Central Michigan University
Cliff Keen Invitational
Strong Showing for CMU Wrestlers in Vegas
12/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
LAS VEGAS - What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?
Not in college wrestling.
The Central Michigan wrestling team did plenty to improve its national reputation as five Chippewas finished among the top five in their respective weight classes amongst a rugged field at the two-day Cliff Keen Invitational that concluded Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Junior Colin Heffernan led the CMU contingent, finishing runner-up at 157 pounds as the Chippewas finished sixth in the 34-team field.
"People don't look at us as a good tournament team," said CMU coach Tom Borrelli, whose team is ranked 25th in the InterMat tournament rankings, and 14th in the dual-meet rankings. "A lot of times those tournament rankings are based where individuals are ranked in each class and we don't have very many guys that are ranked in the top eight or the top 12 in their weight class.
"You come to these tournaments to improve your ranking. I don't know how the rankings are going to end up, I know that we opened some eyes."
The field included 11 of InterMat's top 25 tournament teams.
Ohio State, which is tied with Virginia Tech for fourth in the tournament rankings, placed first with 118.5 points, followed by 11th-ranked Wisconsin (113.5), Virginia Tech (103), 17th-ranked Minnesota (100), seventh-ranked Cornell (93.5), and the Chippewas (90.5).
CMU finished ahead of Arizona State and Iowa State, which are tied for 18th, 12th-ranked Stanford, and 24th-ranked West Virginia.
"We needed to find out a lot of things about ourselves and coming to this tournament helped us a lot," Borrelli said. "I think we competed hard. We feel like we have the makings of a good team, we just have to fix some things and that's why we came here.
"We got to wrestle some really good competition, got to see some really good teams. I think we did better than a lot of people would have expected us to."
CMU's Justin Oliver (149) placed third, while Corey Keener (133), CJ Brucki (174) and Jordan Ellingwood (184) each placed fifth. CMU and Ohio State were the only teams to have as many as five wrestlers place in the top five in their respective weight classes.
Heffernan, who is ranked 10th by InterMat and was seeded fourth in the tournament, opened on Saturday with a 6-3 semifinal win over Josh Shields of Arizona State. He then lost to unranked Jake Short of Minnesota, 3-2, in the championship match.
Short, who was seeded sixth, scored a first-period takedown and never relinquished the lead.
"We felt like we were pursuing in the third period and we got in on a leg a couple of times and just didn't finish," Borrelli said. "Heffernan, obviously he's disappointed. Making the finals, I don't think that's a black eye. He had a good tournament."
The loss the first of the season for Heffernan, a junior who is 14-1.
"I think Colin is building confidence all the time," Borrelli said. "He's wrestling really well, but I know he feels like he can do better."
Oliver, a sophomore and the lone returning All-American in CMU's lineup, was seeded third and entered the tournament ranked seventh nationally.
He dropped his semifinal match on Saturday, 9-4, to Ohio State's Micah Jordan, who is ranked sixth and was seeded No. 2. Jordan went on to win the weight class.
Oliver bounced back to beat Joey Delgado of Oregon State, 8-2, and then Cole Mendenhall of Wyoming, 6-0, in the third-place match.
Oliver is 12-2 with both losses coming to Jordan. Jordan defeated Oliver, 15-7, at the Eastern Michigan Open earlier this season.
Ellingwood, who is ranked 11th and was seeded fourth, was pinned in 2:55 in his semifinal match by top-ranked and top-seeded Gabe Dean of Cornell, the two-time defending national champion. Dean went on to win the tournament.
Ellingwood, who is 13-2 this season, rebounded to beat 15th-ranked Steven Schneider of Binghamton, 3-2; and then topped Hunter Ritter of Wisconsin, 4-1, in the fifth-place match.
Keener, a senior who was unseeded, opened on Saturday with wins over Cory Stainbrook of West Virginia, 11-4; and Eli Stickley of Wisconsin, 10-6. He then lost to 18th-ranked Mark Grey of Cornell, 6-2, and came back to pin Anthony Tutolo of Kent State in 4:12 in the fifth-place match.
Brucki won his first three matches on Saturday, the first over Jacob Davis of Eastern Michigan; the second a 13-2 major decision over Jake Morrissey of Purdue; and the third a 6-4 win over Kimball Bastian of Utah Valley.
Brucki then dropped a 10-3 decision to 10th-ranked LeLund Weatherspoon of Iowa State. Brucki won by medical default over 13th-ranked Jim Wilson of Stanford in the fifth-place match.
"Brucki was unseeded in this tournament and both of the matches that he lost were to a returning All-American," Borrelli said.
Three other CMU wrestlers who remained alive on Saturday failed to make it to the medal round.
Austin Severn (197) and Newton Smerchek (HWT) won their respective opening bouts in the morning before falling in the next round. Freshman Mason Smith (141) dropped his opening match of the day, 1-0, to Jack Mutchnik of American.
Severn defeated Christian Brunner of Purdue, 3-1, then lost to Tanner Orndoff of Utah Valley, 8-2. Smerchek beat Trevor Smith of Army West Point, 3-0, then lost to Quean Smith of Iowa State, 5-2.
Players Mentioned
