Central Michigan University Athletics
Saturday, March 7
Buffalo, N.Y.
11:30 a.m.
Central Michigan University
at
MAC Championships
CMU junior Andrew Austin has his arm raised after one of his four victories at the MAC Championships at Alumni Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.
Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography
CMU's Andrew Austin Finishes 4th at MAC Championships, Earns NCAA Berth
3/7/2026 8:52:00 PM | Wrestling
Six Chippewas finish at the podium at MAC Championships
BUFFALO – Central Michigan's Andrew Austin finished fourth at 133 pounds on Saturday at the Mid-American Conference Wrestling Championships at Buffalo's Alumni Arena, punching his ticket to the NCAA Championships.
The trip to the NCAA is the first for the redshirt junior from Punta Gorda, Fla. He entered the MAC tournament as the No. 8 seed and finished 4-2 over the two-day event, knocking off the No. 5 and No. 2 seeds along the way.
"Seeds don't matter to me," Austin said. "I don't like to look at it. I just go in there and focus on what I can do."
Austin is the only Chippewa to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Two other CMU wrestlers, seniors Mason Shrader (157) and Bryan Caves (285), could receive an at-large bid. They will be notified next week if they receive a bid.
Austin, Shrader and Caves along with teammates Archer Anderson (125), Jimmy Nugent (149) and Chandler Amaker (165) finished on the podium.
Amaker placed fourth; Anderson, Caves and Shrader each finished fifth; and Nugent was sixth.
The Chippewas finished sixth in the 12-team field with 65.5 points, one point behind fifth-place Northern Illinois. Rider (102) won the team title, edging runner-up Lock Haven (100).
The Chippewas finished in an uncustomary position. One of the MAC's blue bloods, CMU is almost always among the tournament favorites and typically stands among the frontrunners when it's all said and done.
Not so this season.
"It's a hard tournament," second-year CMU coach Ben Bennett said. "There are a lot of quality guys here, a lot of tough guys here.
"I think some guys are leaving the tournament probably feeling like, hey, I've got to step it up. I've got to pick up the pace.
"It's a little bit of a mix and I think it's always like that in competitions, whether it's a dual meet or a tournament. The most important thing is those guys use this tournament the right way. For some of those guys, the season is over and hopefully they want to have better results next year. I think we have guys who want to be successful. They've got to go back, look at this tournament, figure out how to keep improving and moving forward.
"They all worked hard, they all busted their butts all year and I know a lot of them are hurting right now. I know a lot of them are disappointed in themselves; we've just got to pick them back up and we've got to keep moving in the right direction. That's the important thing to do right now."
Austin's two losses in the tournament came to the No. 1 seed and eventual champion Markel Baker of Northern Illinois, and to the No. 4 seed, Gable Strickland of Lock Haven.
Austin's 4-1 loss to Baker came on Friday in his second bout of the tournament. In the consolation bracket, Austin posted an 18-3 technical fall win over Ohio's Ryan Meek; an 8-4 win over Clarion's Joey Fisher, the No. 5 seed; and a 4-2 victory over No. 2 seed Marcel Lopez of SIUE.
That put Austin in the third-place match against Strickland, who handed Austin a 4-1 loss in overtime.
"I think it's just about believing in myself," said Austin, who will take a 20-13 record into the NCAA Championships at Rocket Arena in Cleveland in two weeks. "I mean, I have the best support system that you can have between my teammates here, my coaches here, my people back home in Florida.
"It's like second to none. They keep that belief in me. Even when I lose, they keep it in me. I told myself, 'I can be the best guy here if I want to be and I just push myself, believe in myself.' I couldn't have done it without (teammates). Like, my teammates are everything to me.
"March is my favorite month of the year. I love March. I feel like I compete the best in March and I can't wait to keep it going in two weeks."
Said Bennett: "Andrew really turned it on. He wrestled his butt off and I knew he had that in him all year and it just started to come out at the end of the year. I knew he was capable of wrestling with all of those guys and I knew he was capable of beating some of those guys if he wrestled his match, wrestles the way he is capable of wrestling and this weekend, he did that.
"Some calls went his way, some didn't go his way, but he put himself in great positions and he wrestled well. I'm proud of him."
• Anderson, a freshman who was seeded fourth, closed an 11-10 season with a first-period pin of seventh-seeded Drew Davis of SIUE in the fifth-place match.
Anderson fell into the consolation bracket on Friday with an 18-2 technical fall loss to top-seeded Tyler Klinsky of Rider, who went on to claim the title at 125 and earn the Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament Award.
