Wrestling picks up key individual wins but falls to Michigan State
Senior Jordan Atienza and sophomore Drew Hildebrandt scored imposing victories for Central Michigan wrestling, but it was not enough for coach Tom Borrelli's group.
In the end, Michigan State owned the upper hand on Feb. 22 in Jenison Fieldhouse.
The Chippewas (4-8, 3-4 Mid-American Conference) fell to the Spartans (10-8, 3-6 Big Ten Conference), 24-15.
However, Hildebrandt scored a win over Rayvon Foley in the 125-pound weight class. Foley came into the match with a 29-2 record, the most victories in the country.
Hildebrandt, a Granger, Indiana native, got a 7-5 sudden victory over Foley. Of those 29 wins, Foley has a nation-best 12 major decisions.
"It's really big for him," Borrelli said of Hildebrandt. "He wrestled a really, really good match. He was really sharp. He got away when he needed to in the third period and took the kid down in overtime and finished strong.
The 17th-ranked Hildebrandt earned an escape in the third period to send the bout to overtime. He earned a takedown in overtime to score his fifth straight win and move his individual record to 16-7.
Atienza moved his record to 15-9 with a victory over the 19th-ranked Cameron Caffey in the 184-pound weight class. Caffey entered the match with a 26-4 record.
Against Caffey, Atienza was taken down early in the match but eventually scored consecutively to cruise to an 8-5 win.
"He wrestled a really good match," Borrelli said of Atienza. "That should give him a lot of confidence. It's been a hard year for him, but he's coming around at the right time."
Results
Sophomore Deven Perez dropped a 7-2 to Anthony Tutolo in the 133-pound weight class.
In the 141-pound weight class, redshirt freshman Drew Marten dropped a 4-1 decision to Austin Eicher.
A bright spot outside of Atienza and Hildebrandt came from sophomore Dresden Simon in the 149. He defeated Jaden Enriquez, 12-5. It tied the match back up at six points apiece.
Logan Parks dropped a 5-3 decision to Jake Tucker in the 157-pound weight class. The junior's defeat gave the Spartans the lead for good.
In the 165-pound weight class, Logan Ritchie of MSU secured a 4-1 victory over redshirt freshman Bret Fedewa.
Next, Collin Lieber lost by fall to Drew Hughes in the 174-pound weight class. The redshirt freshman Lieber was pinned at the 1:07 mark.
Sophomore Landon Pelham was pinned just 15 seconds into the 197 match against Brad Wilton. It gave MSU their second pin in three matches over the Chippewas.
In the final match, sophomore Matt Stencel gave the Spartans a taste of their own medicine as he pinned Chase Beard at the 1:34 mark of the 285-pound match.
"When you have an opportunity to get bonus points, you have to get them," Borrelli said. "They took advantage of that tonight and that was the difference in the dual. We wrestled a little more tentative than we should have in a few weight classes."
Next up
The Chippewas take on Purdue at 2 p.m. on Feb. 24 at McGuirk Arena in the final dual meet of the season.
