'It's going to make them tougher': CMU wrestling drops season opener to Oklahoma
Tied at one in the 149-pound match, Oklahomas Willie McDougald had 31 seconds of riding time on him. With the clocking ticking, it looked like Oklahoma was about to take its fourth straight match.
Central Michigan wrestling graduate student Corbyn Munson then attacked, taking down McDougald to take a 4-1 lead and secure the first win for the Chippewas firing up the 1,340 fans in attendance for their home opener on Thursday.
“Momentum is huge, especially in our sport,” Munson said. “Our home crowd might have been the biggest crowd I’ve had here. After my match, I try and pump up the crowd up a little bit. Regardless of how I felt about my match went we’re starting to build a good unit of guys.”
Munson's win got CMU on the board with a team score of 11-3.
Despite Munsons win, the Chippewas were unable to keep up with No. 21 Oklahoma as they dropped their season opener, 29-11.
“I wish we wrestled a little better,” head coach Tom Borelli said. “But I think (we're) a little better than people think (we) are. We had our chances to win a couple more matches. I feel like we let one get away from us. Other than that ... they kind of took it to us pretty good.”
Following Munsons match, redshirt senior Johnny Lovett dominated John Wiley with five total take downs in the 157-pound weight class to win the match by a major decision of 17-6.
“The thing with Johnny is he’s very explosive,” Borelli said. “People think okay he’s done scoring, and they think he’s soft ... so a lot of his matches are chippy, almost like they think they got to beat Johnny up to try and beat him. They are going to learn if you treat him like that, he’s just going to keep exploding on you and picking you up and throwing you.”
The Chippewas dropped their next match at 165 pounds but came right back with a win from No. 18 ranked redshirt senior Alex Cramer against No. 13 ranked Tate Picklo with a final score of 11-5 moving the team score to 15-11.
“As an older guy on the team, I’m a veteran in some sense,” Cramer said. “It’s important for me to try to set an example for the younger guys and I think the way I competed sets a good example. I got taken down early, but then came back and put up some good points. Hopefully, some of the other guys can take away from that.”
Unable to keep the momentum going CMU dropped the rest of its matches falling to the Sooners with a final score of 29-11.
The Chippewas have a quick turnaround as they travel to East Lansing for the Michigan State Open on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.
