Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
MAC Championships
CMU's Ellingwood Wins MAC Title At 184
3/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Just call him The Avenger.
Central Michigan sophomore Jordan Ellingwood got a takedown and a two-point near fall in the third period Sunday to claim a 7-3 victory over Jack Dechow of Old Dominion and win the 184-pound title at the MAC Championships.
The Chippewas finished second behind Missouri in the team standings. The Tigers, who are ranked sixth nationally, won their fourth consecutive title, finishing with 127.5 points.
The 19th-ranked Chippewas had 93.5, while Ohio (76), Kent State (75.5) and Northern Iowa (73.5) rounded out the top five. Kent State is ranked 15th, Ohio is 20th.
Seven Chippewas qualified for the NCAA Championships, March 17-19, at Madison Square Garden in New York.
"I'm really happy with that," said CMU coach Tom Borrelli, who led the Chippewas to a fifth-place finish (74 ½ points) in last year's MAC Championships. "Last year we took three qualifiers. Last year we had two (MAC) finalists, this year we had four finalists.
"We made a lot of progress from last year to this year. That's what athletics are about. The other things athletics are about is they're supposed to build you up. We get caught up in wins and losses all the time, where you finish and all that. When it's said and done this is supposed to make you a better person and build you up.
"Anything that happens to you you have to take the right way and it has to make you better. Otherwise why are we doing this?"
Ellingwood, who was seeded fourth, had lost to the second-seeded Dechow two weeks ago, 4-3, in the final dual meet of the season. On Saturday, Ellingwood defeated Missouri's Willie Miklus, 3-1, in a semifinal match.
Miklus, who was seeded No. 1 in the tournament, had pinned Ellingwood earlier this season.
"I knew their styles and they knew mine," Ellingwood said of his matches with Miklus and Dechow. "I had more confidence in what I was going to do.
"I feel like you just need to go out confident and know your moves are going to work and just wrestle your style. If you wrestle their style they're going to beat you every time. I just wrestled my style and it paid off for me.
"I had the coaches on me every day in practice: `Takedowns, takedowns, takedowns.' If I don't get takedowns I don't win."
Ellingwood went on top early against Dechow with a takedown about 20 seconds into the match. He clinched it with the third-period takedown followed by the two-point near fall.
"I felt in control and I felt confident," Ellingwood said. "Later in the third period he kind of went to my game, tying up with me and all match I had been seeing if I could bait him into a cross-knee pick with an underhook and he ended up stepping right into it right where I wanted and I took him right down to his back. He gave me what I wanted."
Ellingwood finished third in the MAC Chammpionships at 174 last year. He also qualified for the NCAA Championships a year ago.
It took some time to adjust after bumping up to 184 this season.
"It was a little bit of an adjustment for him to go from 174 to 84," Borrelli said. "He kind of had to build his body up a little bit and it was hard for him to do that because he was putting on weight but he probably wasn't putting it on the right way. And it took him all year really to figure it out, but he did. He got stronger in the weight room. It really paid off for him."
"Real happy for Ellingwood. Jordan made tremendous strides the whole second semester."
Ellingwood was one of four Chippewas to wrestle in title matches on Sunday. CMU's Corey Keener (133), Justin Oliver (149) and Mike Ottinger (174) lost in the championship matches of their respective weight classes.
Ottinger fell, 4-3, to Blaise Butler of Missouri in one of the more hotly contested matches of the entire two-day tournament.
The match was tied, 3-3, after two overtime periods. Butler was awarded the victory based on a mere 9-second riding-time advantage. Ottiner, a senior, was seeded No. 1; Butler was the No. 2 seed.
Oliver, a freshman who was seeded No. 2, dropped a 7-3 decision in the 149 championship to Kent State's Mike DePalma.
Keener, who was seeded fourth, was taken down 18 seconds into overtime in a 3-1 loss in the 133-pound title bout with Northern Illinois' Austin Eicher, who was seeded seventh.
"Mike Ottinger's match was an unbelievable match," Borrelli said. "He competed his butt off.
"Corey Keener wrestled a good match. He took the shot in overtime, and he got counter-attacked. That happens. All year long I've been preaching be aggressive, get to the guy's legs, and as long as we're trying to do that, I'm happy.
"Same thing with Oliver. He got counter-attacked two or three times in his match, but I felt like he was the one trying to get to DePalma's legs. As long as I see that going on we're making progress."
CMU's Brent Fleetwood (125) finished third, Zach Horan (141) and Luke Smith (157) were both fourth, Newton Smerchek (HWT) was fifth, and Colin Heffernan (165) was sixth.
Fleetwood, Keener, Horan, Oliver, Smith, Ottinger and Ellingwood all advanced to the NCAA Championships.
Fleetwood defeated Brandon Jeske of Old Dominion, 4-0, in the consolation final. Fleetwood dropped his first match of the tournament, then won three straight to claim third place.
Fleetwood suffered a broken bone in his foot during a dual meet at Northern Iowa five weeks ago, and had wrestled just once since.
"Brent showed a lot of courage through this whole injury thing," Borrelli said. "He wrestled all the way back to third place, qualified for nationals. He was hurting, and he gutted it out."
Fleetwood said he was satisfied with his third-place finish, particularly in light of his injury and the fact that he lost his opening match at the Championships.
"I wanted to be in the finals, but at the end of the day with everything I've gone through, I'm pretty happy," he said, adding that it can be difficult coming back after a loss to win three straight matches and claim third. "I think it's harder because you don't have that same glory in the back of your mind of being able to win.
"You can either see it as, What does it matter? Or as, This tournament isn't over, I'm going to finish as high as I can."
Smith lost a 7-5 SV-1 decision in the 157 third-place match to Andrew Morse of Northern Illinois. Horan, the defending champion at 141, fell to Northern Illinois' Steve Bleise, 13-4, in the third-place match.
Smerchek took a 6-0 win over Cody Johnston of Missouri in the fifth-place match at heavyweight, while Heffernan lost in the 165 fifth-place match to Kent State's Tyler Buckwalter, 12-7.
Players Mentioned
