Central Michigan University
Northern Iowa
Chippewas Drop Dual on Tie-breaker
1/15/2017 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
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Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - About as close as close gets.
Northern Iowa scored 47 match points to Central Michigan's 43 Sunday in taking a 17-16 win from the Chippewas in a Mid-American Conference dual at McGuirk Arena.
The meet was decided on the fourth tie-breaker, most match points, after the score was tied, 16-16, after 10 matches. The loss left CMU, which is ranked 13th, 2-1 overall, 1-1 MAC. Northen Iowa, which is ranked 22nd, is 5-2, 3-0.
"From a team standpoint, sure we'd like to win the conference in the regular season, we feel like we're still in the hunt," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "That's only our second conference dual meet. To me it's about getting ready for the MAC tournament and the national tournament."
The teams split the 10 matches. The Chippewas got a 12-4 major decision victory from Colin Heffernan at 157 pounds to open the dual. Their other wins, all by decision, came from Austin Severn (197), Brent Fleetwood (125), Mason Smith (141), and Justin Oliver (149).
CMU trailed, 16-10, when Smith took a 6-4 sudden-victory win to draw CMU to 16-13. Smith, a redshirt freshman, scored a takedown with 14 seconds left in the first OT period to secure the win.
"I think that was huge for Mason," Borrelli said. "He really needed that. He's been struggling confidence-wise and things like that. The kid he wrestled is a senior, he's been around and has done well in our league. That was real important for Mason. That's going to help him a lot."
That left it up to the sixth-ranked Oliver, a returning All-American, who was pitted against eighth-ranked Max Thomsen.
Oliver won, 3-1, but he would have needed a major - and the four team points it would have provided - to give CMU the team win.
"I was just trying to get the major, ideally, to clinch it without any criteria (tie-breaker)," said Oliver, a sophomore who is 19-3 on the season. "But I couldn't quite get it.
"He's a tough competitor. He took third at the Southern Scuffle and I took third there last year. I knew he was going to be a tough kid to wrestle. I've been watching film, trying to get myself prepared for what he does and that helped out a good bit. Hopefully next time around it'll be more dominant than this time."
While it would certainly have been nice to have won the dual, Borrelli said in the big picture, he's relatively pleased with where his team is, and where it appears to be headed.
"I thought our guys competed hard and I'm proud of them," he said. "One match goes one way or the other we win the dual meet. That's the kind of match we need at this time of year. You want the outcome to be different for the team, but I think we learned a lot of things that will help us.
"If we improve on those things maybe we can turn some of those matches around at the conference tournament."
The Chippewas go to Michigan State on Friday, Jan. 20, for a nonconference dual, and then to ninth-ranked Missouri for a MAC dual on Sunday, Jan. 22.
"If we can continue to improve and wrestle better every weekend, I'm not worried about where our team's going to be," Borrelli said. "We've got four tough weekends in a row here. We've got four weekends in a row where we've got Friday-Sunday matches. We've just got to really use those opportunities to get better."
Northern Iowa 17, Central Michigan 16
125: Brent Fleetwood (CMU) dec. Jay Schwarm, 3-1
133: Josh Alber (UNI) dec. Corey Keener, 6-2
141: Mason Smith (CMU) dec. Jake Hodges, 6-4, SV-1
149: Justin Oliver (CMU) dec. Max Thomsen, 3-1
157: Colin Heffernan (CMU) major dec. Dan Kelly, 12-4
165: Bryce Steiert (UNI) major dec. Logan Parks, 14-6
174: Taylor Lujan (UNI) dec. CJ Brucki, 6-3
184: Drew Foster (UNI) dec. Jordan Ellingwood, 3-1
197: Austin Severn (CMU) dec. Jacob Holschlag, 4-3
HWT: JJ Everard (UNI) dec. Newton Smerchek, 5-2
Players Mentioned