Anderson then dropped a 12-9 decision to No. 2 Blake West of Northern Illinois, a result that put him in the fifth-place match.
"We've got a freshman at 125 and I think he's leaving the tournament thinking, 'I can compete; I can do this; I feel really good about things,'" Bennett said.
• Amaker, who finished second in the MAC Championships a year ago and qualified for the NCAA tournament, finished 3-2. He was seeded fourth and fell into the consolation bracket with an 11-1 major-decision loss to Kent State's Chris Earnest, the fifth seed and eventual champion.
Amaker came back to post a 2-1 overtime win over Kelin Laffey of Buffalo, a 16-6 major over No. 8 Brandon Abdon of Rider, and a gritty 3-2 overtime win over No. 7 Alejandro Herrera-Rondon of Clarion to reach the third-place match, where he fell on a pin to No. 1 seed Brock Woodcock of SIUE.
• Shrader, who was ranked in the top 25 by several polls throughout the season, finished 3-2 in the tournament. He entered as the top seed at 157, but was upset by eighth-seeded Garret McChesney of Edinboro, 7-5, in his opening bout.
McChesney went on to finish runner-up in the weight class.
Shrader rebounded with back-to-back wins before falling on a pin to George Mason's DJ McGee, the No. 3 seed. Shrader topped Lock Haven's Nick Stampoulos, the No. 5 seed, in the fifth-place match, 5-0.
Shrader then challenged Kaleb Burgess of Buffalo in a true-fourth match – a victory there would have given Shrader an NCAA berth – but he lost to Burgess, 5-4.
• The sixth-seeded Nugent fell in the fifth-place match at 149 to Buffalo's Sam Ewing, 4-2. On Friday, Nugent won his first two matches and then fell, 2-0, to No. 2 Lucas Kapusta of Lock Haven to fall into the consolation bracket.
Nugent then dropped a 10-4 decision to No. 5 Ryan Michaels of Edinboro to reach the fifth-place match.
• Seeded No. 2 at 285, Caves dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 7 John Meyers of Clarion in his opening bout. In the consolation bracket, Caves posted back-to-back major-decision wins, the first over Ohio's Wyatt Schmitt, 14-1; and the second, 8-0, over Brentan Simmerman of Kent State.
From there, Caves fell, 7-2, to No. 5 Mason Rebuck of Bloomsburg before winning the fifth-place match on a 10-0 major decision over No. 8 Kade Sottolano of Lock Haven.
Match-by-March results for Central Michigan wrestlers at the MAC Championships:
125-Archer Anderson (3-2)
No. 4 Archer Anderson dec. Brayden Teunissen, Ohio, 10-8
Anderson dec. No. 5 Ben Monn, George Mason, 7-0
Semifinals: No. 1 Tyler Klinsky, Rider, tech. fall Anderson, 18-2
Consolation semifinal: No. 2 Blake West, Northern Illinois, dec. Anderson, 12-9.
Fifth-place match: Anderson fall No. 7 Drew Davis, SIUE, 59 seconds
133-Andrew Austin (4-2)
No. 8 Andrew Austin dec. Austin Pollard, Bloomsburg, 12-8
Vs. No. 1 Markel Baker, Northern Illinois, dec. Austin, 4-1
Consolation: Austin tech. fall Ryan Meek, Ohio, 18-3
Consolation quarterfinal: Austin def. No. 5 Joey Fischer, Clarion, 8-4
Consolation semifinal: Austin dec. No. 2 Marcel Lopez, SIUE, 4-2
Third-place match: No. 4 Gable Strickland, Lock Haven, dec. Austin, 4-1, SV
141-Nick Blackburn (1-2)
No. 8 Nick Blackburn bye
Vs. No. 1 Elijah Griffin, Rider, major dec. Blackburn, 14-4
Consolation: Blackburn tech. fall Richie Woods, Bloomsburg, 18-3
Consolation quarterfinal: No. 4 Tate Hisey, George Mason, dec. Blackburn, 8-5, SV
Blackburn eliminated
149-Jimmy Nugent (2-3)
No. 6 Jimmy Nugent dec. Paul Woo, Ohio, 6-2
Nugent def. No. 3 Kaden Cassidy, George Mason, MFF
Semifinals: No. 2 Lucas Kapusta, Lock Haven, dec. Nugent, 2-0
Consolation Semifinal: No. 5 Ryan Michaels, Edinboro, dec. Nugent, 10-4
Fifth-place match: No. 7 Sam Ewing, Buffalo, dec. Nugent, 4-2
157-Mason Shrader (3-2)
No. 1 Mason Shrader bye
Vs. No. 8 Garret McChesney, Edinboro, dec. Shrader, 7-5
Consolation: Shrader tech. fall Landen Johnson, Northern Illinois, 17-2, 7:00
