Chippewas Wrestlers 3rd At Black Knight Invitational

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Drew Hildebrandt won the 125-pound weight class on Sunday to lead the Central Michigan wrestling team to a third-place finish at the eight-team Black Knight Invitational.

CMU finished with 107.5 points. Host Army was first with 140, followed by No. 1-ranked Penn State, 127.5. Michigan was fourth with 98.5. The Wolverines are ranked 19^th and Army is ranked 24^th.

CMU goes to Michigan on Sunday, Nov. 24, for its dual-meet opener.

"Army has a very good team, a real solid dual-meet team," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "Penn State, they didn't have some of their firepower at the tournament. Michigan had the team (at the tournament) that we're going to wrestle on Sunday. We'll see how that goes."

Twelve Chippewas placed, including heavyweight Matt Stencel, who was second. He lost, 4-0, to Michigan's Mason Parris in the title match. It marked the fifth time the two have met, and Parris has won three of those meetings, including the last two. Parris is ranked sixth nationally, while Stencel is seventh.

"It's a good rivalry, it's good for both of those guys," Borrelli said. "It's really good for Matt because he has to make some adjustments and improve. Parris is ahead of him right now and he's got to figure out how to catch him."

Hildebrandt, a junior who is ranked 11^th, went 3-0 on the day, defeating Trey Chalifoux of Army, 7-5, in the championship match. Hildebrandt opened with an 8-0 win over Penn State's Brandon Meredith and followed with a 6-0 victory over Brody Teske of Penn State.

"I thought he wrestled well," Borrelli said of Hildebrandt, who also placed first last week at the Appalachian State Mountaineer Invitational and has won six-consecutive matches. "He got a little tired in his last match and lost some energy, but other than that he wrestled good.

"He was in control in that final match and he got in a little bit of a scramble and got hurt, but he figured out how to win so that was good."

CMU junior Dresden Simon (141) placed second, falling to third-ranked Nick Lee of Penn State, 11-5, in the final. Simon pinned Army's Corey Shie in 5:15 in his semifinal match after opening with a 10-4 victory over Hunter Baxter of Maryland.

Shie is ranked 24^th, while Simon is unranked.

"Dresden wrestled well," Borrelli said. "He had a really good guy, Nick Lee, a two-time All-American, in the final and he wrestled a tough match. He beat a good kid from Army in the semis. I feel like had the best tournament of any of our guys other than Hildebrandt."

Also for the Chippewas, Drew Marten (141), Corbyn Munson (149), Logan Parks (157) and Landon Pelham (197) each placed fourth, while Tracy Hubbard (165), Aaron Bolo (197), Brock Bergelin (133), and Drake Pauwels (heavyweight) each finished fifth. CMU's Ben Cushman (184) finished sixth.

Stencel went 3-1 on the day, opening with a 4-0 win over Gregory Hagan of Indiana. He then defeated Parker Robinson of Maryland, 2-0, and topped Ben Sullivan of Army, 2-1, in the semifinals.

• Marten went 2-2, opening with an 8-2 victory over Logan Brown of Army before losing on an 18-0 technical pin to Penn State's Lee. He bounced back with 7-4 win over Baxter of Maryland before falling, 8-5, to Army's Shie in the third-place match.

• Munson went 3-2, falling to PJ Ogunsanya of Army, 4-1, in the third-place match. He opened with a 9-6 loss to Ogunsanya and then won three consecutive matches to reach the consolation final. He defeated Nick Lombard of Michigan, 8-1; topped CMU teammate Luke Raczkowski, 6-3; and then downed Reece Heller of Hofstra, 9-6.

• Parks finished 2-2, falling to Jahi Jones of Maryland, 3-2, in the consolation final. Parks opened with a 4-1 win over Jones, lost 13-3 to Luke Weiland of Army, and posted a 7-3 win over Bo Pipher of Penn State.

• Pelham opened with an 18-1 technical-fall victory over Niko Capello of Maryland and then lost on an 18-2 technical fall to Alexander Hopkins of Army. Pelham rebounded with a 10-4 win over Austin Hoopes of Penn State before falling, 5-2, to Jackson Striggow of Michigan in the third-place match.

• Bergelin went 4-2, defeating Josh Mason of Bloomsburg, 2-0, in the fifth-place match. Bergelin opened with a 4-2 win over Mason, then dropped a 10-3 decision to King Sandoval of Maryland. He bounced back with back-to-back technical fall victories, the first 15-0 over Jonathan Moran of Indiana, and the second 17-1 over Cole Wyman of Army. Bergelin then dropped a 7-1 decision to Gregg Wret of Army.

• Hubbard won his fifth-place match with a pin in 4:22 of Will Lucie of Army, after dropping a 7-1 decision to Lucie in his opening bout of the day. In between his matches with Lucie, Hubbard defeated Dillon Hoey of Indiana, 7-4, and posted a 15-5 major-decision victory over Konner Kraeszig of Penn State.

• Bolo defeated Austin Hoopes of Penn State, 3-2, in his fifth-place match. Bolo opened with a 5-3 win over Kyle Conel of Penn State before falling, 4-3, to J.T. Brown of Army and then dropping a 2-1 decision to Michigan's Striggow.

• Pauwels finished 3-2 on the day, overcoming a 3-2 loss to Jeremiah Imonode of Army to place fifth. After that opening-match loss, Pauwels came back with a 3-1 win over Robinson of Maryland, downed Bloomsburg's Jarrett Walters, 4-0, and then lost, 5-1, to Bobby Heald of Army. Pauwels then scored a 3-1 win over Zachary Knighton-Ward of Hofstra in the fifth-place match.

• Cushman opened with a 7-5 loss to Kyle Jasenski of Maryland, and then bounced back with a 9-7 win over Robert Striggow of Michigan before dropping a 19-7 major-decision to Jelani Embree of Michigan. Cushman fell, 11-4, to Creighton Edsell of Penn State in the fifth-place match.

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Players Mentioned

Brock Bergelin

Aaron Bolo

Ben Cushman

Drew Hildebrandt

Tracy Hubbard

Drew Marten

Corbyn Munson

Logan Parks

Drake Pauwels

Landon Pelham

Luke Raczkowski

Dresden Simon

Matt Stencel