Central Michigan University Athletics
Chippewas Finish Non-Conference Schedule
2/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Feb. 11, 2003
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MOUNT PLEASANT -- The Central Michigan University wrestling team (11-3, 3-1 Mid-American Conference), ranked 19th in the NWCA coaches poll, finishes its non-conference schedule this weekend with a dual at Clarion.
The Chippewas travel to Clarion to battle the Golden Eagles on Sunday, Feb. 19th, in their lone dual of the weekend. The dual is set to begin at 1 p.m. in Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium. The dual will be broadcasted over the internet by Clarion. To listen to the dual, visit Clarion athletics website, http://www.clarion.edu/athletics/, and click on the Red Zone logo.
The Golden Eagles enter the dual with a 8-5 overall record after falling to Pittsburgh in its last dual, 23-16. They are 1-1 against teams in the MAC after falling to Kent State in the Clarion Duals, 22-12, and defeating Buffalo at home, 20-17. The Chippewas have not faced Kent State this season and defeated Buffalo last weekend, 19-12. Clarion will travel to Cleveland State on Thursday, Feb. 13, before facing the Chippewas. The Golden Eagles are 1-3 in their conference, the Eastern Wrestling League, so far this season. Clarion has three wrestlers ranked in the top 20: Rad Martinez is 10th at 133; Eric Mausser is 12th at 197; and John Testa is ninth at heavyweight.
SERIES INFORMATION: CMU is 1-0-0 against Clarion all-time. The lone meeting between the two was last season during the Hampton Inn "Duels." CMU won the match in convincing fashion, 34-9. CMU is 1-0 against teams from the EWL this season, defeating Cleveland State, 22-15.
HEAD COACH TOM BORRELLI ON CLARION: "Clarion will be good competition for us and a chance to see how much we have improved over the past few weeks. I think our wrestlers are looking forward to wrestling someone different at this point in the season. I also know that Clarion will be motivated to beat us after we won last year in our tournament. It has three great wrestlers and it will be interesting to see how our guys match-up against those three."
BUFFALO AND OHIO RECAP: CMU used key wins at 174 pounds and 197 pounds to beat Buffalo on Friday night, 19-12.
The dual start at 149 pounds where ninth-ranked Ty Morgan (Huber Heights, Ohio/Jr.) started CMU off with a victory, 8-2. Buffalo got on the board in the next match at 157 as Labe Black defeated CMU's David Bolyard (Akron, Ohio/So.) with a takedown with 10 seconds left, 6-4. Kevin Carr (Warsaw, Ind./Jr.) put CMU back ahead with a win at 165, 4-1. At 174, CMU's Mitch Hancock (Royal Oak/So.) broke Buffalo's Gary Cooper 18-match winning streak with a 6-3 victory.
Buffalo's got within three with a victory by Garrett Bontempo at 184, 8-2, but CMU's Brett Faustman (Mason/Sr.) defeated defending MAC champion Kyle Cerminara by holding Cerminara down the full 30-second period in double overtime. Buffalo again got within three with a win at heavyweight by Tom Curl, 6-4.
CMU's Kyle Stoffer (Olmsted Falls, Ohio/Fr.) won at 125, 7-3, to move CMU's lead by out to six points, but Buffalo's Mike Trotta won at 133, 9-2, to give CMU just a three-point lead heading into the final match. Fifth-ranked Jason Mester (Mineral Point, Wis/Jr.) sealed the team victory with a win by major decision, 17-4.
CMU then travel to Athens, Ohio and beat Ohio University on Sunday afternoon in Athens, Ohio, 25-11.
The dual started at 125 where Kyle Stoffer won by major decision, 10-2. Ohio fought back with a win by Anthony Carrizales at 133, 6-2, but CMU would win the next five matches to put away the dual. Winning for CMU were: Jason Mester by technical fall at 141, 18-2; Ty Morgan at 149, 8-3; David Bolyard at 157 by major decision, 10-0; Kevin Carr at 165, 2-1; and Mitch Hancock at 174, 10-7.
Ohio got back on the board at 184 with a win by Mark Shrout, 4-3. CMU's Brett Faustman moved his record to 4-0 in the MAC with a win at 197, 6-2, to finish the matches because CMU forfeited at heavyweight due to an illness to Bill Stouffer (Lowell/So.).
BORRELLI ON OHIO AND BUFFALO: "I think that overall it was a good weekend for our guys, but we still have a couple of things that we need to work on. I thought that we were unfocused against Buffalo. That hurt us in some matches and we allowed them to control the match.
"We did a much better job of controlling the match against Ohio and I think that showed in the final score. We were aggressive and really took it to them in the match. That is the type of wrestling I am looking from our guys and the way we need to wrestle the rest of the season."
CHAMPION CASEY: CMU assistant wrestling coach Casey Cunningham won the 74 kg freestyle title in the Dave Schultz Memorial International on Sunday night, Feb. 9, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Cuninngham beat Joe Heskitt, a former national champion from Iowa State, in the finals of the tournament. The Fulton native jumped out to a 8-0 lead in the first 40 seconds of the matches and won by technical fall in the second period, 11-1.
In the semifinals, Cunningham defeated Zoltan Hunyady of Canada by one point, 3-2. He went 2-0 in pool play. He beat Steve Rose of Canada by three points, 4-1, and by forfeit over Pablo Popovitch of Mexico.
Cunningham will participate in the Titan Games this weekend, Feb.14-15, in San Jose, Cal. The Titans Games pits America's elite boxers, fencers, shot putters, wrestlers, weightlifters, judo, taekwondo, and karate athletes against the world's powers in each of these respective sports. In freestyle wrestling, the U.S. team will battle teams from Russia and Cuba.
