CMU wrestling defeats SIUE to split weekend
Central Michigan's graduate student Corbyn Munson wrestles against Edinboro's sophomore Colin Roberts during a match against Edinboro Sunday, Jan. 21 in McGuirk Arena. Munson won the match with a pin. (CM-Life | Ella Miller)
After Central Michigan wrestling dropped two of its three matches to begin the dual meet against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Sunday, it was looking for a spark to get some momentum.
In the next match, graduate student Corbyn Munson was trailing 4-3 late in the third period. With less than five seconds remaining, he came up big with a last second takedown to win the match, 6-4 and tie the meet at six.
“That's as excited as I've seen our team in quite a while,” head coach Tom Borrelli said. “They were all really happy for him… Corbyn did a real good job of fighting his way back and winning the match.”
Following Munson’s win, the Chippewas won four out their next six matches to seal the 22-12 win over SIUE.
The Chippewas had a quick turnaround to face the Cougars as they fell to Northern Illinois the day before, 22-10.
“Every day is a new day,” Borrelli said about the message to the team. “That's the good thing about it, you can forget yesterday … We bounced back pretty good. I mean, we had some big wins today.”
CMU now moves to 4-6 overall and 2-1 in Mid-American Conference play. The win for the Chippewas snapped a four-match win streak for SIUE.
Redshirt sophomore Sean Spidle got the Chippewas out to a good start as he took the opening match 4-0 to give CMU the lead. During the match, Spidle got a takedown early in the first period to take the three-point advantage. After an escape from Spidle to start the second period, both wrestlers were held scoreless to give the Chippewas the victory.
After redshirt freshman Andrew Austin and sophomore Jimmy Nugent both fell in their matches, Munson looked to get the momentum back for CMU in the 149 match.
Munson, in desperate need of points came up with the takedown with less than five seconds left to win the match, 6-4.
Looking to continue the success and take the lead, redshirt senior Johnny Lovett took the early 3-0 lead in the first period. Lovett continued to dominate throughout the rest of the match to complete the major decision win, 10-3 and give the Chippewas the 10-6 lead.
Following a loss by graduate student Tracy Hubbard in the 165 match, CMU only held a one-point lead heading into the 174 weight class.
However, Alex Cramer came out of the gate strong in his match, getting out to the 7-0 lead early in the first period after a near fall and takedown. The fast start led to Cramer getting the win by a tech fall, 19-3, giving the Chippewas the 15-9 lead.
Cramer had a successful weekend for CMU, going 2-0 in his matches with both ending in tech fall victories.
In the 184 match, redshirt sophomore Cody Brenner lost in an overtime battle, 4-1 to cut the Chippewa lead to three with two matches remaining.
Tied at three and heading into overtime in a crucial match for CMU, Cameron Wood came up with a takedown with less than a minute in the period to extend the lead to six heading into the final match.
“The team score was pretty close at that time, it was 15 to 12,” Borrelli said. “And I told Cam before he walked out on the mat, I said ‘Hey, you ready to be the hero today?’ And he said ‘yes.’”
Redshirt sophomore Bryan Caves ended the meet with a win for CMU after a dominating 11-0 performance, leading to the Chippewas victory.
CMU will return to McGuirk Arena to continue MAC play as they host Ohio on Sunday at 2 p.m.
