Tasting defeat for the first time at home this season in dual-meet competition, the Buffalo wrestling team lost to the nation's fifth-ranked and defending Mid-American Conference champions the Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena, 32-3.
The Bulls were only able to pick up one win out of the 10 bouts. Junior 133-pounder Joe Wilson took a 3-0 advantage over Josh Williams after two periods and held on to win the match, 3-2.
"I'm glad that (Wilson) won," said Buffalo head coach Jim Beichner. "He wrestled hard for seven minutes but I can't walk out of here being too happy about the rest."
Before Wilson's victory by decision, 125 pound sophomore Dan Bishop opened the meet by losing to the 19th nationally ranked Luke Smith, 4-0. Smith was one of six wrestlers to wrestle for Central Michigan who are ranked in the nation, as three other CMU grapplers that are nationally ranked did not partake in Saturday's dual-meet.
"This is the first time I think in years we seen (Central Michigan) use backups against us," Beichner said. "Those backups are very tough as well. They don't put out guys that are not ready to go."
The Chippewas then swept through the next eight matches. Sophomore 141-pounder Andrew Stella lost to No. 12 nationally ranked Eric Kruger, 3-0, followed by senior 149-pounder Pat Lloyd losing by pin-fall to Nathaniel Holt.
At 157 pounds, senior John Cummings lost in his match against the Mid-American Conference's No. 1 ranked Tyler Grayson, 11-4, proceeding junior 165-pounder Scott Rendos's 7-4 loss to Steve Brown.
With senior Mike Ragusa sitting out to nurse nagging injuries, freshman Patrick Daddino got the nod at 174 pounds. Daddino was unsuccessful in upsetting the MAC's No. 1 ranked Brandon Sinnott, losing 16-6.
"Ragusa has been wrestling injured for three, almost four weeks and if we want him to be ready for the end of the year, we needed to rest him this week," Beichner said.
Junior 184-pounder Mickey Moran snapped his 12-match winning streak against the country's third-ranked Christian Sinnott, 10-4.
The top two ranked 197-pound wrestlers in the MAC squared off with CMU's No. 1 ranked Wynn Michalak squaring off against UB's No. 2 ranked freshman Jimmy Hamel. Michalak, a two-time All-American and ranked sixth nationally, controlled most of the match-up and won by major decision, 15-3.
The dual-meet closed with another bout between two MAC ranked wrestlers, with Buffalo's No. 3 ranked senior Jeff Parker losing to Central Michigan's No. 1 ranked Bubba Gritter, 4-1.
"Our guys are disappointed whether they lose to the fifth-ranked guy in the country or someone that's not ranked," Beichner said. "When you train and work as hard as we do and go out and lose, it's always disappointing."