Mountain Hawks ready to hit the mat for Wrestle-Offs
11/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
The Wrestle-Offs are more than just a showcase for the fans. Several of Tuesday night’s bouts will determine the starters for the upcoming season. The meet also marks an opportunity for the wrestlers to gain live match experience in front of the fans.
“It’s great to watch and see how the guys are able to pick up their intensity when they’re wrestling in front of a big home crowd,” coach Greg Strobel said.
Tuesday night’s event will feature 12 matches, one from each weight class plus two exhibitions. One of the intriguing battles remains at 125 pounds, where the trio of John Stout, Patrick Berger and Andrew Rizzi all looked very strong in the preseason. Late Monday afternoon the coaching staff determined that it will be Stout against Rizzi in the 125 pound main event.
“It’s always nice because we always win,” Strobel said jokingly.
Lehigh tops the recently released EIWA pre-season polls. The Mountain Hawks come into this season ranked second in most national publications. In the EIWA individual rankings released last weekend, eight Lehigh wrestlers were ranked in the top five in their weights. Seven of the eight ranked wrestlers will be in action Tuesday night.
Here’s a weight by weight breakdown of Tuesday night’s probable match-ups:
Weight | BROWN | WHITE | |
125 | John Stout (So.) | Andrew Rizzi (Sr.) | |
Patrick Berger (Fr.) | Gerrit Swaneveld (So.) | Exhibition | |
133 | Matt Ciasulli (So.) | Jeffrey Santo (So.) | |
141 | Matt Ennis (So.) | Cory Cooperman (Jr.) | |
149 | Matt Anderson (So.) | David Nakasone (So.) | |
157 | Ben Bishop (So.) | Derek Zinck (Jr.) | |
165 | Edward Silverman (So.) | Brian Lamay (Sr.) | |
174 | Travis Frick (Jr.) | ||
184 | David Helfrich (So.) | Matt Cassidy (So.) | |
Jon Bruno (So.) | Kevin McFarland (So.) | Exhibition | |
197 | Dave Brundage (Sr.) | Jon Trenge (Sr.) | |
HWT | Tom Curl (Jr.) | Paul Weibel (So.) |
The Wrestle-Offs get underway at
