Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
NCAA Championships
Seven Chippewas Remain Alive At NCAA Championships
3/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
ST. LOUIS - There will be no individual national champion for the Central Michigan wrestling team.
But there are still plenty of chances for All-America honors and, coming in to the NCAA Championships, that was the ultimate goal.
Seven CMU wrestlers remain alive at the Championships after day one at Scottrade Center. A good number considering CMU qualified nine for the tournament.
"This tournament's up and down, up down," said Tom Borrelli, who is in his 26th year as CMU's coach. "I'm happy we still have seven guys going, we have the potential to score points.
"I know we have a tough road ahead of us. We've dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. We don't have anybody on the (championship) side right now so we've got a lot of wrestling to do to try to produce All-Americans and score points for the team. Got a lot of work ahead of us."
Just two CMU wrestlers, Brent Fleetwood (125 pounds) and Austin Severn (197) are out of the tournament.
All seven Chippewas who remain alive went 1-1 on Thursday. The next loss eliminates a wrestler from the tournament as each attempts to make his way through the wrestlebacks. Each will need to win three matches on Friday to guarantee a spot on the podium and earn All-America honors.
"You still have to wrestle your style, impose your will on the other guy and try to score as many points as you can," Borrelli said. "You get to a certain point in the match where it's not about scoring points, but it's about getting your hand raised."
Four Chippewas -- Justin Oliver (149 pounds), Colin Heffernan (157), CJ Brucki (174) and Jordan Ellingwood (184) - dropped their Thursday-evening matches after winning their respective openers.
Ellingwood, who was seeded 16th, fell 11-3 to top-seeded Gabe Dean of Cornell, the two-time defending national champion.
Brucki, who was also seeded 16th, lost 12-3 to Arizona State's Zahid Valencia, the No. 1 seed who is 35-0 on the season.
Heffernan, seeded 10th, fell 9-5 to seventh-seeded Dylan Palacio of Cornell.
"We feel like we're capable of wrestling with anybody in the country, but on paper we're the 16th seed, they're the 1 seed," Borrelli said. "Or we're the 10th seed, they're the seventh seed. On paper we're probably a little outclassed there, but we don't feel that way."
Oliver, who was seeded ninth and is the Chippewas' lone returning All-American, dropped a 5-4 decision to South Dakota's Alex Kocer, who came into the tournament unseeded, and upset the eighth seed, Patricio Lugo, of Edinboro in his opening bout.
Kocer's winning point against Oliver came on a riding-time advantage. Oliver appeared to reverse Kocer as time wound down. The Chippewas challenged, and after video review, the final decision stood and Kocer was headed to the quarterfinals, Oliver to the wrestlebacks.
"The only match that we're frustrated with a little bit is our 149-pound match," Borrelli said. "That's why we challenged. We thought (Oliver) had a reversal, but we didn't get the call. We're right there, we just didn't get the call."
In Friday's wrestlebacks, Oliver will meet Matthew Cimato of Drexel; Brucki will wrestle Jonathan Schleifer of Princeton; Ellingwood will take on Jason Grimes of American; and Heffernan will face Jake Short of Minnesota.
After losing their opening matches on Thursday afternoon, CMU's Corey Keener (133), Mason Smith (141), Austin Severn (197) and Newton Smerchek (HWT) came back to win their evening matches to remain alive.
• After dropping his opener to sixth-seeded Dom Forys of Pittsburgh, Keener bounced back to pin DJ Fehlman of Lock Haven in 4:37. Keener will wrestle Josh Alber of Northern Iowa on Friday morning.
• Smith, who opened with an 8-3 loss to fifth-seeded Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers, scored a 9-0 major-decision consolation victory over Salvator Profaci of Michigan and will wrestle Lehigh's Randy Cruz, the 11th seed, on Friday morning.
• Smerchek lost his opener to Garrett Ryan of Columbia, 3-1 in sudden-victory, then pinned Buffalo's Jake Gunning in 1:43. He will wrestle Ryan Solomon of Pittsburgh on Friday.
• Fleetwood opened the tournament on Thursday with a 19-6 major-decision loss to top-ranked Thomas Gilman of Iowa, and then was eliminated on a 2-0 decision by Jake Gromacki of Clarion.
• Severn, who was seeded 16th, was upset by Navy's Steban Cervantes, 6-4 in sudden-victory, in his opening bout. He then was pinned by Jeric Kasunic of American at 5:14. Severn's loss to Cervantes came in sudden-victory.
The Chippewas are in ninth place in the team standings with 14.5 points. Penn State (30.5) leads, while Ohio State (26) is second, followed by Oklahoma State (25.5), Iowa (24.5) and Missouri (20).
Players Mentioned
