CMU recorded two pins, a technical pin and two major decisions on Friday in rolling past Michigan State, 31-9, in its dual-meet opener at McGuirk Arena.
The 15th-ranked Chippewas recorded 20 takedowns while allowing just nine, and they finished with 24 back points and blanked the Spartans in that category en route to winning seven of the 10 matches.
"Any time you compete, you're happy with some things and then you see things that will really take some time to fix," CMU coach Tom Borrelli said. "That's pretty much how the night went.
"In the matches that we scored bonus points in, we wrestled the way we've been practicing, we did what we've been practicing: we tried to keep scoring points, we went for a couple pins, which is important. Other matches, there's things we really need to work on."
The wrestling room was officially dedicated in the name of Borrelli and former longtime coach Chick Sherwood. Also on hand for the dedication was Philip Kintzele, a CMU professor in the School of Accounting a longtime major benefactor of the program.
"The nice thing is Phil Kintzele had a lot to do with us having the finances to do that," Borrelli said. "That's a nice thing to know that there are people working in the university that recognize the hard work that's gone into this program and what it's done for young people over the years. Phil's probably taught here maybe 40 years. To have someone like that step up, that's an important thing."
Plenty of Chippewas stepped up on the mat on Friday, including senior Jordan Ellingwood (184 pounds) and redshirt freshman Matt Stencel (285), both of whom recorded pins.
Stencel closed the meet with a pin in 1:10; Ellingwood's came at 3:24.
CMU sophomore Mason Smith (141) recorded a 15-0 technical fall at 2:50, and Justin Oliver (149) and Colin Heffernan (157) both won on major decisions. CMU scored bonus points in five of the seven matches it won.
"We have this saying, score 10 points every match you go out there," Ellingwood said. "We take stats on all of our matches and when we score 10 points, we're winning like 98 percent of the matches. It's one of our mottos: Score 10, score 10."
The Chippewas also got an 8-3 win from Logan Parks (165) and a 2-0 victory from Jordan Atienza (197).
It was CMU's fourth consecutive dual victory over the Spartans, and it marked the 15th time in the last 16 years that the Chippewas have beaten the Spartans.
"When you're competing in Division I, nothing's easy," Borrelli said. "Everybody thinks Central Michigan's supposed to beat Michigan State pretty handily. It's never easy. We've beaten Michigan State a lot over the years and I don't think one of them has been easy."
The Chippewas will travel to Virgina Tech on Sunday. The Hokies are ranked 11th in the Open Mat Top 25 poll.
"I'm excited to see how good we are against a team like that," Borrelli said. "Sometimes it's harder to compete the way you want to compete when you're expected to win or expected to dominate someone.
"Sometimes that's tougher than being the underdog and going into a place where they expect to slap you around. You're going to go in and fight a little bit. I want to see how our guys react to that."
Results:
125: Rayvon Foley (MSU) dec. Drew Hildebrandt, 9-6
133: Nathan Ellis (MSU) dec. Deven Perez, 3-1
141: Mason Smith (CMU) tech. fall Alex Hrisopoulos, 15-0, 2:50
149: Justin Oliver (CMU) major dec. Austin Thompson, 15-2
157: Colin Heffernan (CMU) major dec. Jake Tucker, 18-5
165: Logan Parks (CMU) dec. Logan Ritchie, 8-3
174: Austin Hiles (MSU) dec. CJ Brucki, 12-10
184: Jordan Ellingwood (CMU) pinned Nick May, 3:24
197: Jordan Atienza (CMU) dec. Shwan Shadaia, 2-0
285: Matt Stencel (CMU) pinned Chrstian Rebottaro, 1:10
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