Consolation quarterfinal: Shrader dec. Reese Stephen, Kent State, 4-0
Consolation semifinal: No. 3 DJ McGee, George Mason, fall Shrader, 2:03
Fifth-place match: Shrader dec. No. 5 Nick Stampoulos, Lock Haven, 5-0
165-Chandler Amaker (3-2)
No. 4 Chandler Amaker dec. Jack Lledo, Ohio, 4-1
No. 5 Chris Earnest, Kent State, major dec. Amaker, 11-1
Consolation: Amaker dec. Kelin Laffey, Buffalo, 2-1, TB2
Consolation quarterfinal: Amaker major dec. No. 8 Brendon Abdon, Rider, 16-6
Consolation semifinal: Amaker dec. No. 7 Alejandro Herrera-Rondon, Clarion, 3-2, TB2
Third-place match: No. 1 Brock Woodcock, SIUE, fall Amaker, :50
174-Cody Brenner (0-2)
No. 1 Avery Bassett, Lock Haven, tech. fall Cody Brenner, 18-3, 5:29
Consolation: Tate Geiser, Edinboro, major dec. Brenner, 17-8
Brenner eliminated
184-Wyatt Ferguson (2-1)
No. 7 Wyatt Ferguson dec. Braidon Woodward, Bloomsburg, 4-1
Vs. No. 2 Jared McGill, Edinboro, major dec. Ferguson, 14-5
Consolation: Brenner def. Ronald Dimmerling, Kent State, disqualification
Consolation quarterfinal: Ian Smith, Northern Illinois, dec. Wyatt Ferguson, 7-6
Ferguson eliminated
197-Luke Cochran (1-2)
No. 5 Luke Cochran major dec. Spencer Mooberry, Northern Illinois, 11-2
No. 4 Blake Schaffer, Kent State, dec. Cochran, 4-1, SV
Consolation: Brody Evans, Edinboro, dec. Cochran, 11-4
Cochran eliminated
285-Bryan Caves (3-2)
No. 2 Bryan Caves bye
No. 7 John Meyers, Clarion, dec. Caves, 4-1
Consolation: Caves major dec. Wyatt Schmitt, Ohio, 14-1
Consolation quarterfinal: Caves major dec. Brentan Simmerman, Kent State, 8-0
Consolation semifinal: No. 5 Mason Rebuck, Bloomsburg, dec. Caves, 7-2
Fifth-place match: Caves major dec. No. 8 Kade Sottolano, Lock Haven,10-0
The trip to the NCAA is the first for the redshirt junior from Punta Gorda, Fla. He entered the MAC tournament as the No. 8 seed and finished 4-2 over the two-day event, knocking off the No. 5 and No. 2 seeds along the way.
"Seeds don't matter to me," Austin said. "I don't like to look at it. I just go in there and focus on what I can do."
Austin is the only Chippewa to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Two other CMU wrestlers, seniors Mason Shrader (157) and Bryan Caves (285), could receive an at-large bid. They will be notified next week if they receive a bid.
Austin, Shrader and Caves along with teammates Archer Anderson (125), Jimmy Nugent (149) and Chandler Amaker (165) finished on the podium.
Amaker placed fourth; Anderson, Caves and Shrader each finished fifth; and Nugent was sixth.
The Chippewas finished sixth in the 12-team field with 65.5 points, one point behind fifth-place Northern Illinois. Rider (102) won the team title, edging runner-up Lock Haven (100).
The Chippewas finished in an uncustomary position. One of the MAC's blue bloods, CMU is almost always among the tournament favorites and typically stands among the frontrunners when it's all said and done.
Not so this season.
"It's a hard tournament," second-year CMU coach Ben Bennett said. "There are a lot of quality guys here, a lot of tough guys here.
"I think some guys are leaving the tournament probably feeling like, hey, I've got to step it up. I've got to pick up the pace.
"It's a little bit of a mix and I think it's always like that in competitions, whether it's a dual meet or a tournament. The most important thing is those guys use this tournament the right way. For some of those guys, the season is over and hopefully they want to have better results next year. I think we have guys who want to be successful. They've got to go back, look at this tournament, figure out how to keep improving and moving forward.
"They all worked hard, they all busted their butts all year and I know a lot of them are hurting right now. I know a lot of them are disappointed in themselves; we've just got to pick them back up and we've got to keep moving in the right direction. That's the important thing to do right now."
