Chippewas Drop Dual At Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A 6-4 split in Michigan's favor plus Wolverine bonus points were enough to do in the Central Michigan wrestling team on Sunday in its first dual meet of the season.

The 19^th-ranked Wolverines got a pin and a major decision among their six wins in downing the Chippewas, 22-12, at Cliff Keen Arena. Michigan improved to 1-1; CMU is 0-1 and off through Thanksgiving before opening Mid-American Conference competition with a pair of road duals.

The Chippewas won three of the first four matches on Sunday to seize a 9-3 lead. Michigan won five of the final six bouts, including a pin at 174 pounds and a major decision at 184.

"When you're wrestling a quality opponent, the guy's going to make you wrestle all seven minutes," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "He's going to keep coming. That's how you learn. Hopefully we learn from these things.

"We're not ready yet to finish what we started. We're real close; we just have to be able to wrestle seven minutes. These matches are really good for us because they point out the things that we really need to work on."

CMU Wins
The Chippewas got decision victories from Drew Hildebrandt (125), Brock Bergelin (133), Corbyn Munson (149) and Landon Pelham (197).

Bergelin and Munson are redshirt freshmen.

"For two freshmen to do that is pretty important," Borrelli said. "I think sometimes people don't understand that your nerves and your anxiety make you more tired than anything else. You have to teach yourself how to handle that, how to handle your pace no matter what's going on, how to handle the excitement."

Turning Point
Munson's 4-3 victory put the Chippewas ahead, 9-3. But close losses in the next two weight classes – the second of which came when Layne Van Anrooy (165) capped a wild third period with an escape from Tracy Hubbard as time ran out to post an 8-7 victory – tied the meet 9-9.

Michigan then got a pin at 174 to take a 15-9, and then made it 19-9 with a major-decision victory at 184.

The match at 184 was the only match of the meet that was not hotly contested.

"The whole dual meet could have gone one way or the other," Borrelli said. "Unfortunately we didn't quite have the composure to pull it out, but we're right there. You've got to take some positives from that. I know our guys will be disappointed, but it's not going to get any easier for them. We've got to learn how to wrestle those seven-minute matches if they want to beat the people they need to beat.

"If we use this the right way it'll definitely help us."

Showdown
The premier bout of the night came at 285, where Michigan's Mason Parris defeated Matt Stencel, 4-1, in an exciting match that lived up to the billing.

Stencel is ranked seventh nationally by flowrestling.org, while Parris is ranked sixth. The two have met three times this season, and Parris has won all three. Stencel is 2-4 all-time against Parris, a sophomore.

Next
The Chippewas go to MAC newcomers Lock Haven and then Rider on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8, respectively.

Michigan 22, Central Michigan 12
125 pounds: Drew Hildebrandt (C) dec. Jack Medley, 3-2
133: Brock Bergelin (C) dec. Austin Assad, 12-5
141: Cole Mattin (M) dec. Dresden Simon, 11-8.
149: Corbyn Munson (C) dec. Ben Lamantia, 4-3
157: Will Lewan (M) dec. Logan Parks, 6-3
165: Layne Van Anrooy (M) dec. Tracy Hubbard, 8-7
174: Max Maylor (M) pinned Jake Lowell, 4:55
184: Jelani Embree (M) major dec. Ben Cushman, 17-6
197: Landon Pelham (C) dec. Joseph Correll, 12-9
HWT: Mason Parris (M) dec. Matt Stencel, 4-1

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brock Bergelin

Ben Cushman

Drew Hildebrandt

Tracy Hubbard

Jake Lowell

Corbyn Munson

Logan Parks

Landon Pelham

Dresden Simon

Matt Stencel