Wrestling team defeats Colorado Mesa in second home dual

By PARKER COTTON

UNCBears.com

GREELEY – The victory for the Northern Colorado wrestling team looks nice in the win-loss column, but it wasn't earned in a fashion head coach Ben Cherrington was pleased with.

The Bears defeated Colorado Mesa 30-22 Saturday at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion behind three pins, but their two other weight class wins came by forfeit and injury default. The Bears moved to 2-1 in duals this season while handing the Mavericks their first loss, making them 2-1 as well.

At 184 pounds, Northern Colorado's Nick Bayer (Maple Valley, Wash.) had a third-period pin of Mesa's Scott Verner — his second win against Verner this season after beating him last weekend at the Old Chicago Open, and 125-pounder Trey Andrews (Safford, Ariz.) and Mitchell Polkowske (LaJara, Colo.) at 157 pounds each had first-period pins. Henry Chirino (Brandon, Fla.) won his heavyweight bout by injury default in the first period against Jordan Passehl, and Sonny Espinoza earned a forfeit win at 133.

After that, though, Cherrington didn't find many positives.

"It wasn't very good at all," he said. "We had some great individual performances from guys I expected to do well. Nick, Mitchell and Trey went out and took care of business. Henry, if he wrestles a full match, he beats that kid badly. That was the way the match was setting up. I'm sick to my stomach with some individual performances."

Not helping the matter, the Bears lost at 197 by injury default when Brian Macchione suffered a left shoulder injury.

"He's hurt pretty bad, so that's a big loss to the team," Cherrington said. "He's a very tough kid, and it'll hurt not having him in the lineup. Until we get a diagnosis, we won't know (its severity), but it didn't look very good."

There isn't an early idea as to who could replace Macchione going forward.

"The bottom line is we have to move forward. That's what we just talked to the guys about," Cherrington said. "We can't let a dual like this set the tone for the rest of our season."

Northern Colorado won't wrestle again until early December at the Bloomington Duals, hosted by the Indiana University, where the Bears will partake in five duals in two days.

WT. Winning Wrestler Type Losing Wrestler Score NC CMU

125 Trey Andrews (NC) fall Erick Vargas (CMU) 2:45 6 0

133 Sonny Espinoza (NC) forfeit N/A 12 0

141 Daniel Salazar (CMU) dec. Nick Adams (NC) 7-6 12 3

149 #3 James Martinez (CMU) fall Beau Roberts (NC) 2:04 12 9

157 Mitchell Polkowske (NC) fall Trevor Donarski (CMU) 5:26 18 9

165 Jesse Hoffschneider (CMU) major Don Maes (NC) 16-5 18 13

174 #8 Chester Granard (CMU) dec. Dylan Rutledge (NC) 9-2 18 16

184 Nick Bayer (NC) fall Scott Verner (CMU) 2:07 24 16

197 Paco Retana (CMU) Inj.def Brian Macchione (NC) 24 22

285 Henry Chirino (NC) Inj.def Jordan Passehl (CMU) 30 22