Austin's two losses in the tournament came to the No. 1 seed and eventual champion Markel Baker of Northern Illinois, and to the No. 4 seed, Gable Strickland of Lock Haven.
Austin's 4-1 loss to Baker came on Friday in his second bout of the tournament. In the consolation bracket, Austin posted an 18-3 technical fall win over Ohio's Ryan Meek; an 8-4 win over Clarion's Joey Fisher, the No. 5 seed; and a 4-2 victory over No. 2 seed Marcel Lopez of SIUE.
That put Austin in the third-place match against Strickland, who handed Austin a 4-1 loss in overtime.
"I think it's just about believing in myself," said Austin, who will take a 20-13 record into the NCAA Championships at Rocket Arena in Cleveland in two weeks. "I mean, I have the best support system that you can have between my teammates here, my coaches here, my people back home in Florida.
"It's like second to none. They keep that belief in me. Even when I lose, they keep it in me. I told myself, 'I can be the best guy here if I want to be and I just push myself, believe in myself.' I couldn't have done it without (teammates). Like, my teammates are everything to me.
"March is my favorite month of the year. I love March. I feel like I compete the best in March and I can't wait to keep it going in two weeks."
Said Bennett: "Andrew really turned it on. He wrestled his butt off and I knew he had that in him all year and it just started to come out at the end of the year. I knew he was capable of wrestling with all of those guys and I knew he was capable of beating some of those guys if he wrestled his match, wrestles the way he is capable of wrestling and this weekend, he did that.
"Some calls went his way, some didn't go his way, but he put himself in great positions and he wrestled well. I'm proud of him."
• Anderson, a freshman who was seeded fourth, closed an 11-10 season with a first-period pin of seventh-seeded Drew Davis of SIUE in the fifth-place match.
Anderson fell into the consolation bracket on Friday with an 18-2 technical fall loss to top-seeded Tyler Klinsky of Rider, who went on to claim the title at 125 and earn the Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament Award.
Anderson then dropped a 12-9 decision to No. 2 Blake West of Northern Illinois, a result that put him in the fifth-place match.
"We've got a freshman at 125 and I think he's leaving the tournament thinking, 'I can compete; I can do this; I feel really good about things,'" Bennett said.
• Amaker, who finished second in the MAC Championships a year ago and qualified for the NCAA tournament, finished 3-2. He was seeded fourth and fell into the consolation bracket with an 11-1 major-decision loss to Kent State's Chris Earnest, the fifth seed and eventual champion.
Amaker came back to post a 2-1 overtime win over Kelin Laffey of Buffalo, a 16-6 major over No. 8 Brandon Abdon of Rider, and a gritty 3-2 overtime win over No. 7 Alejandro Herrera-Rondon of Clarion to reach the third-place match, where he fell on a pin to No. 1 seed Brock Woodcock of SIUE.
• Shrader, who was ranked in the top 25 by several polls throughout the season, finished 3-2 in the tournament. He entered as the top seed at 157, but was upset by eighth-seeded Garret McChesney of Edinboro, 7-5, in his opening bout.
McChesney went on to finish runner-up in the weight class.
Shrader rebounded with back-to-back wins before falling on a pin to George Mason's DJ McGee, the No. 3 seed. Shrader topped Lock Haven's Nick Stampoulos, the No. 5 seed, in the fifth-place match, 5-0.
Shrader then challenged Kaleb Burgess of Buffalo in a true-fourth match – a victory there would have given Shrader an NCAA berth – but he lost to Burgess, 5-4.
• The sixth-seeded Nugent fell in the fifth-place match at 149 to Buffalo's Sam Ewing, 4-2. On Friday, Nugent won his first two matches and then fell, 2-0, to No. 2 Lucas Kapusta of Lock Haven to fall into the consolation bracket.
Nugent then dropped a 10-4 decision to No. 5 Ryan Michaels of Edinboro to reach the fifth-place match.
• Seeded No. 2 at 285, Caves dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 7 John Meyers of Clarion in his opening bout. In the consolation bracket, Caves posted back-to-back major-decision wins, the first over Ohio's Wyatt Schmitt, 14-1; and the second, 8-0, over Brentan Simmerman of Kent State.
From there, Caves fell, 7-2, to No. 5 Mason Rebuck of Bloomsburg before winning the fifth-place match on a 10-0 major decision over No. 8 Kade Sottolano of Lock Haven.
Match-by-March results for Central Michigan wrestlers at the MAC Championships:
125-Archer Anderson (3-2)
No. 4 Archer Anderson dec. Brayden Teunissen, Ohio, 10-8
Anderson dec. No. 5 Ben Monn, George Mason, 7-0
Semifinals: No. 1 Tyler Klinsky, Rider, tech. fall Anderson, 18-2
Consolation semifinal: No. 2 Blake West, Northern Illinois, dec. Anderson, 12-9.
