Sophomore 197 lbs. Blake Schaffer, the third seed in his weight class, needed to finish in the top two on Saturday at the Mid-American Conference Championships to punch a ticket to the National Tournament.

Schaffer went 4-1 in the tournament, winning the third-place match, but lost the wrestle-off to Buffalo’s Sam Mitchell, which sent Mitchell to Kansas City for the NCAA tournament. 

Schaffer ground out two wins by decision over Clarion and Edinboro wrestlers, 6-3 and 2-1 respectively, before falling into the wrestle backs on Saturday. 

After winning 6-3 in the third-place match, Schaffer had the opportunity for a true second place because he and Mitchell had not wrestled each other.

Schaffer was taken down in the second period and could not recover and lost the match 5-3.

He missed out on a chance for the NCAA Tournament in Kansas City.

“His goal is to get to the national tournament,” coach Jim Andrassy said. “He had the opportunity if he won that last true second match.”

Despite just missing out in third place effort, Schaffer jumped five spots from his last year tournament placing and increased his win total by nine victories. He still has a redshirt year that can be utilized.

“Depending on what we do with him, he’s really close to the national tournament,” Andrassy said.

No other KSU wrestler would qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

The Kent State wrestling team finished the MAC Tournament in 11th place, in a tournament hosted in the M.A.C. Center.

The Flashes scored 43 total points in the tournament — 25 short of their mark last year, where the team finished in ninth place. 

“This is the first year in my coaching career that we didn’t take a guy to the national tournament,” Andrassy said. “That’s not acceptable for me as a coach and for Kent State wrestling.”

Kent State hosted the two-day event, but had no home-field advantage and ran into tough competition.

“We lost a lot of close matches,” Andrassy said. “[There were] a lot of matches where we couldn’t score points — you have to be able to score points in this league.”

Action on the home mats 

Sophomore 133 lbs. Pablo Castro IV picked up two wins on Friday — a 7-4 decision over a Clarion wrestler and a 12-2 major decision over a higher-seeded Cleveland State wrestler. 

His luck ran out as he lost his last three matches by decision, taking home sixth place.

Castro IV had a 17-11 record on the season and used a late-season push to earn MAC Wrestler of the Week on Jan. 23.

“He made great strides throughout this year as far as accomplishing things,” Andrassy said.

Junior 165 lbs. Aaron Ferguson showed glimpses of good wrestling throughout the tournament by defeating his Clarion opponent in an 11-1 major decision and by winning his matchup over his Northern Illinois opponent in a sudden victory.

Ferguson, like Castro IV, took home sixth place in the tournament.

“He has done really well,” Andrassy said. “He needs to evaluate what weight class he can do the best in. It might be at 157.”

Sophomore 157 lbs. Keegan Knapp, who was eliminated on Friday after going 1-2, also has some questions surrounding his weight class.

“He’s made some strides, but he’s a guy who has talked about going to 149 when getting to the right weight class,” Andrassy said.

Andrassy said finding a good weight class is critical in wrestling and could make all the difference.

“Getting to the right weight class is very important, it isn’t about cutting weight or even getting bigger, it’s about looking the part,” he said. “We were grossly undersized physically — we need to look at those guys and say that they could wrestle in that weight class and be successful.”

The Flashes hope to use the offseason to find themselves physically and to get back in the mix with the MAC.

“When I say we physically need to get to the right weight class, those are the guys that need to figure out exactly what weight classes they need to be in,” Andrassy said. “We physically looked undermatched to a lot of kids.”

Junior 149 lbs. Matthew Ryan finished in seventh place, and graduate student 174 lbs. AJ Burkhart finished in eighth, after falling in overtime and lost by decision 7-5.

“Taking fifth or sixth out of 13 people isn’t that big of a deal,” Andrassy said. “You have to want to be the best — the best at this level is really important, and you have to want to get to the National Tournament and win a MAC Championship.”

The Central Michigan Chippewas took home the Mid-American Conference title with 131 points. CMU came in second place last year with 110 points right behind last year’s winner Lock Haven, who finished in fourth this year.

“They’re tough — they score points and they don’t give up many easy points,” Andrassy said. “They also have some older guys on that team. They’ve developed some kids that have stuck in the program and they have four seniors that scored a lot of points.”

Although the team is young, the Flashes will have decisions to make with the graduate transfer Burkhart on his way out.

“We have some guys that might be able to grow and fill that position,” Andrassy said. “In some weight classes, we might want to fill [them] with some transfers, and if we can identify a transfer that we could get our hands on we might go that route again.” 

The entire Kent State wrestling team was in attendance and got a valuable learning experience by soaking in MAC wrestling’s biggest stage.

“They were all there watching,” Andrassy said. “With having the whole team there watching, they get a better idea of what it takes to actually win this tournament.”

A flash forward

Andrassy wants to see a mentally and physically tough wrestling squad coming into the fall season.

“Next year, we have to get better and we have to expect more from ourselves,” he said. “We have to be tougher and the expectations have to get greater.” 

There is an emphasis on bigger expectations leading to bigger results.

“We have to expect more out of them,” Andrassy said. “If we don’t expect more out of them, they’re not going to expect more out of themselves, and we’re going to have the same type of results.”

Another focus that KSU has, is utilizing redshirting to further develop some of the team’s weight classes.

“There might be three or four guys we redshirt next year and fill their spot,” Andrassy said. “We can grow in some of our other weight classes. Guys like Ferguson and Castro IV go from sixth to, in two years, putting themselves in position to be MAC champs.” 

With a very young team, Kent State envisions an exciting next few years of wrestling.

“If we’re being realistic, we’re still two years away from where we need to be as a team to fight for a team championship,” Andrassy said. “If we can just stick together and keep the team we have and keep adding to the spots that we need, there’s no reason why it can’t happen.”

This offseason, the coaching staff looks to see a lot of hard work being put in.

“There’s a lot of different things that go into being a great wrestler,” Andrassy said. “It just isn’t about what we are going to do next year — it starts literally tomorrow for our guys.”

Andrew Gold is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].