Mountain Hawks look strong in preseason practice
10/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
“I see our guys in better shape, earlier than ever.” Strobel said. He credits the pre-season conditioning program, organized by assistant coach Chris Ayres, for having wrestlers come into preseason practice in top shape.
“The guys are just stronger looking,” Strobel said. “Because they’re in shape we’ve been able to practice pretty hard and go harder from the beginning.”
Strobel is pleased from what he’s seen on the mat as well.
“Our projected starters are looking good and the backups also look strong, they’re pushing the starters,” Strobel said.
One of the more interesting preseason battles is at 125 pounds. Strobel praised both John Stout and Andrew Rizzi as they compete to replace the graduated Mario Stuart. Strobel also likes what he’s seen from Matt Ennis a133 pounds and his 149 pound wrestlers, Matt Anderson, Rob Rohn and freshman Trevor Chinn.
Travis Frick has looked strong as he moves down to 174 to replace former All-American Brad Dillon. The Mountain Hawks also return defending national champion Troy Letters at 165 and Jon Trenge at 197, back from his Olympic deferral.
“Trenge is more mature, and he learned some new technical things,” said Strobel.
Most preseason polls have once again ranked Lehigh in the top five. Some polls have the Mountain Hawks ranked as high as second, but there is still plenty of work to be done.
“I think we’re a strong tournament team,” Strobel said. “We will become a strong dual meet team yet.” He contends the biggest question marks remain in the 125, 149 and heavyweight classes. For now the goal is to make sure the Mountain Hawks stay rested and healthy, both mentally and physically.
“They need to stay on task and develop like I think they can,” said Strobel. “It could be a good year, but we want it to be a very good year.”
The 2004-05 wrestling season gets underway with the Wrestle-Offs on November 2. The Mountain Hawks open the regular season on Friday, November 12 when they host North Carolina State at 7:00.
