KENT, Ohio -- They say it isn't how your start, but how you finish.

But the start can be oh so critical to that all-important finish.

That was the case for the Central Michigan wrestling team at the two-day Mid-American Conference Championships at Kent State's Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center.

The Chippewas started fast in building a big lead on Friday, and then, when they briefly fell behind early on Saturday, they made a major surge and rode it to the coveted team title, their 17th overall and first since 2012.

It was the 15th MAC Championships crown for Tom Borrelli, who is in his 33rd year in leading the program. He was named the MAC Coach of the Year for the 15th time after his Chippewas finished with 131 points. Runner-up Rider collected 114.5, while George Mason (112.5) was third.

"Getting the team championship for Borrelli, that's always awesome," said CMU senior 174-pounder Alex Cramer, who was CMU's lone individual champion. "I love my coach and he's been a great coach for me and any way that I can give back, that's always awesome.

"I think this is the most cohesive team that I've been a part of and just being able to have that culminate in a team championship is just a testament to our bond and how hard we've worked this season. I'm just proud of all these guys."

One champ, nine placers
Though Cramer was the lone Chippewa champion, eight others placed, picking up valuable points by winning match after match along the way.

The depth and the ability to rebound from losses proved to be the difference.

Corbyn Munson (149) was second, while Jimmy Nugent (141), Johnny Lovett (149) and Tyler Swiderski (165) each finished third. The Chippewas' Sean Spidle (125), Cameron Wood (197) and Bryan Caves (285) each finished fourth. CMU's Vince Perez (133) was seventh.

Cramer, Munson and Lovett qualified for the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, Mo., March 21-23.

With Munson and Cramer awaiting their championship matches early on Saturday afternoon, Spidle, Nugent, Lovett, Swiderski, Wood and Caves took the mat in their respective consolation brackets needing one victory apiece to earn a spot in their third-place match.

At that point, the Chippewas had fallen 2 ½ points behind Rider in the team standings, and George Mason lurked closely behind CMU in third.

Remarkably, all six of those Chippewas won those critical matches to advance to the third-place matches.

"We had six guys win," Borrelli said. "I mean, you couldn't get any better than that. (Rider was) a couple of points ahead of us and when that round was over, we were 25 points ahead."

And on their way to the title.

Inspiring performance from an unlikely source
Indicative of the Chippewas' mindset throughout the entire weekend was the performance of Wood, who on Friday rallied from an 8-1 deficit to win a match, 10-9.

On Saturday, he did the same thing, falling into an 8-1 hole and then coming back for a 10-8 win over Rider's Azeem Bell in the consolation semifinal – the match that put him into the third-place match.

"Cam was amazing," Borrelli said. "In both of those matches he was down by seven or eight points and came back to win both of them. And when you have guys who aren't necessarily the stars of your team, but they're just gritty and the come through for you, I think that really motivates everybody else."

And with the place matches remaining, it was a matter of simply getting enough wins to maintain the advantage.

Cramer dominates

Cramer, who was seeded No. 1, was dominant in his run to his second consecutive MAC title. He opened on Friday with a technical fall victory and then won on a major decision in the semifinals.

In Saturday's final, he posted a 16-1 technical fall victory over Rider's Michael Wilson.

Cramer missed the Chippewas' final four dual meets of the season with an injury. He showed no ill effects at the league tournament as he outscored his three opponents by a combined 42-1.

"I try not to focus too much on the wins and losses -- they'll sort themselves out – and just take care of my effort and my attitude in every match and try to compete as hard as I can," said Cramer, who drew inspiration from watching his teammates win those crucial early matches on Saturday. "I was inspired by the team's performance and all the guys battling. I just wanted to go out there and do my part and contribute.

"It was really inspiring to see all of these guys battling for the team and just see them throughout the year and how much they've worked for it. We've had some great teams over the past years that haven't been able to get it done. I'm happy that I was able to contribute."

Said Borrelli of Cramer: "He's a really hard worker and he can wrestle hard when he's tired. When we do conditioning type things, he leads everything we do. That's all it is.

"I don't know who was paying attention in this tournament, but he scored 42 points and had one point scored against him in the whole tournament. I can't believe he wasn't the outstanding wrestler in the whole tournament. That's amazing to me."

Long time coming

The team title quenched a long-running thirst for a Borrelli-led CMU program that dominated the MAC for years, winning 11 consecutive titles from 2002-12.

Things changed in 2013 when Missouri joined the conference for wrestling. The Tigers had been members of the Big 12 but moved to the Southeast Conference, which didn't sponsor wrestling. They were not allowed to compete in the Big 12 in wrestling since the school had left for the SEC for its other sports, so it applied to the MAC and was accepted.

Predictably, the Power Five school dominated the MAC in wrestling, winning every league title for the nine years that it was a member. The Tigers left the MAC after the 2021 season, and the league brought in several eastern schools, including Lock Haven, Rider and George Mason, as wrestling-only members.

CMU finished second in each of the past four MAC Championships. Last season, the Chippewas ended up just 2 ½ points behind Lock Haven, which also won the title in 2022.

"It took a lot of work," Borrelli said. "We were right on the edge a lot when we had a team (Missouri) in our conference that was a top-five, top-10 team (nationally) and we were second to them, I don't know, six or seven times.

"We've been the bridesmaid a lot; it's fun to get back to where we feel like we should be, and it was just a total team effort. We had eight guys finish in the top four in the tournament; that doesn't happen very often."

It was particularly sweet for the veterans in the Chippewa program – the Cramers, the Munsons, the Lovetts – who so often in their careers stood by and watched as another team celebrated at the MAC Championships while the Chippewas clutched the runner-up trophy.

"The guys know the history of this program and how good we've been in this conference and nationally in the past and it's always been frustrating to them that they couldn't represent the program in that way," Borrelli said. "They were disappointed a lot this year. we only finished 8-8 in dual meets; we lost some heartbreaking dual meets to top-20, top-25 teams.

"There was a lot of disappointment in that, and those guys didn't want to feel that again."

Message delivered

The Chippewas finished second in the MAC West behind Northern Illinois after dropping a dual to the Huskies in DeKalb, Ill. Rider won the East division.

Despite that, the Chippewas were ranked No. 1 in the final MAC coaches poll heading into the league tournament.

Clearly, CMU was among the favorites heading into the two-day tournament, but it was evident that the likes of Rider and George Mason would pose a stiff test.

Borrelli knew full well that his Chippewas had a good chance of winning, but he also knew they would have to wrestle extremely well.

"The last couple weeks he was really nervous, kind of twitching a little bit, asking how we're doing a little bit more than usual," said Munson, who is in his sixth year in the program and wrestled in the MAC Championships for the fifth time. "Just trust in his training. He's been here before, he's done it plenty of times so that's what we did and it worked out. It worked out in the past, it worked out this year.

"Last year, it sucked, it really did. That's just the best way to describe it. We weren't able to bring it home last year, but it makes this year so much better, it makes this a lot more thrilling."

Munson said the message that Borrelli has continually preached to his team has taken root, and the results over the weekend were evident.

"The big issue that a lot of teams and a lot of kids face when they're in tournaments like this is (whether) they win or lose," he said. "(Borrelli) put a big emphasis on just going out there and trying to score; don't hold on, don't be hesitant, because when you're so worried about the outcome then you're not going to perform the best.

"It's just going out there, putting your hands on (your opponent) and finding ways to score and get your attacks and the rest will take care of itself."