Recap courtesy of Central Michigan's Athletic Communications Department

Match-by-match results
EAST LANSING, Mich. – In a close wrestling dual meet, bonus points make all the difference.

Central Michigan and Michigan State split 10 matches, 5-5, on Friday, but the Chippewas scored bonus points in two of their wins and that was, indeed, the difference as they posted a 19-15 nonconference victory over the Spartans at Jenison Field House.

CMU (10-6) closes the regular season on Sunday against No. 13 Michigan (8-6) at McGuirk Arena (2 p.m.). The Chippewas will honor eight seniors prior to the dual. Michigan State is 4-10.

One of those seniors, Chandler Amaker, provided the biggest highlight of the night on Friday as he pinned DJ Shannon nearly 10 minutes into their 165-pound match.

They were tied through seven minutes of regulation and two minutes of sudden victory, sending the match to the one-minute tie-breaker.

Amaker pinned Shannon with six seconds remaining, giving the Chippewas six team points and extending their lead to 16-6. It was Amaker's first pin of the season as he improved to 14-13.

"Chandler is coachable, we push him, we challenge him sometimes, and he responds the right way," CMU coach Ben Bennett said. "He keeps trying to put his best foot forward. He just kept wrestling hard. When you keep fighting, you keep wrestling, and sometimes you fall into those positions, and then you capitalize.

"Bonus points in a dual are huge. Six points in a dual where you split matches 5-5."

Sophomore Nick Blackburn notched CMU's other bonus point with a 9-1 major decision at 141. Blackburn improved to 11-13 with his seventh win in his last 12^th matches.

"Nick is a goer," Bennett said. "He wrestles hard. He's been really close to breaking through all year, and I keep telling him, 'You're right there, you're right there, you're right there.'

"He went out tonight and just wrestled a great match and figured out how to get a couple takedowns. He's a grinder. And he can wrestle when he's tired, which is a huge advantage. If you can wrestle hard when you're tired, you always have a chance to, A, win a match; and, B, get bonus points. Tonight that paid off for him.

"I'm really happy for him because I know how much it means to him. And I know how hard he's been working this year, and he probably hasn't got the results he's wanted."

CMU's other wins, all decisions, came from Andrew Austin (133), Mason Shrader (149) and Wyatt Ferguson (184).

Austin controlled his match from the outset in topping 32^nd-ranked (FloWrestling) Caleb Weiand, 9-4. It was the redshirt junior's first win over a ranked wrestler in seven tries this season.

Shrader, who is ranked 23^rd nationally by InterMat and 24^th by FloWrestling, outlasted Darius Marines, 10-7, to win his seventh match in his last eight starts and improve to 21-6; Ferguson grinded out a 2-1 victory to even his record at 8-8.

Ferguson's match was tied, 1-1, late in the third period when MSU's Ryan Boucher was called for stalling with under 20 seconds remaining, giving Ferguson the decisive point.

"They wrestled tough, they were gritty, they kept fighting, they kept trying to score," Bennett said of Shrader and Ferguson. "There's a lot of ways to score points. Sometimes it's a takedown. Sometimes it's a stalling call.

"There's a lot of ways to win a match and sometimes you've got to figure out just how to win the match. Sometimes it's not pretty. But you keep fighting and you figure out how to win the match. They were both in tight matches and they just didn't quit wrestling. They didn't give up. I feel like they just outfought the other guy a little longer. And sometimes that's all it comes down to."