Fifth-place match: Anderson fall No. 7 Drew Davis, SIUE, 59 seconds
133-Andrew Austin (4-2)
No. 8 Andrew Austin dec. Austin Pollard, Bloomsburg, 12-8
Vs. No. 1 Markel Baker, Northern Illinois, dec. Austin, 4-1
Consolation: Austin tech. fall Ryan Meek, Ohio, 18-3
Consolation quarterfinal: Austin def. No. 5 Joey Fischer, Clarion, 8-4
Consolation semifinal: Austin dec. No. 2 Marcel Lopez, SIUE, 4-2
Third-place match: No. 4 Gable Strickland, Lock Haven, dec. Austin, 4-1, SV
141-Nick Blackburn (1-2)
No. 8 Nick Blackburn bye
Vs. No. 1 Elijah Griffin, Rider, major dec. Blackburn, 14-4
Consolation: Blackburn tech. fall Richie Woods, Bloomsburg, 18-3
Consolation quarterfinal: No. 4 Tate Hisey, George Mason, dec. Blackburn, 8-5, SV
Blackburn eliminated
149-Jimmy Nugent (2-3)
No. 6 Jimmy Nugent dec. Paul Woo, Ohio, 6-2
Nugent def. No. 3 Kaden Cassidy, George Mason, MFF
Semifinals: No. 2 Lucas Kapusta, Lock Haven, dec. Nugent, 2-0
Consolation Semifinal: No. 5 Ryan Michaels, Edinboro, dec. Nugent, 10-4
Fifth-place match: No. 7 Sam Ewing, Buffalo, dec. Nugent, 4-2
157-Mason Shrader (3-2)
No. 1 Mason Shrader bye
Vs. No. 8 Garret McChesney, Edinboro, dec. Shrader, 7-5
Consolation: Shrader tech. fall Landen Johnson, Northern Illinois, 17-2, 7:00
Consolation quarterfinal: Shrader dec. Reese Stephen, Kent State, 4-0
Consolation semifinal: No. 3 DJ McGee, George Mason, fall Shrader, 2:03
Fifth-place match: Shrader dec. No. 5 Nick Stampoulos, Lock Haven, 5-0
165-Chandler Amaker (3-2)
No. 4 Chandler Amaker dec. Jack Lledo, Ohio, 4-1
No. 5 Chris Earnest, Kent State, major dec. Amaker, 11-1
Consolation: Amaker dec. Kelin Laffey, Buffalo, 2-1, TB2
Consolation quarterfinal: Amaker major dec. No. 8 Brendon Abdon, Rider, 16-6
Consolation semifinal: Amaker dec. No. 7 Alejandro Herrera-Rondon, Clarion, 3-2, TB2
Third-place match: No. 1 Brock Woodcock, SIUE, fall Amaker, :50
174-Cody Brenner (0-2)
No. 1 Avery Bassett, Lock Haven, tech. fall Cody Brenner, 18-3, 5:29
Consolation: Tate Geiser, Edinboro, major dec. Brenner, 17-8
Brenner eliminated
184-Wyatt Ferguson (2-1)
No. 7 Wyatt Ferguson dec. Braidon Woodward, Bloomsburg, 4-1
Vs. No. 2 Jared McGill, Edinboro, major dec. Ferguson, 14-5
Consolation: Brenner def. Ronald Dimmerling, Kent State, disqualification
Consolation quarterfinal: Ian Smith, Northern Illinois, dec. Wyatt Ferguson, 7-6
Ferguson eliminated
197-Luke Cochran (1-2)
No. 5 Luke Cochran major dec. Spencer Mooberry, Northern Illinois, 11-2
No. 4 Blake Schaffer, Kent State, dec. Cochran, 4-1, SV
Consolation: Brody Evans, Edinboro, dec. Cochran, 11-4
Cochran eliminated
285-Bryan Caves (3-2)
No. 2 Bryan Caves bye
No. 7 John Meyers, Clarion, dec. Caves, 4-1
Consolation: Caves major dec. Wyatt Schmitt, Ohio, 14-1
Consolation quarterfinal: Caves major dec. Brentan Simmerman, Kent State, 8-0
Consolation semifinal: No. 5 Mason Rebuck, Bloomsburg, dec. Caves, 7-2
Fifth-place match: Caves major dec. No. 8 Kade Sottolano, Lock Haven,10-0
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