Kent State senior Danny Mitcheff (Lorain, Ohio/Elyria) was named Mid-American Conference Wrestler of the Year Tuesday, following a vote by the league's head coaches.  Mitcheff recently capped off his career by earning All-America status with a sixth place finish at the NCAA Championships in Omaha.

Winning four matches in the 133-pound bracket at the national tournament, Mitcheff bumped his Kent State career-record victory total up to 131.  He broke the record two weeks earlier, when we won an individual title at the MAC Championships and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler for the second straight season.

Mitcheff becomes the second Golden Flash grappler in as many seasons to earn Wrestler of the Year honors.  Last season Jermail Porter became the first KSU wrestler to do so since Don Horning in 1985. 

Starting his season off with 17 straight victories, Mitcheff went 34-6 on the year with 13 major decisions, four technical falls and a pin.  Sixteen of his victories came against NCAA qualifiers.  Along with a MAC title, he also won individual crowns at the Oklahoma Gold Classic and the Body Bar Invitational.  Mitcheff's only loss of the 2009 portion of the season came in the finals of the Southern Scuffle against eventual national champion Jayson Ness (Minnesota).

Central Michigan's wrestling program has collected two of the Mid-American Conference's annual specialty awards.

Head coach Tom Borrelli was named MAC Coach of the Year for the 11th time in his 19 seasons at CMU, while redshirt freshman 174-pounder Ben Bennett (Rockford, Mich./Rockford HS) was selected MAC Freshman of the Year.

The awards were voted on by the conference's six wrestling head coaches.

Borrelli has claimed the MAC Coach of the Year award seven times in the past eight seasons. His 11 coach of the year accolades are the most of any coach in any sport in conference history.

Borrelli led the Chippewas to their 11th MAC title in the past 12 seasons and ninth consecutive conference tournament crown in 2010. CMU qualified all 10 individuals for the NCAA Championships and finished tied for 12th at the national tournament.

Bennett earned All-America honors with a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, becoming just the fourth freshman in program history to be named an All-American. He earned an automatic bid to the national tournament after claiming the MAC title at 174 pounds; Bennett posted a 15-0 technical fall against Kent State's Keith Witt in the conference tournament championship match.

Bennett is the 11th different Chippewa to be named MAC Freshman of the Year and first since Mike Miller in 2007. He ranked second on the team in total victories, posting an overall mark of 26-8.