Munson, Austin Earn Titles at Lehigh Sheridan Tournament

Friday, December 22

Bethlehem, Pa.

10 a.m.

Central Michigan University

Sheridan Invitational

CMU redshirt freshman Andrew Austin won the 133-pound title on Friday at the Lehigh Sheridan Tournament.

Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography

12/22/2023 8:01:00 PM | Wrestling

Eight Chippewas place in non-team scoring event

By: Andy Sneddon

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Andrew Austin and Corbyn Munson earned titles as eight Central Michigan wrestlers placed in the top six in their respective weight classes on Friday at the Sheridan Tournament, hosted by Lehigh.

No team scores were kept. It was the Chippewas' final competition before Christmas. They return to the mat at the prestigious Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern just outside Chicago, on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 29-30.

"We were pretty competitive," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "We'll find out a little bit more when we wrestle at the Midlands. I saw some good things. We need to have more champions if we're going to have the kind of team we want to have at the end of the year in the MAC Tournament and moving forward from there.

"We had five guys in the finals; we should have put a few more guys in the finals and had a few more champions. That's the only negative."

Munson, who is ranked 15^th nationally at 149 pounds, went 4-0 on the day with two pins and a major decision to improve to 9-2 on the season. He posted an 8-1 win over Lehigh's Drew Munch in the title bout.

The graduate student has scored bonus points in six of his nine victories, with five of those wins coming on pins.

Munson opened with a pin at 4:38 of Aidan Torres of Indiana and then pinned Kimo Leia of Lehigh at 6:02. Munson then posted a 10-2 major-decision victory over Kelvin Griffin of Lehigh in the semifinals.

"He had a really good day," Borrelli said of Munson, who, Borrelli said, was looking at a potential rematch with 14^th-ranked Graham Rooks of Indiana, who defeated Munson, 2-1, when the Chippewas and Hoosiers met in a dual meet two weeks ago.

"We were hoping to get that match back but (Rooks) got beat and he ended up taking fourth," Borrelli said. "Corbyn had a really good tournament and his weight class was pretty strong too."

Austin, a redshirt freshman, went 2-0, closing with an 11-3 major decision over teammate Vince Perez in the 133-pound championship match. Austin, who is 5-5, received a first-round bye and then defeated Hunter Adrian of Brown, 4-2, in the semifinals.

It was an encouraging day for Austin, whose freshman season ended after just two matches because of injury.

"He didn't get a season last year," Borrelli said. "This year he's essentially a freshman. He's trying to figure things out. It's been a rough road back for him, just getting his body to where he needed to get it. So a day like today should really, really help him."

Perez, a redshirt senior and the Chippewas' starter at 133, defeated Austin, 6-5, in the maroon-gold intrasquad in November.

"Vince probably gets the best of him in the room," Borrelli said. "I didn't expect that outcome from what I've seen in the room, but (Austin) wrestled a really sharp match. You can tell that he's getting the rust off a little bit.

"We expected a lot of Andrew, we thought he was going to be an integral part of the program and then he got hurt. It's been a long road back, but I think he's knocking the rust off a little bit and learning how to compete again. He has a lot of promise and we felt like that when we recruited him."

Also for the Chippewas, Perez, Cody Brenner (184) and Johnny Lovett (157) each placed second, while Tyler Swiderski (165), Mason Shrader (157) and Alex Cramer (174) each placed third.

• Brenner, a redshirt sophomore, finished 3-1 on the day, falling to No. 20 Jacob Nolan of Binghamton, 5-1, in the championship bout. Brenner opened with a 14-2 major decision victory over Brown's Nick Olivieri, and then defeated Lehigh's Caden Rogers, 1-0. Brenner defeated Nick South of Indiana, 3-2, in the semifinals, winning on riding time after two tie-breaker periods.

• Lovett, who is ranked 23^rd, dropped an 8-5 decision to No. 26 Max Brignola of Lehigh in the championship and finished the day 3-1. Lovett opened with a 14-5 major decision over Carter Baer of Binghamton and then downed Blake Saito of Brown, 4-2. Lovett topped Nico Bolivar of Indiana, 6-3, in the semifinals.

• Perez opened with a 6-0 win over Aidan O'Shea of Franklin & Marshall and then downed Devon Britton of Rutgers, 9-3, in the semifinals.

• Cramer, who is ranked 17^th, went 3-1, defeating Michael Wilson of Rider on a first-period pin in the third-place match. Cramer opened with a pin of Thayne Lawrence of Lehigh and then posted an 8-7 win over Army's Benjamin Pasiuk to reach the semifinals, where he lost on a 20-4 technical fall to Dimitri Gamkreilidze of Binghamton.

• Swiderski opened with an 11-7 loss to Tyler Lillard of Indiana. He advanced through the consolation bracket with a 9-2 win over Dominic Frontino of Brown, a 10-5 victory over Keegan Rothrock of Brown, and then defeated Dakota Morris of Army on an 11-3 major decision in the third-place match.

• Shrader opened with back-to-back pins, the first over Avery Clarke of Franklin & Marshall and the second over Lehigh's Patrick Edmondson. He then dropped a 15-4 major to Lehigh's Brignola and then rebounded to top Luca Frinzi of Lehigh, 6-2. He defeated Indiana's Nico Bolivar on an 11-2 major decision in the third-place match to complete a 4-1 day.