Wrestling team favorites in MAC tournament
The CMU wrestling team has the opportunity to win a Mid-American conference tournament title in front of its home crowd for the first time in seven years.
No. 6 CMU strives for its ninth consecutive tournament title Saturday and Sunday at Rose Arena.
“It is a good year for us to host the tournament with six seniors on our roster,” said coach Tom Borrelli.
Central dominated the tournament last season, scoring 111.5 points, fourth-most in school history. Kent State finished second with 82.5.
CMU returns three conference champions in sophomore Scotti Sentes, senior Steve Brown and junior Mike Miller. The team also returns four wrestlers who placed second in last year’s tournament.
The Chippewas go into the tournament with eight wrestlers ranked in the top 20 in their weight classes. The only other MAC team with a national ranking is Kent State at 18. Eight CMU wrestlers have undefeated conference records and five went 5-0, including senior 125-pounder Matt Steintrager.
“I am going into the tournament to take first,” Steintrager said. “I haven’t lost a single conference match, and there is no reason I should start to lose now. My closest match was three points, and I want to go in and beat those guys worse.”
The first round of the tournament begins at 1 p.m. Saturday and the event will wrap up with the championship and consolation matches at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The NCAA has allocated 22 guaranteed spots for the Mid-American Conference in the national meet, up from the 16 last season.
The 133-pound weight class earned the most automatic bids with four, the second-most of any other conference. The MAC also was awarded three spots for the 149, 184 and 197-pound weight classes.
Three weight class have been allocated one spot, including at 141. For senior Conor Beebe, this means the only guaranteed path to nationals is through a conference title.
