Central Michigan University
Southern Scuffle
Five Chippewas Reach Quarterfinals at Southern Scuffle
1/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Final Day 1 Brackets | Day 1 Team Scores
Cullen Maksimowski, CMUChippewas.com
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- After day one of the Southern Scuffle at Chattanooga, 12 of 15 Central Michigan wrestlers survived to wrestle in the final rounds on Saturday.
Five Chippewas advanced to the quarterfinal round and seven others are still alive in the consolation brackets.
"I think we're wrestling well," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "We had some guys that had real strong days and we were able to get a some upsets a few different weights, which is real important in this tournament."
CMU's Brent Fleetwood (125 pounds), Zach Horan (141), Justin Oliver (149), Luke Smith (157) and Mike Ottinger (174) will wrestle quarterfinals matches on Saturday.
Carter Ballinger (125), Jordan Atienza (165), C.J Brucki (174), Jordan Ellingwood (184), Jackson Lewis (197), Newton Smerchek (HWT) and Adam Robinson (HWT) will compete in the consolation rounds.
The 16th-ranked Chippewas are in a four-way tie for eighth place in the team standings with 27 points. No. 17 Virginia, Edinboro and Wyoming also finished with 27 points.
No.1 Penn State leads the 30-team field with 47.5 points. No. 7 Oklahoma State is second (44.5), followed by No.14 Cornell (36.5), No.25 West Virginia (34) and No.15 North Carolina (32).
"We just need to keep being aggressive," Borrelli said. "We have to keep looking to score first and just keep dong things we were able to do today and we'll be in good shape."
CMU is without two of its top wrestlers in Corey Kenner (133) and Colin Heffernan (149), who are nursing injuries.
"(Keener and Heffernan) are a little dinged up right now, its something where we just didn't think it was a good idea to wrestle those guys in this type of tournament," Borrelli said.
Kenner is 10-3 on the season and rank No. 20 nationally. Heffernan is 11-1 and ranked No.10.
Oliver, a sophomore, hasn't missed a beat filling Heffernan's spot in the lineup.
Oliver, who entered the tournament unseeded, defeated Gary Dinmore Penn State on a 14-4 major decision, and followed with a 5-3 sudden victory upset over seventh-seeded and No.13 ranked Anthony Collica of Oklahoma State.
Oliver is scheduled to wrestle sixth-seeded Mathew Cimato of Drexel in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
"It's real important to have a guys like that on your team," Borelli said. "Justin is definitely one of those guys, he's really turning the corner for us.
"I can say that there is not much difference between (Heffernan and Oliver). They do a lot of the same things and they're very close in the wrestling room."
CMU did not enter a wrestler in the 133-pound weight class.
125: Fleetwood, who was seeded 10th, finished 3-0 on the day. He opened with a 6-0 win over Landon LoAlbo of Gardner Webb, followed by an 11-3 major decision over Corey Lester of Michigan, and a 3-2 decision over seventh-seed Sean Russell of Edinboro. Fleetwood will face Steven Polakowski of Minnesota in the quarterfinals.
Carter Ballinger finished the day 2-1, beating ninth-seed Dalton Marci of Cornell on a 17-5 major decision in round one, followed by a 9-8 loss to Elliah Hale of Oklahoma State, and a pin of Landon LoAlbo of Gardner Webb. Ballinger will face Vito Pasone of Appalachian State on Saturday in the consolations.
141: Horan, who was seeded seventh, went 2-0 on Friday, opening with a 6-2 decision over Connor Prince of Navy, followed by a 3-1 decision over 10th-seeded and No. 19 ranked Javier Gasca of Michigan State. Horan is slated to take on Cortland Shuyler of Lehigh Saturday in the quarterfinals.
CMU's Kyle Noonan finished 1-2. He opened with a 9-3 win over Colton Orrino of Northern Colorado, and followed with a 4-2 loss to Mike Pongracz of Chattanooga and a 6-2 loss to Dylan Realbuto of Cornell. Noonan is eliminated from the tournament.
157: CMU's Lucas Smith, who was seeded third, went 2-0, opening with a 2-0 win over Kyle Ash of Gardner Webb before posting a 3-0 victory over Blake Kastl of Cal-Poly. Smith with face Ian Brown of Lehigh in the quarterfinals.
165: Jordan Atienza went 2-1 on the day, opening with 13-8 victory over Kyle Pope of Wyoming, followed by a loss by fall to Paul Duggan of Campbell, and a 16-1 technical fall over Jason Carr of The Citadel. Atienza will face Garrett Hammond of Penn State in the consolation bracket on Saturday.
Jordan Wohlfert finished 1-2, losing by 15-0 technical fall to Austin Trott of Gardner Webb, followed by a 16-1 technical fall victory over Nathan Wynkoop of Cleveland State. Wohlfert medical forfeited his final match and was eliminated from the tournament.
174: Ottinger, who was seeded fifth, went 2-0, defeating Peter Galli of Stanford, 3-2 and Ross Renzi of West Virginia, 2-1. Ottinger will face fourth-seeded Bo Nikel of Penn State on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
C.J Brucki finished 1-1 on the day with a 5-3 decision over Patrik Jennings (Edinboro), followed by a 10-9 loss to second-seeded and No.1-ranked Kyle Crutchmer of Oklahoma State. Brucki will face Andrew Morgan of Cal-Poly on Saturday in the consolation brackets.
184: Ellingwood, who is seeded ninth, finished 1-1, losing to Will Schany of West Virginia, 6-4, and beating Alaxander DeClantis of Drexel, 9-7. Ellingwood will wrestle Garet Krohn of Stanford on Saturday in the consolation bracket.
Tenth-seeded and No. 20-ranked Austin Severn of CMU went 0-2, losing to Tyler Askey of Virgina, 8-5. Severn medical forfeited his second match to exit the tournament.
197: Lewis finished 1-1, losing to Jacob Taylor of Cornell, 7-6, and beating Warren Bosch of Edinboro, 9-4. Lewis will wrestle J.T Goodwin of Cal-Poly on Saturday in the consolations.
HWT: Smerchek finished 1-1, losing to ninth-seeded Nathan Butler of Stanford in overtime, 3-1, followed by a 10-6 decision over Jere Heino of Campbell. Smerchek will face Doug Vallaro of Lehigh on Saturday in the consolations.
Robinson finished 1-1, losing 3-2 to Joseph Goodhart of Drexel, followed by a 3-2 win over Rylee Streifel of Minnesota. Robinson will wrestle Joseph Bexley of The Citadel on Saturday in the consolations.
Players Mentioned
