Stencel 3rd, Parks 7th At Midlands

Saturday, December 29

Hoffman Estates, Ill.

10 a.m./Noon

Central Michigan University

Ken Kraft Midlands Championships

Photo by: Allissa Rusco

12/30/2018 11:18:00 PM | Wrestling

Brackets

Chippewas finish 11th in rugged field

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Matt Stencel finished third at 285 pounds and Logan Parks placed seventh at 157 on Sunday to lead the Central Michigan wrestlers at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships at the Sears Centre Arena.

Stencel, a sophomore who was seeded sixth, defeated seventh-seeded AJ Nevills of Fresno State, 10-5, in the third-place match. Stencel, who went 6-1 in the tournament and is 15-4 on the season, is ranked 16^th by The Open Mat, while Nevills is ranked 18^th.

Parks, a junior who was seeded 13^th, won the seventh-place match by medical forfeit over John Vanbrill of Rutgers. Parks went 7-2 in the two-day tournament.

Stencel received the award for most pins in the least amount of combined time by any wrestler in the tournament. He recorded four pins – three of them on Sunday to reach the third-place match – in a combined 6 minutes, 16 seconds.

Stencel opened on Sunday with a pin in 1:12 of Iowa's Aaron Costello. He followed with a 43-second pin of 10^th-seeded Tony Cassioppi of Iowa, and then pinned fifth-seeded Mason Parris of Michigan in 30 seconds.

Stencel avenged a loss with his win over Parris. Parris pinned Stencel in 14 seconds earlier this season at the Michigan State Open. Stencel's lone loss at the Midlands came on Saturday on an injury forfeit to Arizona State's Tanner Hall, who went on to place first.

"He had a chance to redeem himself," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said of Stencel. "You always want to win your last match and finish as high as possible. That's a good day."

Stencel placed fourth last season at the Midlands. His performance in all four of his matches on Sunday was indicative of the way the sophomore from Oregon, Ohio has performed. Twelve of his victories this season have come on pins and only two of his matches, both of them victories, have gone the distance.

"He's starting to get his conditioning where it needs to be," Borrelli said. "He's starting to be able to wrestle for seven minutes hard where he can wrestle in the third period how he wrestle in the first period. He's getting better at that."

Parks defeated ninth-seeded Quincy Monday of Princeton, 3-1, SV-1, in his first match on Sunday and then was pinned by fourth-seeded Mike D'Angelo of Princeton in 1:52. That result landed him in the seventh-place match.

Parks finished the tournament 7-2. Two of his victories came over wrestlers who were seeded above him.

"He's breaking through," Borrelli said. "That's the first major tournament that he's placed in since he's been in college, and he's very capable of even doing better than seventh.

"The two matches that he lost he was being aggressive and was in on attacks and got caught. That's going to happen now and then, but at least he's trying to score points and that's what you want."

The only other Chippewa to wrestle on Sunday, Drew Hildebrandt (125), dropped a 2-0 decision to Kyle Biscolglia of Northern Iowa. Hildebrandt finished the tournament 3-2.

The Chippewas finished 11^th in the team standings with 56.5 points. Iowa, which is ranked fourth, placed first with 184. Northern Iowa (119.5), host Northwestern (110), Wisconsin (97.5) and Princeton (92.5) rounded out the top five.

Certainly, the Chippewas would have hoped to have finished higher in the team standings – they always do, Borrelli routinely says. Still, the overall performance by a very young Chippewa team – the lineup includes just two upperclassmen – is encouraging.

"We're becoming more competitive," said Borrelli, whose team entertains Old Dominion in a Mid-American Conference dual on Friday, Jan. 4 (7 p.m.) at McGuirk Arena. "We're still a work in progress. If you look at our losses, I don't think we were outclassed in very many matches. Maybe in a few, but for the most part we were competitive."