CMU advances seven to finals at Wrestling MAC Championships
The CMU wrestling team advances seven into the championship bouts at the Mid-American Conference Championships Sunday.
Senior Steve Brown said although most teams would be satisfied with the performance, CMU is disappointed it could not reach its goal of 10 finalists.
“Here is where we try to raise the bar to ourselves,” he said. “We try to raise our expectations as a team, so we aren't very happy with seven in the finals. Our goal was to have 10 in the finals but, with that said, now we want seven champions.”
Perhaps more importantly, all 10 wrestlers still have a chance for the NCAA Championships, and that is the true goal for Central come March.
"At this time of year, it's about getting your hand raised and continuing to advance,” said coach Tom Borrelli.
Senior Tyler Grayson, who beat Kent State's Ross Trice 6-1 in the semifinals, echoed his coach's thoughts about needing to win in the finals on Sunday.
“I feel like I wrestled pretty good today,” he said. “You always want to do a little better, but anytime you can get a win, you have to be happy with the way you performed.”
Seven of the eight No. 1 seeded Central wrestlers advanced including Brown, who advances for a chance to earn his third consecutive MAC championship.
“I feel like I had a slow start,” he said. “I feel with the environment of fans being here really helped my moral and got me going and helped me with the match.”
CMU leads the team standings after the first day with 54.5 points. Kent State is in second with 44 and Buffalo third with 41.5.
Senior Tony D'Alie, junior Mike Miller and senior Eric Simaz were the only CMU wrestlers not to advance to the championship, but all will wrestle for third place tomorrow.
“I'm sure those three guys are pretty disappointed,” Borrelli said. “I think all need to come back and take third and see what happens. Maybe they can come wrestle for true second.”
Championship bouts begin at 11 a.m. Sunday at Rose Arena.
