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BUFFALO, NY - 19th-ranked Central Michigan won the first four weight classes - including two overtime matches - and went on to a 26-12 victory over the University at Buffalo on Saturday afternoon in Mid-American Conference wrestling action.

The Chippewas (7-4-1, 4-0 in the MAC) won seven of ten bouts in the dual meet, however, the Bulls received an impressive win from sophomore Gary Cooper (Adams, NY/South Jefferson) who pinned CMU's Vernon Cannon at 2:17 at 165 pounds for his fifth dual meet fall of the year. Cooper improved to 33-9 on the year.

Buffalo fell to 10-4 overall and 2-3 in MAC competition this year. The Bulls will host the Mid-American Conference wrestling championships at Alumni Arena on March 4-5.

The match was decided in the first four bouts as the Chippewas Phil Baroni opened the match with a rideout overtime victory over UB's Josh States (Lockport, NY/Lockport). The match was tied 1-1 after regulation and after neither wrestler scored in overtime, Baroni successfully rode States out for :30 to claim the close win.

The Chippewas then won the next two matches before UB's Charlie Voorhees (Warsaw, NY/Warsaw) fell, 7-5, in overtime to Central's Ahmad Sanders. That gave the Chippewas a 12-0 lead and they never lost control.

Buffalo also got victories from junior Shawn Kegel (Wantagh, NY/MacArthur) and senior Jake Partlow (Kennonsburg, OH/Shenadoah), wrestling in his final dual meet at home. Kegel defeated Jordan Webster by a 4-3 score to improve to 26-9 on the season while Partlow claimed an exciting 12-8 decision over Russell Clark to move to 23-9 for the year.

Central's No. 6-ranked Chris Marshall defeated Buffalo's Bill Jacoutot (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) by technical fall (17-2) while CMU's Ryan Cunningham, also ranked sixth in the nation, beat Buffalo's Ben Cooper (Copenhagen, NY/Copenhagen) by a 10-3 score.

The match-by-match results:

Wgt. Winner/Loser Time/Score Match Score

184 Phil Baroni (CMU) def. Josh States (UB) 1-1 (rideout) CMU, 3-0

197 Chris Vike (CMU) def. Joe Downey (UB) 5-3 6-0

Hwt. Jack Leffler (CMU) def. Mike Garofalo (UB) 7-3 9-0

125 Ahmad Sanders (CMU) def. Charlie Voorhees (UB) 7-5 (ot) 12-0

133 Shawn Kegel (UB) def. Jordan Webster (CMU) 4-3 12-3

141 Chris Marshall (CMU) def. Bill Jacoutot (UB) WBTF, 17-2 (5:49) 17-3

149 Jeremy Hardman (CMU) def. Ryan Bentley (UB) WBF, 3:31 23-3

157 Jake Partlow (UB) def. Russell Clark (CMU) 12-8 23-6

165 Gary Cooper (UB) def. Vernon Cannon (CMU) WBF, 2:17 23-12

174 Ryan Cunningham (CMU) def. Ben Cooper (UB) 10-3 26-12