Jared Shlensky
Sports editor
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The North Central wrestling team finished fourth out of four teams at the CCIW Championships inside Merner Fieldhouse on Thursday after scoring 61 total team points.
Wheaton College finished right in front of NCC to claim third place with 63 points, while Elmhurst College finished in second with 69.5 team points.
Augustana College claimed first place after scoring 83 points along with its first conference championship since 2004.
“The CCIW conference is a tough conference,” said head coach Kevin Bratland. “All the teams are good, and it could be a different outcome if you wrestled this tournament ten times.”
Freshman Layten Binion was all smiles on Thursday after improving to 33-6 on the season, along with claiming North Central’s lone individual conference title at 133 pounds.
“It left a good taste in my mouth, said Binion. “Especially because I opened up more on my feet and that’s exactly what I need to do if I’m going to compete for a national title this year.”
Binion claimed his first CCIW title after defeating 2013 Elmhurst College All-American Miguel Venecia 9-2 in the finals.
The freshman defeated Venecia two times prior to the conference championships, both of which were decided by two points; but on Thursday, Binion credited his more aggressive approach to extending the margin of victory.
“All year, coach (Bratland) has been telling me I got to open up
more on my feet, which means I got to shoot more because that’s what I’m best at, and that’s what I did,” said Binion.
Aside from a more open and more aggressive approach on his feet, Binion credits his success this season to a competitive group of practice partners: senior Nick Santos, freshman Andrew Rodawald, junior Nathan Segal and sophomore Josh Tardy.
“All those guys have different strengths and weaknesses and that just really helps me out for different opponents,” said Binion.
Three Cardinals finished as conference runner-ups, including Santos at 125 pounds, Rodawold at 141 pounds and Tardy at 157 pounds.
Finishing in third place for the Cardinals was Segal at 149 pounds, freshman Eric Kirkman at 174 pounds, sophomore Casey Greenberg at 197 pounds and junior heavyweight Dylan Mahler.
Meanwhile, freshman Alex Vosburgh placed fourth at 165 pounds, along with freshman Vincent Pizzo at 184 pounds.
With the Cardinals getting ready for their NCAA Division III Midwest Regional on Saturday, coach Bratland feels the CCIW Championship is a perfect tournament to help prepare his team.
“It’s only two matches, but we don’t want something extremely grueling during this time of year, so it’s a good prep going into the regional,” said Bratland. “It also lets guys know what they need to work on, what they’re doing well and gives us something to go to the practice room with.”
While the Cardinals have five guys with at least 20 wins this season, all of whom have a very good chance of advancing to the NCAA Division III Championship tournament, coach Bratland is more concerned about how hard each guy wrestles, not about who does and does not advance to the NCAA Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“I don’t know if I put things into numbers or winning and losing. The only think that I ask of my guys each time is that they go out there, fight and wrestle hard,” said Bratland.
The Midwest Regional is scheduled for Saturday at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., with a start time yet to be determined.
