Bennett & Trice era at CMU comes to an end in Des Moines

3/24/13

BY JEFF CHANEY

DES MOINES, IOWA – Ben Bennett and Jarod Trice leave the

Central Michigan University wrestling program as two of the most

decorated grapplers to wear the maroon and gold.

But the two were not happy with how their careers ended Saturday

at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo

Arena.

Bennett, a 184-pounder, became the program's first four-time All

American at Central Michigan by taking fourth this year, while

heavyweight Trice became the most decorated heavyweight,

earning his third All American status by taking sixth.

“For me, I'm disappointed,” Bennett said. “I had high goals for

myself, I set high goals. Right now I'm a little upset, but I didn't

execute how I needed to.”

Bennett lost to Robert Hamlin Friday night in the semifinals 3-2,

dropping him to the consolation bracket. He beat Iowa's Ethen

Lofthouse 3-2, before falling to Cornell's Steve Bosak 2-0 in the

fourth/third place match.

“Right now I'm disappointed, but I'll probably look back in 20 years

and appreciate what I've done,” Bennett said. “But right now I didn't

accomplish what I wanted to do when I got here, and win a National

Championship, so I'm disappointed.”:

For Trice, he lost in the quarterfinals to eventual National Champion Tony Nelson 1-0. He then came back and won two matches before losing two matches to take sixth.

“I'm not satisfied at all placing sixth,” Trice said. “That wasn't the goal I set. On that podium eight guys can say they are All Americans, but only one can say they are a National Champion.”

Now that their collegiate careers are both done, both Bennett and Trice have aspirations to compete at the international level.

“I want to stay in wrestling, keep training and wrestler internationally,” Bennett said. “And I'd like to stay at Central Michigan – but (coach Tom Borelli) and I still need to talk, we haven't talked about that because we have been focusing on the year.”

As for Trice?

“I'm going to turn my attention to freestyle and Greco-Roman,” Trice said. “I would love to get a (World Championship) medal.”

Bennett and Trice were the state's only two All Americans.

Nick Hankins contributed to this story

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Ben Bennett on the Awards Podium.  Photo/Boris Veysman