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March 8, 2008
KENT, Ohio - Senior 133-pounder Pat Castillo (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) earned his second-straight MAC title and redshirt Patrick McLemore (Hinckley, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) freshman suprised the MAC wrestling community, taking the conference championship at 141 pounds, Saturday. As a team, the Huskies placed third with a total score of 60.5. Central Michigan won the team title with 110 points, followed by Kent State's 75.5 points. Castillo was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the MAC Championships for the second straight year and joined McLemore and sophomore Duke Burk (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame HS) on the All-Mid-American Conference team. All three wrestlers earned berths in the NCAA Championships as well, Castillo and McLemore by virture of their MAC victories while Burk earned an at-large selection and will compete at the national championships for the second straight season. In Castillo's 5-4 title win over Kent Stat's Dan Mitcheff, both wrestlers executed top-notch defense in the first-peroid. Castillo opened in aggressive fashion, but left a single leg for Mitcheff. Castillo fought his way out-of-bounds to avoid the takedown. Castillo responded with an attack of his own that ended in a stalemate. Castillo chose down to start the second period, and easily escaped Mitcheff's grasp. Mitcheff then executed the match's first takedown to take a 2-1 lead, but Castillo wryly reversed the predicament to go up 3-2. A Mitcheff escape tied the match, and the pair entered the third period tied 3-3. Mitcheff elected to start the third period on bottom, and Castillo gave him an escape, thereby relinquishing the lead to his opponent 4-3. Castillo pressed through the third, and with 20 seconds left the grabbed a single-leg which led to the match-winning takedown with just 20 seconds.
For McLemore, it was an improbable run to the MAC title. To take the win, he upset the number two seed in the semi-finals, then held on for a win against top-seeded Larry Lashaway of Kent State. Against Lashaway, McLemore executed the match's first takedown, which Lashaway quickly escaped. But after the escape, Lashaway was penalized for unnecessary roughness, giving McLemore a 3-1 lead. Lashaway responded with his own takedown, and a near fall to take a 5-3 lead. McLemore escaped to get within one point at the end of the first period. In a quiet second period, Lashaway chose down, and escaped McLemore's grasp to take a 6-4 lead in the period's only score. It was McLemore's turn on bottom to start the third, and he quickly escaped to reach a 6-5 deficit. McLemore then executed a single-leg takedown to grasp a 7-6 lead, and held Lashaway for the remainder of the period to win 8-6, including a bonus point for riding time. In the 157-pound championship match, Bryan O'Connor wrestled Central Michigan's Steve Brown even until early in the third period, when Brown executed a reversal and a two-point near fall to take a 6-2 lead. An escape from O'Connor brought him within three points, but Smith held on to win 7-3. After a significant delay as officials contested the results the 165-pound championship contest, 174-pounder Duke Burk took the mat against Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan. Burk snatched Sinnott's left leg early in the first period, but the pair stuttered out of bounds and remained neutral. Soon after Duke grabbed another single-leg, but couldn't finish the takedown, and the first period ended in a scoreless tie. Sinnott elected to be on bottom to start the second, and a quick escape gave him a 1-0 lead. A shot from Sinnott landed in the second, but Burk's defense led to the match's fourth stalemate. Burk escaped to start the third, but a Sinnott strike founds its mark shortly after, giving the Chippewa a 3-1 lead. Burk escaped to make the match 3-2 with 30 seconds remaining, but Sinnott's defense kept Burk at bay. After a desperation attempt from Burk in the last 10 seconds, Sinnott scored four points and took the riding time advantage to win 8-2. In his second place match, Burk executed a takedown with a just over a minute left to lift him to a 3-2 win over Ohio's Jacob Ison. In the consolation bracket, true freshman 125-pounder TJ Wunnicke (Dodgeville, Wis./Dodgeville) saw his run in the tournament end at the hands of Central Michigan's Luke Smith, who pinned Wunnicke in the first period. Kalen Knull won his consolation match at 149 pounds to finish third at the MAC tournament. Knull captured a 5-2 decision over Clint Sponseller of Kent State to earn his bronze finish. At 165, redshirt freshman Bryan Deutsch won third place with a win in the consolation bracket. He earned a takedown against Buffalo's John Cummings in the first period, and a quick reversal in the second to lead 4-0. Cummings responded in the third with a takedown to get to 4-2, but Deutsch stayed aggressive, executing another takedown and securing a 7-2 win. Final Team Standings
Championship Match Results Consolation Match Results
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