Three CMU Wrestlers Seeded For NCAA Championships
3/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Three Central Michigan wrestlers were among the 16 in each weight class who were seeded Wednesday for the NCAA Championships.
Justin Oliver was seeded ninth at 149 pounds, Mike Ottinger was seeded 10th at 174, and Luke Smith was seeded 11th at 157 for the tournament, which is March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Four other Chippewas - Brent Fleetwood (125), Corey Keener (133), Zach Horan (141) and Jordan Ellingwood (184) - are unseeded.
"To me seeding doesn't matter unless you're I the top four," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "You're going to have beat some people that (those who seed) think you're not supposed to beat.
"We're going to have to wrestle really, really well and beat people we're not expected to beat, and that's the name of the game."
Thirty-three wrestlers comprise each of the 10 weight-class brackets. The top eight earn All-America honors.
"Everybody on our team is going to have to wrestle a great tournament to be an All-American," Borrelli said.
Oliver, who is 28-5, will open against Clayton Ream (21-16) of North Dakota State; Ottinger (29-6) will face Te'Shan Campbell (18-10) of Pittsburgh; and Smith (30-8) will wrestle Bryce Steiert (20-9) of Northern Iowa or Spartak Chino of Ohio in his opening bout.
Fleetwood (19-11) opens with Thomas Gilman (24-1) of Iowa, the fourth seed; Keener (18-10) will wrestle Penn State's Jordan Conaway (26-5), the fifth seed; Horan (25-11) will take the mat against second-seeded Joey McKenna (22-2) of Stanford; and Ellingwood (28-12) will wrestle 15th-seeded Nicholas Gravina (21-9) of Rutgers in his first match.
Players Mentioned
