Central Michigan University
NCAA Championships
Two Chippewas in the Hunt at NCAAs
3/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
ST. LOUIS - Two Central Michigan wrestlers remain in the hunt for All-American honors after day one of the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Scottrade Center.
CMU's Zach Horan and Colin Heffernan both finished 1-1 on Thursday and will be in the wrestlebacks in their respective weight classes beginning Friday morning.
CMU's other qualifier, freshman Jordan Ellingwood, dropped both of his matches on Thursday and was eliminated.
"We've got our work cut out for us now," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "You make the quarters, you only have to win one match to be an All-American. Now you have to win three. It's a long road back."
Horan (141 pounds) and Heffernan (149) will begin that road back on Friday morning. Horan, who is 21-5, is scheduled to wrestle either David Pearce of Drexel or Nick Lawrence of Purdue on Friday.
Heffernan (23-13) will wrestle either Christian Pagdilao of Arizona State or Matthew Cimato of Drexel on Friday.
Heffernan, a freshman who was unseeded, upset ninth-seeded Gabe Moreno of Iowa State, 5-3, in his opening match on Thursday then fell, 2-1, to eighth-seeded Alexander Richardson of Old Dominion.
It was Heffernan's second win (against one loss) over Moreno this season. He is 0-2 this season against Richardson, having dropped a 5-2 decision to him during a dual meet a month ago.
Richardson and Heffernan ended their match on Thursday, 1-1, but Richardson got the bonus point for 1 minute, 13 seconds of riding time.
"Colin, he's getting closer," Borrelli said. "Every time he wrestles that guy he gets closer and it was a real close match. We lost by 13 seconds of riding time."
Horan, who was seeded 10th, opened with a 5-1 win over Arizona State's Matthew Kraus, then fell to seventh-seeded Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers, 6-3.
"We got out-wrestled just a little bit at 141 I think," Borrelli said. "The kid from Rutgers is a real quality kid and he wrestled a really, really good match and you can't take anything away from him. I didn't think Zach wrestled bad. The kid beat him."
Had Heffernan and Horan won those matches, they would have been in the quarterfinals and would have needed just one more victory to guarantee themselves a top-eight finish and with it, All-American status.
That is still a possibility. Both can still finish as high as third, but dropping down to the wrestlebacks so early in the tournament makes the road all the more difficult, Borrelli said.
"It's disappointing when you don't win, when you don't make the quarterfinal, but when you look at the seeding and stuff like that, we're probably not supposed to win either one of those matches," he said. "But we don't like thinking like that, we don't like that mentality. Now we've got our work cut out for us.
"You want to win those matches, but we can't be completely disappointed either."
Borrelli said the approach on Friday is the same as it always is, regardless of the fact that both Heffernan and Horan will have to win several matches in order to earn All-America honors.
"You still have to score points," he said. "Don't focus on outcomes, but on scoring points and winning every situation and keep advancing."
Ellingwood, who was unseeded, opened by dropping a 14-5 major decision to fifth-seeded Blaise Butler of Virginia. He was eliminated by Jadean Bernstein of Navy, 4-2.
"He was pretty aggressive (against Bernstein), but he doesn't know how to finish yet," Borrelli said of Ellingwood, who finished the season 18-13. "He's too young and he doesn't have the skill-set yet. He'll get better. Hopefully he doesn't want to come here just to come here again, it's not just about coming here."
