesday evening.
Central Michigan will send nine wrestlers to the event, including junior Brent Fleetwood, senior Austin Severn and Newton Smerchek, who were all at-large selections.
Fleetwood will face top ranked Thomas Gilman from Iowa at 125 pounds. Severn (197) will face Steban Cervantes of Navy, while Smerchek will face No. 16 ranked Garrett Ryan from Columbia.
Senior Corey Keener (133) will face No. 6 ranked Dom Forys of Pittsburgh. Freshman Mason Smith (141) will face No. 5 ranked Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers.
Sophomore Justin Oliver (149) will face Eric Barone of Illinois. Junior Colin Heffernan (157) will face Taleb Rahmani of Pitsburgh. Junior CJ Brucki (174) will face Connor Bass of Duke. Junior Jordan Ellingwood (184) will face CJ Lafragola of Brown.
The nine qualifiers for the Chippewas is the second most in program history. The Chippewas finished third at the Mid-American Conference Tournament last weekend.
The 2017 NCAA Championships will be March 16-18 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis and can be seen on ESPN.
