Early Season MAC Showdown Next For Chippewa Wrestlers

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A biggie, early in the season, for the Central Michigan wrestling team.

The 21^st-ranked Chippewas (1-0) are scheduled to go to Missouri on Friday for a double-dual with the host Tigers and Wyoming.

CMU will wrestle Missouri in a Mid-American Conference dual set to begin at 4 p.m. (ET) and then will take on the Cowboys in a nonleaguer immediately following.

Missouri has been the Mid-American Conference bully since it joined the league for the 2012-13 season. The Tigers have won eight-consecutive conference championships and last year finished 21 points ahead of the second-place Chippewas at the MAC Championships.

Nine of the 10 Chippewas who wrestled in the 2020 league tournament are back this season, led by All-Americans Drew Hildebrandt (125 pounds), Dresden Simon (141) and Matt Stencel (285). Those three, along with Drew Marten (133), are ranked nationally. Marten and Landon Pelham (197) combine with the three All-Americans to give CMU five returning national qualifiers.

Missouri, which is ranked 10^th, features eight ranked wrestlers on its roster. The Tigers are 3-0, opening last weekend with dominant victories over South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Oregon State.

"We know they're the team to beat in our league, so we know we're going to need a really good performance and we think we're capable of it," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "That's why you do this; you do this to compete against the best people and that's what we want."

The Chippewas are ranked No. 1 in the MAC by flowrestling.org. Missouri is No. 2. Individually, Hildebrandt, Marten, Simon and Stencel are ranked first in their respective weight classes in the league. Only one Missouri wrestler, two-time All-American Brock Mauller (149), is ranked first in the MAC.

Scouting Missouri
Mauller (third) is the highest-ranked Tiger nationally, but he is far from the only one. Missouri's Connor Brown (125) is 24^th; Matt Schmitt (133) and Allan Hart (141) are both 14^th; Jarrett Jacques (157) is 13^th; Peyton Mocco (165) is 19^th; Jeremiah Kent (184) is 23^rd; and Zach Elam (285) is eighth.

Brown, Schmitt, Hart, Jacques, Mocco, Wyatt Koelling (197), Elam and Mauller have earned All-America honors either last season or at some point in their respective careers. Brown, a junior, is a transfer from Wisconsin who was an All-American as a freshman at South Dakota State in 2017-18. Schmitt is a graduate transfer from West Virginia.

Scouting Wyoming
The Cowboys opened the season last weekend with a 24-19 loss to 25^th-ranked Northern Colorado. Wyoming is among others receiving votes in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll.

Four Cowboys are ranked: Jacob Wright, 19^th at 157; Hayden Hastings, 15^th at 174; Tate Samuelson, 19^th at 184; Stephen Buchanan, 18^th at 197; and Brian Andrews, ninth at 285. Hastings, Samuelson and Andrews qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of the past two seasons, while Wright and Buchanan each qualified in 2020.

Next
The Chippewas return home to entertain Northern Illinois in a MAC dual on Sunday, Jan. 17 (2 p.m.).

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Players Mentioned

Drew Hildebrandt

Drew Marten

Landon Pelham

Dresden Simon

Matt Stencel

Central Michigan University Athletics