Heffernan, Oliver Reach Semifinals at Midlands

Thursday, December 29

Evanston, Ill.

10:00 AM

Central Michigan University

Midlands Championships

12/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

EVANSTON, Ill. - Central Michigan's Justin Oliver and Colin Heffernan each went 4-0 on Thursday to advance to the semifinals in their respective weight classes at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships at Northwestern University.

Oliver, who is seeded second at 149 pounds, will take on sixth-seeded Joe Delgado of Oregon in a semifinal on Friday. The winner will face top-seeded Brandon Sorenson of Iowa or the fifth seed, Sam Speno, of North Carolina State in the title match.

Heffernan, seeded fifth at 157, will wrestle top-seed Tyler Berger of Nebraska in a semifinal match. No. 3-seed Jason Tsirtsis of Arizona State and No. 2 Michael Kemerer of Iowa square off in the other semifinal.

The Chippewas, who are ranked 14th, are in 10th place in the 42-team tournament with 47.5 points. No. 3-ranked Iowa is first with 85.5, followed by No. 7 Nebraska, 78.5. No. 11 Rutgers, 64.5, No. 19 Arizona State, 62.5, and No. 12 Illinois, 58.5, round out the top five.

Heffernan is 18-1 on the season and ranked 12th by InterMat; Oliver is 16-2 and ranked sixth.

Oliver opened the tournament with back-to-back technical falls, the first 18-2 over Brock Morgan of Columbia, the second 25-10 over Alex Hamsberger of Sacred Heart. He then topped 15th-seeded Beau Donahue of North Carolina State, 8-2, and pinned seventh-seeded Kenny Theobald of Rutgers in 6:00 in his quarterfinal match.

Heffernan opened with a 2-1 win over Abraham Rodriguez of Oregon State. He then scored a 14-4 major decision win over Ben Sullivan of Northwestern, and downed Kyle Langenderfer of Illinois, 12-7. In the quarterfinals, Heffernan downed 13th-seeded John Van Brill of Rutgers, 4-3.

Three other Chippewas - Brent Fleetwood (125), CJ Brucki (174) and Austin Severn (197) - are alive in their respective consolation brackets.

• Fleetwood went 2-1 on Thursday, falling the quarterfinals to No. 2 seed Tim Lambert of Nebraska, 6-4, on the tiebreaker-1 criteria. He opened with a 3-2 win over Brock Hudkins of Northern Illinois, then recorded an 8-0 major decision victory over 10th-seeded Kyle Akins of Buffalo. Fleetwood, who is seeded seventh at 125 pounds, was scheduled to take on Johnny Jimenez of Wisconsin on Friday. The winner is guaranteed a top-eight finish.

• Brucki, who was seeded sixth, was pinned in his opening bout at 3:38 by Indiana's Devin Skatzka. Brucki rebounded to take a 4-1 win over Jake Resifori of SIU Edwardsville and then defeated 12th-seeded Ben Swarr of Messiah, 6-5, and topped Dylan Urbach of North Dakota State on a 13-4 major decision. Brucki is scheduled to wrestle Josef Johnson of Harvard, the 10th seed, on Friday. The winner is guaranteed a top-eight finish.

• Severn, the 12th seed, opened with a 10-1 major decision over Devin King of Ohio, then lost to fifth-seeded Kevin Beazley of Old Dominion, 9-4. Severn rebounded to defeat Jake Tindle of SIU Edwardsville, 8-2, and top 13th-seeded Blake Rypel of Indiana, 6-2. He is scheduled to wrestle sixth-seeded Shawn Scott of Northern Illinois on Friday.

The nine other Chippewas who entered the tournament were eliminated on Thursday.

• At 133, CMU's Corey Keener, the eighth seed, finished 1-2. He opened with a 24-7 technical fall over Gerard Daley of Sacred Heart, and was then pinned at 6:39 by Bryan Lantry of Buffalo. Keener was eliminated by John Muldoon of Southern Illinois Edwardsville on a 7-6 decision.

• At 184, CMU's Jordan Ellingwood, who was seeded eighth, finished 3-2. He won his opening match on a 16-0 technical fall over Blake Reid of Purdue, and then defeated Mike Fagg-Daves of Rider, 4-1. Ellingwood lost on a pin at 5:37 to ninth-seeded Emory Parker of Illinois, and rebounded for a 6-1 win over Andrew Dixon of Oklahoma. Eillingwood bowed to Chris Weiler of Lehigh, 11-5.

• At 174, CMU's Jordan Atienza finished 2-2. He was pinned in his opening bout by Arsen Arshughyan of Ohio in 2:59, then came back with a 16-1 technical fall over Braxton Cody of Northwestern, and a 6-1 win over Idris White of Maryland. He bowed to Indiana's Devin Skatzka, 7-4.

• At heavyweight, CMU's Newton Smerchek dropped his opening bout, 3-2, to 13th-seeded Jordan Wood of Lehigh. Smerchek came back to score a 10-1 major decision over Jonathan Jones of Indiana, and then took a 3-1 sudden victory-1 over Jake Gunning of Buffalo. Smerchek fell to Garrett Ryan of Columbia, 7-1, to finish 2-2.

• The Chippewas Drew Hildebrandt (125), Dresden Simon (141), Mason Smith (141), Logan Parks (165) and Hunter Rollins (165) each lost two matches on Thursday and were eliminated from the tournament.

Hildebrandt lost, 4-2, to 12th-seeded Kyle Larson of Iowa State, and 4-1 to Joshua Krammer of Arizona State.

Simon opened with a pin in 48 seconds of Patrick Quinlan of Franklin & Marshall, then lost 9-3 to Chad Red of Nebraska before being eliminated by his teammate, Smith, 16-14. Smith opened with a 3-0 loss to 11th-seeded Jack Mutchnik of American and was eliminated by Robert Lee of Pittsburgh, 5-0.

Parks opened with a 10-3 loss to Johnny Sebastian of Northwestern, the sixth seed, and was eliminated by Larry Cannon of Messiah, 4-2. Rollins lost on a 16-1 technical fall to fourth-seeded Anthony Valencia of Arizona State and was eliminated by Mike Speke of Chicago, 4-3.