CMU wrestling wins MAC Championships, Cramer secures conference title
Central Michigan wrestling won the Mid-American Conference Championships title for the first time since 2012 on Saturday with one wrestler taking home a conference title.
The Chippewas have now won 15 MAC Championships under head coach Tom Borrelli, who was also named MAC Coach of the Year.
“It's fun to get back to where we feel like we should be,” Borrelli said. “And it was just a total team effort. We had eight guys finishing the top four in the tournament, that doesn't happen very often.”
CMU finished with 131 points as Rider and George Mason followed behind with 114.5 and 112.5, respectively.
“They were disappointed a lot this year,” Borrelli said. “I mean, we only finished 8-8 in dual meets. We lost some really heartbreaking dual meets to top 20 teams, top 25 teams. So you know, there's a lot of disappointment, those guys didn't want to feel that again.”
Redshirt senior Alex Cramer won his second-straight MAC title in the 174 weight class to clinch his spot in the NCAA tournament with a tech fall victory, 16-1 in the title match.
Cramer has dominated conference competition throughout the season, going 4-0 at the MAC championships and 5-0 in conference duals.
“I try not to focus too much on the wins and losses, they'll sort themselves out and just take care of my effort and my attitude in every match, try to compete as hard as I can,” Cramer said.
“And I think this one was honestly easier in the sense that it wasn't hard to get up for the matches to keep my motivation up. I was really inspired by the team's performance and all our guys battling, so I just wanted to go out there and do my part.”
Graduate student Corbyn Munson went perfect on day one of the tournament, going 3-0 in his matches with two pins and a decision victory, clinching a spot in the 149 title match.
In the 149 championship, Munson went down 7-1 early. With Munson struggling to find an answer, Rider’s Quinn Kinner dominated the rest of the match to win 17-5.
The weekend performance for Munson secured a second place finish in the 149 weight class and a ticket to the NCAA tournament.
Three Chippewas placed third in their respective weight classes with redshirt sophomore Tyler Swiderski, redshirt senior Johnny Lovett and Jimmy Nugent all placing in the three spot.
With the third place finish, Lovett clinched his spot in the NCAA Championships.
Securing fourth place in their weight classes for the Chippewas was Sean Spidle, Cameron Wood and Bryan Caves.
Wood came back from deficits in two of his matches in the tournament to clinch the fourth place finish and help CMU secure the team victory.
“(Cameron) was amazing,” Borrelli said. “... He was down by seven or eight points in both of those matches, and came back to win both of them. And when you have guys that aren't necessarily the stars in your team, but they're just gritty, come through for you, I think it really motivates everybody else. If he can do it, anybody can do it.”
Three CMU wrestlers will take the NCAA tournament stage starting on Thursday, March 21.
