Lovett Wins Title, Chippewas Finish 6th at Midlands

Monday, December 30

Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Noon ET

Central Michigan University

Midlands Championships

CMU's Johnny Lovett has his arm raised in victory after defeating George Mason's DJ McGee in the 157-pound championship match on Monday at the Midlands Championships.

Photo by: Sam Janicki

12/30/2024 8:39:00 PM | Wrestling

Photo Gallery

By: Andy Sneddon

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – A long way to go until the Mid-American Conference Championships and the NCAA Championships.

Johnny Lovett sent an early message.

Lovett, a Central Michigan graduate student, won the 157-pound weight class on Monday to lead the Chippewas to a sixth-place finish in the 25-team Midlands Championships at NOW Arena.

Lovett completed his 4-0 run through the tournament with a 3-2 victory over DJ McGee of George Mason in the title match. The victory came in the tie-breaker with Lovett winning on riding time – a slim margin and a dramatic finish, and a huge boost for Lovett, who lost twice last season to McGee.

"Johnny just wrestled smart matches all the way through," CMU coach Ben Bennett said. "That final (match), he never panicked, just kept wrestling, and stuck to his gameplan and really did a good job keeping his composure and that really made the difference for him."

Lovett became the first Chippewa since Mason Smith (141) in 2017 to capture a title at the Midlands, one of the most prestigious regular season tournaments in any given season.

Six Chippewas placed as CMU finished with 93.5 points to tie Pittsburgh for fifth place. Stanford, which is ranked 15^th nationally, won the tournament with 157 points.

CMU returns to action on Jan. 10-11 at the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Duals at Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

"Some of these guys, hopefully it gives them some confidence that they can wrestle against some pretty good competition," Bennett said.

CMU's Alex Cramer (174) and Tyler Swiderski (165) both placed fourth, Sean Spidle (133) was fifth, Mason Shrader (149) was seventh and Adrien Cramer (184) placed eighth.

Swiderski finished 6-2 in the tournament, coming back to place fourth after dropping his second bout of the event. It was an outstanding result for the redshirt junior who has not wrestled since suffering an injury in the season-opening Michigan State Open.

"I was really happy with Tyler," Bennett said. "He lost a couple of tough matches, but I think overall he wrestled a really good tournament especially given the fact that he hasn't really wrestled all year.

"He did a good job of keeping himself in shape and keeping himself ready to go and he didn't miss a beat. It was a good tournament for him. He needed that and he should feel good about himself."

Cramer, who was seeded third, fell in the third-place match to Myles Takats of Bucknell on a 16-2 major decision. Cramer defeated Takats, 6-4, earlier ins the tournament and his loss to Takats came after he rallied from a 10-3 deficit for a 14-13 win in the consolation semifinals.

Spidle went 5-2 in the tournament. Two of his wins came over wrestlers he had lost to earlier this season

"Spidle had a heck of a tournament too," Bennett said.

Match-by-match results for CMU wrestlers who wrestled on Monday, the second day of the two-day Midlands Championships:

133 Sean Spidle, 8-7
W      Massey Odiotti   Northwestern    MD   12-0
W      Angelo Rini         Indiana      Dec. 1-0
L       Ryan Miller         Penn Dec. 4-0
W      Marcel Lopez      SIU Edwardsville Dec. 3-0
W      Massey Odiotti   Northwestern    MD   14-4
L       Ben Davino         Ohio State Fall    0:50
W      Colton Camacho Edinboro   Dec. 10-5

149 Mason Shrader, 11-6
W      Kelvin Griffin      Lehigh       Dec. 7-0
W      Jaden Pepe         Harvard     Dec. 9-2
L       Cross Wasilewski         Penn Dec. 4-1 SV
W      Tommy Curran   Northern Illinois MD   9-0
L       Finn Solomon     Pitt    Dec. 7-4
W      Wyatt Krejsa       Purdue      Dec. 12-5

157 Johnny Lovett, 11-3
W      Cade Wirnsberger       Bucknell    MD   11-3
W      JT Chance George Mason   MD   17-5
W      Dylan Evans        Pitt    Dec. 5-2
W      DJ McGee George Mason   Dec. 3-2 TB-2

165 Tyler Swiderski, 5-4
W      Andy Troczynski Penn Dec. 9-5
L       Drayden Morton Cal Baptist Dec. 2-1 TB-1
W      Caden Ernd        Illinois        MD   11-3
W      Jared Keslar        Pitt    Fall    5:00
W      Andrew Barbosa Rutgers      Dec. 10-4
W      Cael Berg   Harvard     TF     19-3
W      Evan Maag George Mason   MFF
L       Hunter Garvin    Stanford    MD   9-1

174 Mason Alessio, 10-6
W      Tommy Bennett Northern Illinois Dec. 10-8
L       Collin Guffey      Stanford    Dec. 7-3
W      Riley Hackworth George Mason   TF     17-2
W      Alex Whitworth Harvard     MD   16-2
L       Myles Takats      Bucknell    MD   11-0

174 Alex Cramer, 10-3
W      Jake Evans Northern Illinois TF     19-3
W      Connor Owens   Michigan   Dec. 5-2
W      Myles Takats      Bucknell    Dec. 6-4
L       Lorenzo Norman         Stanford    Dec. 3-1
W      Jackson Turley    Rutgers      Dec. 14-13
L       Myles Takats      Bucknell    MD   16-2

184 Adrien Cramer, 9-8
W      Matthew Walsh Harvard     Dec. 4-3
L       Nathan Haas      Cal Baptist Dec. 10-3
W      Lucas Daly Michigan State   MD   10-2
W      Chase Kranitz     Pitt    Dec. 4-3
W      Sam Goin   Indiana      Dec. 4-3
L       Maximus Hale    Penn MD   12-3
L       Donnell Washington   Indiana      Dec. 7-1

197 Luke Cochran, 8-6
W      Josh LaBarbera   Penn MD   18-6
L       Mac Stout Pitt    Dec. 15-8
L       Brook Byers        Stanford    Dec. 8-7

285 Bryan Caves, 9-6
W      Bryson Buhk       SIU Edwardsville MD   8-0
W      Cole Jackson       Cal Poly     Fall    2:31
L       Logan Shephard Bucknell    Dec. 9-3
L       Max Vanadia      Michigan State   Dec. 10-3