Central Michigan University Athletics
Wrestling Sends Five To NCAAs
3/6/2000 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 6, 2000
THE TEAM: The Central Michigan wrestling team is off this week as it prepares to compete in the NCAA championships. Five grapplers will represent the Chippewas when they wrestle for national titles on March 16-18 in St. Louis, MO.
THE COACH: Tom Borrelli is in his ninth season as head coach of the Chippewas. CMU is 93-55-5 overall and 34-11 in the MAC under Borrelli. The veteran coach has been named MAC "Coach of the Year" four times and was tabbed "National Coach of the Year" by two organizations in 1998. Central has finished in the top ten nationally the past two seasons.
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS: "We would like to have more qualifiers for the NCAA championships in St. Louis," said coach Borrelli. "But, our five qualifiers can score us some points. We've met every single goal we've set for ourselves this year. We won the regular season title and the Mid-American Conference tournament and now we want to leave St. Louis a top 10 team."
TOP OF THE LINE: "I was happy with our team's performance at the MAC tournament," Borrelli said. "We were picked to finish third in the preseason, and we finished on top. To win the regular season and tournament titles means we've come around as a team. We came together and pulled off a big win this weekend."
TOURNEY RECAP: All 10 Chippewa grapplers placed in the top four and five earned national championship bids as Central defended its Mid-American Conference tournament title last weekend in Buffalo, N.Y.
Three wrestlers walked away MAC champions and with bids to the NCAA championships. At 141, Chris Marshall (Washington, DC/Sr.) defeated Northern Illinois' Tom LeCuyer, 13-6, to win his second MAC title. Jeremy Hardman (Constantine/Sr.) took the honors at 149 by besting Sam Murdock of Kent State, 3-1, in overtime and Ryan Cunningham (Middleton/Sr.) brought home his third MAC title by defeating Mike Feeney of Eastern Michigan, 12-2.
The Chippewas had three wrestlers take second-place honors. Russell Clark (Holt /Fr.) was runner-up at 157. He lost to Anthony Ralph of Kent, 10-9, in the finals and defeated Jacob Partlow from Buffalo, 4-3, for second. At 165, Vernon Cannon (Indianapolis, IN/Sr.) lost to Mike Nemeth of Kent, 8-2, in the finals but defeated Buffalo's Gary Cooper, 6-2, in the deciding match. Heavyweight Jack Leffler (Morris,IL/So.) took second by losing to Ohio's Tim Courtad, 3-1, but rebounded to defeat NIU's Jon Lovrich, 8-4. Cannon and Leffler each earned wildcard bids to wrestle for national titles.
Ahmad Sanders (Flint/Jr.) at 125, Phil Baroni (Massapequa, NY/Sr.) at 184 and Chris Vike (Stoughton, WI/Sr.) at 197 all took third place. At 133, Jordan Webster (Washington, IL/Fr.) wrestled to a fourth-place finish.
NOTES: Ryan Cunningham (Middleton/Sr.) won "Outstanding MAC Meet Wrestler" and "MAC Wrestler of the Year" awards. He is the second Chippewa to win "Wrestler of the Year" since his brother, Casey, did so 1998 and '99 ... Cunningham is the fifth three-time MAC Champion in school history ... Jeremy Hardman (Constantine/Sr.) upped his win streak to 11 matches with three wins at the MAC tourney ... Head Coach Tom Borrelli won his fourth "MAC Coach of the Year" award. He garnered the accolade in 1992, '98 and '99.
