Central Michigan University Athletics
Wrestling Opens Season At Michigan State Open
11/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Nov. 12, 2001
The Central Michigan wrestling team opens its season this week as it heads to East Lansing to compete in the Michigan State Open on Nov. 17-18. The meet will be held at Jenison Field House and is slated to start at 10 a.m., both days and is an all-day tournament.
THE COACH - Tom Borrelli is in his 11th season as head coach of the Chippewas. CMU is 107-60-5 overall and 39-11 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. He has coached 27 MAC champions and 11 All-Americans. Central has finished in the top 20 nationally in three of the last four seasons.
STARTING OFF RIGHT - "The Michigan State Open should be a competitive tournament and it always presents a challenge to our young men," said head coach Tom Borrelli. "Five or six nationally-ranked teams will be there, so we will be able to see how we match up to them. I expect our guys to wrestle hard and to continue to improve their level of skill."
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT - "Our preseason practices have gone well and I am happy with the level of competition between our guys," said Borrelli. "I believe that we must build a better work ethic if we want to reach our goals, but I hope that once the guys start wrestling opponents from other schools, the work ethic will improve."
SEASON OUTLOOK -Central Michigan returns two MAC champions and five national qualifiers on this year's squad that would best be described as young but experienced.
Jason Mester (Mineral Point, Wis./So.) at 141 and Ty Morgan (Huber Heights/So.) at 149 are the two returning MAC champions. Mester is also the returning MAC "Freshman of the Year." Joining those two as returning national qualifiers are Jordan Webster (Rockton, Ill./Jr.) at 133, Brett Faustman (Mason/Jr.) at 197 and Jack Leffler (Morris, Ill./Sr.) at heavyweight.
The other top returners for CMU are Kevin Carr (Warsaw, Ind./So.) at 165 and Jeff Pangborn (Durand/So.) at 184. Looking to break into the starting lineup are redshirt freshmen Jason Borrelli (Mount Pleasant) at 125, David Bolyard (Akron, Ohio) at 157 and Russ Vanderhyden (Rockton, Ill) at 174.
The schedule will test this year's squad. The Chippewas will compete in duals against intrastate rivals Michigan State and Michigan. Included on this year's schedule are trips to three major tournaments, the Reno Tournament of Champions, the Midlands and the National Duals.
The Chippewas face a difficult road in defending their MAC regular season title. They play host to Ohio and Northern Illinois while traveling to Eastern Michigan, Buffalo and Kent State. The MAC tournament is set to take place on March 9-10 at Eastern Michigan while the NCAA championships will held in Albany, N.Y., on March 21-23.
NOTES - Even though CMU did not have any All-Americans last season, it did have three student-athletes earn Academic All-America honors. Jordan Webster (Rockton, Ill./Jr.) and Brett Faustman (Mason/Jr.) both earned second team nods while Ty Morgan (Huber Heights/So.) was named honorable mention.
