Veterans Lead Maroon To Victory In Intrasquad

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It went pretty much according to Hoyle on Monday as the Central Michigan wrestling team made its season debut in its annual Maroon & Gold intrasquad dual at McGuirk Arena.

"I felt like the matches went kind of the way I thought they would," said coach Tom Borrelli, who is in his 28^th year in charge of the Chippewa program.

The Maroon won six of the 10 matches in defeating the Gold, 23-13. There were four major decisions, three of them won by Maroon.

Chippewa veterans Logan Parks (157 pounds), Jordan Atienza (184) and Matt Stencel (285) each won by major decision for Maroon. Kam Bush (149), one of several freshmen/redshirt freshmen who took the mat on Monday, posted the Gold's lone major.

"It's more about the effort," Borrelli said in discussing the approach for his less-experienced wrestlers. "Some of our more veteran guys like Logan Parks, like Jordan Atienza, like Matt Stencel, they got bonus points in their matches.

"Some of our younger guys were kind of holding on to win. I felt like there were some opportunities to break the match open and get bonus points and the person held on and won like 5-1 or 5-0 instead of going after another takedown to get an 8-point win. That's just confidence in yourself and just understanding those situations and what the team needs and how to keep building on your lead. Sometimes when you're young you just try to win the match."

The Chippewas, who graduated several front-liners and saw two mainstays (Justin Oliver and Mason Smith) transfer out of the program in the offseason, feature a very young lineup in 2018-19. They are scheduled to wrestle on Saturday at the Michigan State Open and then entertain Michigan in their first dual on Sunday, Nov. 11.

The Wolverines finished fourth in the NCAA Championships last spring.

"Our first dual meet is really a quality opponent," Borrelli said. "We'll know a lot after that and the Michigan State tournament. We'll know what we need to work on. We just want to keep improving and keep a good attitude."

The most-competitive matches of the night came at 133 and at 165. Sophomore Deven Perez, wrestling for Maroon, defeated redshirt freshman Brock Bergelin, 4-3, at 133; at 165, redshirt freshman Bret Fedewa, also wrestling for Maroon, defeated sophomore Blake Montrie, 2-1, getting the winning point on riding time.

"Those guys will probably go back and forth a few more times before we decide in March who's going to be our guy," Borrelli said. "It's a long season."

CMU was without sophomore Dresden Simon, the starter at 133 a year ago. Simon underwent shoulder surgery two months ago, Borrelli said, but is expected to compete at the Michigan State Open.

Maroon 23, Gold 13
125: Drew Hildebrandt (M) tech. fall Zach Shupp, 16-1
133: Deven Perez (M) dec. Brock Bergelin, 4-3
141: Drew Marten (G) dec. Corbyn Munson, 6-2
149: Kam Bush (G) major dec. Luke Raczkowski, 11-2
157: Logan Parks (M) major dec. Tracy Hubbard, 16-2
165: Bret Fedewa (M) dec. Blake Montrie, 2-1
174: Collin Lieber (G) dec. Sage Castillo, 5-0
184: Jordan Atienza (M) major dec. Ben Cushman, 10-2
197: Landon Pelham (G) dec. Jacob Gray, 7-4
285: Matt Stencel (M) major dec. Nick Jenkins, 8-0

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Players Mentioned

Jordan Atienza

Brock Bergelin

Kam Bush

Sage Castillo

Ben Cushman

Bret Fedewa

Jacob Gray

Drew Hildebrandt

Tracy Hubbard

Nick Jenkins

Collin Lieber

Drew Marten

Blake Montrie

Corbyn Munson

Logan Parks

Landon Pelham

Deven Perez

Luke Raczkowski

Zach Shupp

Dresden Simon

Matt Stencel