NC WR: McAninch and Chirino victorious in loss to Northern Iowa

Jan 11, 2013 by FloWrestling Staff

McAninch and Chirino victorious in loss to Northern Iowa

By HEATHER KENNEDY
UNCBears.com

GREELEY – Some guys will do whatever it takes to help their team.

Northern Colorado junior wrestler Cody McAninch is one of those guys and proved it on Friday night inside Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion. On Wednesday, Head Coach Ben Cherrington approached McAninch and asked him if he would mind moving up a weight class from 184 to 197 and McAninch quickly agreed. He then went on to win of two bouts for Northern Colorado against Northern Iowa (3-1), defeating Blaize Cabell 5-3 to give the Bears (0-4) their first points of the night.

"Cody – what he did tonight was tremendous," Cherrington said. "On two days' notice, I asked him to move up a weight, and Cody, without hesitation, stepped up to the plate. And he went out and performed. He wrestled as good as he's wrestled all year. He went out and did some things we've been working on in practice this week, he executed and it looked like he had fun, which is a big deal."

Sophomore heavyweight Henry Chirino followed it up with a 3-1 sudden victory over Blayne Beale – who won last season's Western Wrestling Conference title at 285 pounds – for the 6-4 lead, but the Panthers won the next seven bouts by fall or forfeit for the 40-6 final team score.

Chirino scored the first point of the bout with 1:40 remaining in the second period on an escape. Beale answered with an escape of his own at the 1:41 mark of the third period to force overtime. With 31 seconds left in the one-minute sudden victory period, Chirino got the only takedown of the match for the win to improve to 18-7 on the year.

"Henry's one of the hardest working guys in our room," Cherrington said. "He's very diligent about everything he does, from his off the mat stuff in nutrition to what he does on the mat. He's always getting extra workouts in, working with Coach (Nate) Lee on different things and putting in the time. He's putting in the time necessary to beat these top guys."

Sophomore Charlie McMartin had an exciting match at 165 pounds, but eventually lost 8-6 to Jarrett Jensen. Jensen scored the first four points, recording a takedown and a two-point takedown, but with 1:38 remaining in the first period McMartin got the reversal for the 4-2 score. Jensen got two escapes – one at the end of the first period and one to start the second – to extend the lead back to four, 6-2, but McMartin posted a takedown and was awarded a point for Jensen stalling for the 6-5 score at the end of the second period. He chose down to start the third and escaped just eight seconds in to knot the score at 6-6, but Jensen got a takedown at 1:34 for the final score.

Northern Iowa won four straight bouts by pin and received six more points on a Northern Colorado forfeit at 157 pounds before McMartin took the mat.

"We were competitive in the matches we thought we'd be competitive in," Cherrington said. "It's no secret that we're not the team we were earlier in the year. There's many circumstances surrounding that but we're getting by and guys are stepping up. It's always an unfortunate situation when you have injuries and guys that quit on the rest of their teammates – that's never a good deal."

The Bears host Colorado School of Mines on Sunday at 2 pm. The match is Youth Day so all kids 13 and younger receive free admission.