After finishing the MAC regular season in a three-way tie for first place, the NIU wrestling team took second place in the MAC Championships on March 9.

NIU finished the MAC Championships with 70.5 points. Central Michigan took the crown as it tallied 93 points in the two-day tourney.

Both the Huskies and the Chippewas had the same amount of conference champions, with three apiece.

“This is a tough tournament,” coach Dave Grant said. “The thing that we have to key on is the fact that we have three champions. We won a third of the titles and that’s impressive.”

NIU’s 157-pound Scott Owen, 184-pound Ben Heizer and 133-pound Sam Hiatt all won their weight-classes. Josh Wooton, a 141-pounder, took second to earn a wild-card spot. Marlon Felton, a 125-pounder, was selected as an alternate.

Owen faced Eastern Michigan’s Chad Roush in his first-round match-up. After a quick takedown, it took Owen only 26 seconds to pin him.

After the quick disposal of Roush, the second-ranked Owen took on CMU’s David Bolyard and won with a final of 14-3.

In the championship match, Owen beat Buffalo’s Labe Black 22-8. With his dominating performances, the sixth-year senior won his second-straight Most Outstanding Wrestler at the MAC Championships.

“I had the same philosophy as I always have,” Owen said. “It’s always attack, attack, attack. I also like to be on the move and score a lot of points. That’s good for me. I just tried to keep scoring and it worked out.”

Heizer had a first-round bye and faced Buffalo’s Garrett Bontempo in the second round.

Heizer said that match was a “control match” and won easily with a final of 8-0.

From there he went on to to grapple with CMU’s Russ Vanderheyden in the championship.

Heizer said he was a little flustered after Vanderheyden took a 3-0 lead and had to refocus in that match. Heizer went on to take a 6-5 victory for the title.

“I was still a little rusty,” Heizer said. “But, I still have a couple of weeks before Nationals. I don’t feel it was a good performance on my part, but I still got the win.”

Hiatt beat Kent State’s Drew Opfer 10-4 in his first match, won a tight match against UB’s Mike Trotta 4-2 before heading to the title match.

In the title match, he met Anthony Carrizales from Ohio, who beat Hiatt last year in the MAC Championships. The match went back-and-forth with Hiatt eventually winning 6-5. Being crowned champion was special for Hiatt, especially since it was on his birthday.

“Sam beat him in the dual meet after losing to him in the semis of last year’s tournament and that probably kept Sam from going to Nationals,” Grant said. “I think that stuck with Sam all year long and he worked hard. He gave himself a great birthday present.”

Wooton, a freshman, won his first two matches setting up a rematch against CMU’s Jason Mester, who Wooton beat earlier this year, and lost 11-6, setting up a second-place match for Wooton. There, he didn’t waste any time as he pinned OU’s Paul Hodermarsky in the first period, setting up his wild-card invitation.

With the team taking second, Owen was pleased with how well he and the team performed.

“When we came into this, we said we wouldn’t be happy unless we came out as champs,” Owen said. “Our guys wrestled hard and came out a little short. We should be proud because everyone wrestled hard.”