Sunday, February 12
Buffalo, NY
2 p.m.
Central Michigan University
27
at
6
Buffalo
Vince Perez posted a third-period pin in the 133-pound match on Sunday in helping to spark CMU to a dual meet victory at Buffalo.
Photo by: Sam Janicki
MAC West Champions!
2/12/2023 5:27:00 PM | Wrestling
Chippewa wrestlers down Buffalo to repeat as division champions
BUFFALO, N.Y. – It's not about how you start, but how you finish.
And, as usual, the finish looks pretty good for CMU wrestling under veteran coach Tom Borrelli.
The Chippewas got an early pin from Vince Perez and won eight matches on Sunday in downing Buffalo, 27-6, in a Mid-American Conference dual meet at the Bulls' Alumni Arena.
The Chippewas finished 5-1 in MAC duals, claiming their second consecutive MAC West championship. They are 6-8 overall after an 0-5 start that included a 25-12 loss to Clarion in their Jan. 8 league opener. Buffalo is 7-12, 3-3.
"The good thing is they've continued to get better," Borrelli said of his wrestlers. "I've seen in it in practice. You're going to wrestle in competition the way you practice. Our guys are really getting after it in practice; they're really pushing each other. I think they feed off each other a lot, especially in dual meets.
"I don't know how good we are, but we've continued to get better. We'll figure out at the MAC tournament how good we really are. I think the MAC tournament's going to be really, really close. Every team's pretty even in our league; there's no dominant team."
The Chippewas were plenty dominant on Sunday. They scored the first point and got the first takedown in all eight of their victories and scored a riding-time point in five of their victories.
The Chippewas recorded 14 takedowns to the Bulls' three. Buffalo did not post a takedown until the 184-pound match and by then, CMU had won the first seven matches in building an insurmountable 24-0 lead.
"Especially when you're on the road, you can't let anybody build momentum," Borrelli said. "You go out there and get on the guy right away and take him down and he can't get away from you. That also gets him tired, takes some of the air out of the balloon."
Junior Sean Spidle opened the day with a 5-2 win at 125 pounds and then Vince Perez followed with a third-period pin at 133.
Perez escaped to open the third period for the first point of the match. He then scored a takedown out of a scramble and quickly got the pin.
That, as a pin typically does, helped ignite the Chippewas.
"That kind of got us going," Borrelli said.
The Chippewas then got victories from Jimmy Nugent (141), Johnny Lovett (149), Corbyn Munson (157), Tracy Hubbard (165) and Alex Cramer (174).
After losses at 184 and 197, Bryan Caves (285) closed it out for CMU with a win.
The closest of those matches came at 165 where Hubbard broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown with under 20 seconds remaining.
Other than the pin by Perez and Hubbard's dramatic victory, CMU's wins came with the same blueprint: An early lead followed by solid and smart wrestling.
"We won a lot of the really close matches and a lot of the really close situations," Borrelli said. "All of those matches through the middle, especially Munson's and Hubbard's, were important to us for a MAC (Championships) seeding.
"And that's the way the MAC tournament's going to go; all the matches usually are real close, one- or two-point matches, and you've got to figure out how to win them.
"We kind of talked to our guys about that before this week. We knew that Buffalo was going to wrestle us tough and try to keep things close and try to steal matches from us. And we kind of did that to them."
The Chippewas have two duals, both nonleaguers, remaining: Friday, Feb. 17 at home against 24th-ranked Michigan State and at No. 9 Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 19. The Chippewas will celebrate Senior Night against the Spartans.
Michigan State and Michigan will surely give CMU a good gauge of where it stands heading into the March 3-4 MAC Championships in Fairfax, Va.
"I'm real happy for (our wrestlers)," Borrelli said. "They've worked pretty hard all year. The thing we've got to remember is last year we went undefeated in the MAC and we finished second in the conference tournament.
"That left a pretty bad taste in our mouth. So hopefully winning this division this year, we cap it off the right way in a couple weeks."
Central Michigan 27, Buffalo 6
125: Sean Spidle (C) dec. Mason Bush, 5-2
133: Vince Perez (C) pinned Tommy Maddox, 6:03
141: Jimmy Nugent (C) dec. Jack Marlow, 7-5
149: Johnny Lovett (C) dec. Kaleb Burgess, 8-3
157: Corbyn Munson (C) dec. Michael Petite, 7-5
165: Tracy Hubbard (C) dec. Marcus Petite, 3-2
174: Alex Cramer (C) dec. Jay Nivison, 7-3
184: Guiseppe Hoose (B) dec. Ben Cushman, 5-2
197: Sam Mitchell (B) dec. Cameron Wood, 4-1
285: Bryan Caves (C) dec. Eli Sheeren, 6-3
And, as usual, the finish looks pretty good for CMU wrestling under veteran coach Tom Borrelli.
