Chippewas win a MAC match with Northern Illinois
Central Michigan wrestling coach Tom Borrelli has long been an advocate of aggressiveness and fast starts.
His Chippewas delivered on Sunday, winning six matches and scoring bonus points in three of them in downing Northern Illinois, 22-14, in a Mid-american Conference wrestling dual at Mcguirk Arena.
The win lifted CMU to 2-2, 1-1 MAC. NIU is 2-1, 1-1.
CMU’S Drew Hildebrandt (125 pounds) set the tone for the dual, winning the opening bout by technical fall to put the Chippewas up 5-0. CMU then sandwiched major-decision victories from Dresden Simon (141) and Johnny Lovett (157) around a decision win by Corbyn Munson (149) in building a 16-3 lead.
“We felt like we had to get off to a good start because if things didn’t go well for us early it was going to be pretty close towards the end,” Borrelli said. “I think there were a few times where we were watching the clock a little bit and not continuing to wrestle, trying to hang on to win. You can’t be successful that way. If you’re not trying to build on your lead, you’re kind of setting yourself up for bad things to happen.”
Still, he said, “We were pressing the pace for the most part in the third period.”
After Lovett’s win, his first of the season and the first of his career in a dual, Northern Illinois won three straight matches to cut CMU’S lead to 16-14 with two matches remaining. The Huskie lineup features four ranked wrestlers in the final five weight classes.
With fourth-ranked and twotime All-american Matt Sten
cel waiting at 285 for the Chippewas, the 197-pound match between CMU’S Landon Pelham and 21stranked Gage Braun was critical.
Pelham, a senior, remained aggressive throughout, scoring the first takedown and never relinquishing the lead. He posted a 7-3 victory made all the sweeter by the fact that the last time the two met, Braun took down Pelham at the buzzer to win the thirdplace match at the 2020 MAC Championships.
With the cancellation of the NCAA Championships last March, the loss to Braun was Pelham’s final match of the 2020 season.
“It’s been hard to forget about that match from last year, got to think about it a lot,” said Pelham, who went 0-2 last weekend in CMU’S double-dual with Missouri and Wyoming. “Definitely fueled a lot of my offseason training. You don’t ever want to feel like that again. Felt good to get out and wrestle today and feel like myself again after last weekend too.”
Pelham’s win put CMU in front, 19-14, and then the fourth-ranked Stencel, a two-time All-american, downed 25th-ranked Max Ihry, 6-2, to close it out.
Pelham’s victory was big not only on a personal level, but in the dual overall. Had he lost, Stencel’s match would have been a must-win.
“I don’t like to put all the pressure on Matt all the time,” said Pelham, who has wrestled in the weight class ahead of the threetime MAC champion Stencel since the two veterans set foot on campus half a decade ago. “We’ve been doing this together for five years and he lets me know before I go wrestle, ‘Hey you go out, relax, just wrestle your match, don’t worry about the dual.’
“He’s always got my back like that. It’s nice having a guy like that behind you. You can go out and you don’t have to do anything crazy. Just do your thing.”
Lovett, a redshirt freshman from Miami, Fla., was the aggressor from the hop in his match with Anthony Gibson. Lovett had six takedowns in the match, three of which came in the first period, and the last of which came with under 10 seconds remaining to give him the major-decision victory.
“I was really impressed with Johnny,” CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. “We thought that Johnny would be pretty explosive against (Gibson) and he would have a hard time defending (Lovett’s) shots. He really took it to him. We know (Gibson) has a big gas tank and Johnny hung in there and matched it.”
Hildebrandt’s technical fall was his second such victory of the season as he improved to 4-0. He is ranked sixth nationally.
Simon, who is ranked 12th, scored a takedown and a four-point near fall in the first period in his match for a 6-0 lead and remained in control throughout. It was his first bonuspoint win of the season as he improved to 2-1.
Munson, a redshirt sophomore, held on for a slim 3-1 win to improve to 3-1 on the season.
The Chippewas go to Clarion on Saturday for a MAC quad with Kent State and Southern Illinois Edwardsville.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN 22, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 14
125 pounds: Drew Hildebrandt (C) tech. fall Lucian Brink, 7:00, 17-2
133: Bryce West (N) dec. Drew Marten, 9-6
141: Dresden Simon (C) major dec. Caleb Brooks, 10-1 149: Corbyn Munson (C) dec. Javion Jones, 3-1
157: Johnny Lovett (C) major dec. Anthony Gibson, 13-5 165: Izzak Olejnik (N) major dec. Bret Fedewa, 12-1
174: Mason Kauffman (N) dec. Jake Lowell, 3-2
184: Brit Wilson (N) major dec. Ben Cushman, 9-1
197: Landon Pelham (C) dec. Gage Braun, 7-3
285: Matt Stencel (C) dec. Max Ihry, 6-2