Central Michigan wrestling coach, Tom Borrelli, had a lot to be pleased about after last weekend's Mid-American Conference Championship at Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas secured their fifth straight MAC title to make conference history, and Borrelli was named MAC Coach of the Year for the fourth year in a row.
Central Michigan's run of five championship titles gave the No. 4 team in the country the MAC's second longest all-time winning streak.
This year's success is due in part to the four wrestlers on their team who won individual titles on Saturday.
Sophomores Luke Smith, 125 pounds, and Brandon Sinnott, 174 pounts; redshirt sophomore Wynn Michalak, 197 pounds; and senior Mark DiSalvo, 149 pounds all earned themselves automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.
In a highly anticipated matchup, No. 1 seed Michalak, the defending MAC champion, defeated No. 2 seed Kyle Cerminara of Buffalo to improve to 29-1 this year.
Coach Borrelli's own son - Jason Borrelli, a 133-pound senior - will go to nationals as a wild-card, but the Borrellis aren't the only family with two representatives on the team.
Though Christian Sinnott at 184 pounds has 10 pounds on brother Brandon, the sophomore twins have both had success this year. Christian will join his brother at nationals as a wild-card alongside redshirt sophomore Brandon Carter at 141-pounds.
At Saturday's tournament the Chippewas totaled 102.5 points while runner-up Kent State had 75.5. Ohio took fifth with 25.5.
Central Michigan now owns 10 MAC Tournament Championships having taken eight of the past nine titles.
RedHawks halt Eagles' bid for 7th straight title
The Eastern Michigan men's swimming and diving team was six-time defending MAC champions, but that all changed this past weekend in the Aquatic Center when Miami captured its first team title since 1999.
The RedHawks scored 888.5 team points to edge out the Eagles, who posted 881.
Juniors Paul Ricard, in the 1,650 free, Griffin Marshall, in the 200 breaststroke, and Michael Donohoe, in the 200 butterfly, each won individual MAC titles for Miami.
Ricard's first-place time of 15:19.40 in the 1,650 freestyle broke his own school record of 15:20.03 set Dec. 1, and he became the RedHawks' first conference titlist in this event since Hall of Fame swimmer, Dick Clarke, in 1987.
Freshman Chris Heaton, named MAC Diver of the Year, swept the 1- and 3-meter boards, which made him the sixth diver in RedHawk history to sweep the diving events at the conference meet.
Ironically, the Miami's men's title came just one week after its women's team's four-year streak as conference champions was broken by Eastern Michigan, who took its first-ever women's MAC crown.
This year's men's conference title was Miami coach Pete Lindsay's third, which tied him with Raymond Ray for the most MAC championships in RedHawk men's swimming and diving history.
- Sara Normand
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Sara Normand
