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Thursday, March 5, 2015
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MAC Championships to be a ‘mental game’ for wrestling Frank Gogola Sports Editor T @FrankGogola
DeKalb | Head coach Ryan Lud-
wig doesn’t put much stock into where his wrestlers are pre-seeded for the 2015 MAC Championships. The highest-ranked Huskie for the MAC Championships, a double-elimination tournament which starts 2 p.m. Saturday and continues noon Sunday in Columbia, Mo., is senior Derek Elmore at No. 4 out of eight in the 125-pound class. The seeds are considered preseeds because if a wrestler does not make weight then his spot goes down to No. 8 and everybody else moves up one spot. “Regardless of where you’re seeded you still have to wrestle the matches,” Ludwig said. “Seeds are fun to discuss, to look at. Ultimately, it all depends on where the guys stack up on the podium at the end of the tournaments. “So, we just got to keep the right attitude that you only wrestle the guy in front of you; don’t worry about the rest of the bracket. That’s the way you get damage done to be able to get yourself to the NCAAs.” The MAC has been allocated 33 wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, which is March 19-21 in St. Louis, Mo. The lowest number of MAC qualifiers is one at 133 pounds
and the highest number of those who can make the national tournament is six at the 197-pound class. Elmore, pre-seeded No. 4 at 125 pounds, is heading to the MAC Championships for the second time in his career after not placing in his sophomore season. “I just got to get a little more focused, just really not worry about the crowd or like who I’m wresting,” Elmore said. “My sophomore year I was a little bit more worried about who I was wrestling like with rankings and the big names. “This year I’m just going to go out there and with it being my senior year, go out there and give it all I got no matter who I’m wrestling.” As for Elmore’s opponent this year, he’ll take on Central Michigan’s Brent Fleetwood. Elmore, 21-9 on the season, defeated Fleetwood, 1-0, when the two met Dec. 20. “We wrestle a real similar style,” Elmore said. “I plan on being able to take him down in that first [period] and ride him out. If I go down on bottom it’s just, ‘Get the hell out of there.’” Redshirt sophomore Shawn Scott, one of two wrestlers to earn a No. 5 pre-seed, will open the tournament against Northern Iowa’s Basil Minto, who Scott lost to, 3-2, on Jan. 9. Scott’s in arguably the toughest weight class with the likes
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MAC tourney pre-seeds 125: No. 4 Senior Derek Elmore 133: No. 8 Redshirt freshman Jordan Northrup 141: No. 6 Senior Tyler Argue 149: No. 8 Redshirt freshman Austin Culton 157: No. 6 Junior Andrew Morse 165: No. 7 Redshirt sophomore Shaun’Qae McMurtry 174: No. 5 Redshirt sophomore Trace Engelkes 184: No. 7 Freshman Quinton Rosser 197: No. 5 Redshirt sophomore Shawn Scott 285: No. 8 Redshirt junior Arthur Bunce • There are eight wrestlers in each weight class at the MAC Championships. of Missouri’s J’Den Cox, the defending national champion, and No. 2 Phil Wellington, of Ohio. “Everybody physically is about the same,” Scott said. “I think it’s more of a mental game now. That’d be who’s got the better game plan out there to win the match. “We’ve already wrestled each other, so we already know what we’re going to do. It’s just going to be the whole … mental game plan that’s going to decide how matches are going to be won.”
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