NCAA Championships Central

ST. LOUIS - Central Michigan has advanced three individuals to the second round at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

Freshman Zach Horan (133 pounds), junior Ben Bennett (184 pounds) and senior Peter Sturgeon (heavyweight) all won opening round matches Thursday afternoon during a tightly contested first session that saw five of the Chippewas' seven matches decided by a single point.

Through one session of competition, CMU sits in a tie for 24th place in the 70-team field with seven team points.

Horan was victorious in his NCAA Championships debut, upsetting the No. 12 seed, Penn's Bryan Ortenzio, 5-4. Horan was working for a takedown in the final seconds of the third period and finally gained control with five seconds left to secure the decision.

Horan now advances to face the No. 5 seed, Northern Iowa's Joe Colon. Horan dropped a 13-8 decision to Colon at Midlands earlier this season.

Bennett, the No. 3 seed at 184 pounds, began his quest for a third straight All-America honor with a 9-1 major decision over Oklahoma's Erich Schmidtke. After a scoreless first period, Bennett broke the match open with a six-point second period. He escaped after starting the period on bottom, then scored a takedown and tacked on three back points late in the period.

Bennett, who now has a career-best 31 victories this season, will meet Edinboro's Victor Avery in the second round.

Sturgeon closed out the session with a 5-4 decision over Drexel's Kyle Frey in a match that was decided in a tiebreaker. Sturgeon took a 4-3 lead with a takedown with 45 seconds left in regulation, but Frey sent the match to overtime with an escape in the final 10 seconds. Sudden victory was scoreless, and Sturgeon rode out Frey in the first 30-second tiebreaker period before scoring the decisive escape early in the second 30-second period.

Sturgeon now faces a rematch with Minnesota's Anthony Nelson, the No. 2 seed at heavyweight. Nelson enters the match 28-2 overall, with one of his losses coming to Sturgeon, 6-4, in a dual meet at McGuirk Arena on Dec. 2.

Dropping first-round matches Thursday afternoon were Joe Roth (125 pounds), Scott Mattingly (141 pounds), Donnie Corby (157 pounds) and Mike Ottinger (165 pounds). All four will compete in the opening round of the wrestlebacks during Thursday's second session of competition.

Roth, Corby and Ottinger each dropped one-point decisions. One escape point was enough for No. 12 seed Steven Monk (North Dakota State) to defeat Corby, 1-0, while Ottinger scored the bout's only takedown but lost to Army's Coleman Gracey, 3-2.

Thursday's second session of competition begins at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time and will be available online on ESPN3.com.


Complete Central Michigan Results

125 Pounds: Joe Roth
First Round: L, dec. Camden Eppert (Purdue), 4-3
Consolation First Round: Jerome Robinson (Old Dominion)

133 Pounds: Zach Horan
First Round: W, dec. No. 12 Bryan Ortenzio (Penn), 5-4
Second Round: No. 5 Joe Colon (Northern Iowa)

141 Pounds: Scott Mattingly
First Round: L, dec. Michael Nevinger (Cornell), 5-0
Consolation First Round: Nathan Hoffer (Arizona State)

157 Pounds: Donnie Corby
First Round: L, dec. No. 12 Steven Monk (North Dakota State), 1-0
Consolation First Round: Josh Demas (Ohio State)

165 Pounds: Mike Ottinger
First Round: L, dec. Coleman Gracey (Army), 3-2
Consolation First Round: Gabriel Burak (Northern Colorado)

184 Pounds: No. 3 Ben Bennett
First Round: W, maj. dec. Erich Schmidtke (Oklahoma), 9-1
Second Round: Victor Avery (Edinboro)

285 Pounds: Peter Sturgeon
First Round: W, dec. Kyle Frey (Drexel), 5-4 TB1
Second Round: No. 2 Anthony Nelson (Minnesota)