Flashes Hand Central Michigan Its First Conference Loss 22-13
1/29/2012 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
KENT, Ohio – Kent State (10-4, 3-0 MAC) put itself in the driver's seat for a Mid-American Conference regular season title Sunday with a 22-13 victory over Central Michigan (12-5, 4-1) inside the M.A.C. Center. The Golden Flashes took 7-of-10 matches against a Chippewa program that had won 70 of their last 73 conference duals. It was just the second win for Jim Andrassy against CMU in his nine seasons as head coach and the Flashes' first home victory over the Chippewas since 1996.
Although the Flashes won the first four weight classes, drama had built heading into the 197-pound match. With his team leading 16-13, junior Keith Witt (Oak Harbor, Ohio) barely beat the final buzzer and finished off a takedown to claim a 3-1 win over Chad Friend.
"I never want to take it down to last second," Witt said. "But that's kind of the way it's happened for me since I bumped up to 197. That's my best shot so I was pretty confident in it."
Senior Brendan Barlow (Westerville, Ohio) then needed two sudden victory periods and two tiebreaker go-arounds to earn a five-second riding time advantage over Peter Sturgeon and a 4-3 victory in the day's final match.
"I thought Brendan was the more aggressive wrestler today and he deserved to win." Andrassy said.
The first pivotal match came at 133, when junior Stevie Mitcheff (Lorain, Ohio) overcame a third period deficit and topped Tyler Keselring 10-9.
"Stevie's really come a long way and he's starting to build confidence," Andrassy said. "We're going to continue to tell him how much better he's getting and he's going to continue to work hard and work out with Nic Bedelyon, which has been helping."
Freshman Ian Miller (Oak Harbor, Ohio) scored the only bonus points of the day for Kent State with a 13-5 major decision over Joey Kielbasa at 149. A more aggressive Miller collected five takedowns, an escape, riding time and a stalling point."
"Central did a great job of slowing all of our guys down," Andrassy said. "They have a simple style of wrestling that's hard to beat. I thought we were the more aggressive team."
After back-to-back CMU wins at 157 and 165, sophomore Brandonn Johnson (Middletown, Md.) claimed a 7-1 victory to give the Flashes a 16-7 lead. No. 5 Ben Bennett then made things interesting with a third period pin of Casey Newburg (Union, Ohio) to narrow his team's deficit to just three points.
Winners of eight straight dual meets, the Golden Flashes return to the mat Friday, Feb. 3 hosting conference foe Buffalo.
Kent State 22 Central Michigan 13
125 - Nic Bedelyon (Kent State) over Joe Roth (CMU) Dec 4-2
133 - Stevie Mitcheff (Kent State) over Tyler Keselring (CMU) Dec 10-9
141 - Tyler Small (Kent State) over Scott Mattingly (CMU) Dec 6-0
149 - Ian Miller (Kent State) over Joey Kielbasa (CMU) Maj. Dec. 13-5
157 – Donnie Corby (CMU) over Mallie Shuster (Kent State) Dec 5-2
165 –Mike Ottinger (CMU) over Ross Tice (Kent State) Maj. Dec 18-8
174 – Brandonn Johnson (Kent State) over Anthony Bill (CMU) Dec 7-1
184 - Ben Bennett (CMU) over Casey Newburg (Kent State) Fall 6:00
197 – Keith Witt (Kent State) over Chad Friend (CMU) Dec 3-1
HWT - Brendan Barlow (Kent State) over Peter Sturgeon (CMU) Dec (TB2) 4-3