The Chippewas got an early pin from Vince Perez and won eight matches on Sunday in downing Buffalo, 27-6, in a Mid-American Conference dual meet at the Bulls' Alumni Arena.
The Chippewas finished 5-1 in MAC duals, claiming their second consecutive MAC West championship. They are 6-8 overall after an 0-5 start that included a 25-12 loss to Clarion in their Jan. 8 league opener. Buffalo is 7-12, 3-3.
"The good thing is they've continued to get better," Borrelli said of his wrestlers. "I've seen in it in practice. You're going to wrestle in competition the way you practice. Our guys are really getting after it in practice; they're really pushing each other. I think they feed off each other a lot, especially in dual meets.
"I don't know how good we are, but we've continued to get better. We'll figure out at the MAC tournament how good we really are. I think the MAC tournament's going to be really, really close. Every team's pretty even in our league; there's no dominant team."
The Chippewas were plenty dominant on Sunday. They scored the first point and got the first takedown in all eight of their victories and scored a riding-time point in five of their victories.
The Chippewas recorded 14 takedowns to the Bulls' three. Buffalo did not post a takedown until the 184-pound match and by then, CMU had won the first seven matches in building an insurmountable 24-0 lead.
"Especially when you're on the road, you can't let anybody build momentum," Borrelli said. "You go out there and get on the guy right away and take him down and he can't get away from you. That also gets him tired, takes some of the air out of the balloon."
Junior Sean Spidle opened the day with a 5-2 win at 125 pounds and then Vince Perez followed with a third-period pin at 133.
Perez escaped to open the third period for the first point of the match. He then scored a takedown out of a scramble and quickly got the pin.
That, as a pin typically does, helped ignite the Chippewas.
"That kind of got us going," Borrelli said.
The Chippewas then got victories from Jimmy Nugent (141), Johnny Lovett (149), Corbyn Munson (157), Tracy Hubbard (165) and Alex Cramer (174).
After losses at 184 and 197, Bryan Caves (285) closed it out for CMU with a win.
The closest of those matches came at 165 where Hubbard broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown with under 20 seconds remaining.
Other than the pin by Perez and Hubbard's dramatic victory, CMU's wins came with the same blueprint: An early lead followed by solid and smart wrestling.
"We won a lot of the really close matches and a lot of the really close situations," Borrelli said. "All of those matches through the middle, especially Munson's and Hubbard's, were important to us for a MAC (Championships) seeding.
"And that's the way the MAC tournament's going to go; all the matches usually are real close, one- or two-point matches, and you've got to figure out how to win them.
"We kind of talked to our guys about that before this week. We knew that Buffalo was going to wrestle us tough and try to keep things close and try to steal matches from us. And we kind of did that to them."
The Chippewas have two duals, both nonleaguers, remaining: Friday, Feb. 17 at home against 24th-ranked Michigan State and at No. 9 Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 19. The Chippewas will celebrate Senior Night against the Spartans.
Michigan State and Michigan will surely give CMU a good gauge of where it stands heading into the March 3-4 MAC Championships in Fairfax, Va.
"I'm real happy for (our wrestlers)," Borrelli said. "They've worked pretty hard all year. The thing we've got to remember is last year we went undefeated in the MAC and we finished second in the conference tournament.
"That left a pretty bad taste in our mouth. So hopefully winning this division this year, we cap it off the right way in a couple weeks."
Central Michigan 27, Buffalo 6
125: Sean Spidle (C) dec. Mason Bush, 5-2
133: Vince Perez (C) pinned Tommy Maddox, 6:03
141: Jimmy Nugent (C) dec. Jack Marlow, 7-5
149: Johnny Lovett (C) dec. Kaleb Burgess, 8-3
157: Corbyn Munson (C) dec. Michael Petite, 7-5
165: Tracy Hubbard (C) dec. Marcus Petite, 3-2
174: Alex Cramer (C) dec. Jay Nivison, 7-3
184: Guiseppe Hoose (B) dec. Ben Cushman, 5-2
197: Sam Mitchell (B) dec. Cameron Wood, 4-1
285: Bryan Caves (C) dec. Eli Sheeren, 6-3
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