Evanston, IL - Mountain Hawk wrestlers put together a strong showing on day one of the 42nd Midlands Championships. Of the six Lehigh grapplers who made the trip to Northwestern, four remain alive to place in the illustrious event. As expected senior Jon Trenge led the charge for the Brown and White on Wednesday, coasting into the semifinals at 197 pounds by posting two pins and an 8-1 decision over eighth seeded Joel Flaggert of Oklahoma. Trenge is the only Lehigh wrestler guaranteed to place, he will face Oregon’s Scott Barker in the semi-finals Thursday afternoon. With three wins on Wednesday Trenge now has 19 in his career at Midlands and needs one more win to become the 17th member of the “20 in 4 club.”
Senior Brian LaMay and sophomores Matt Ciasulli and Paul Weibel still have a chance to place, but all three will have to win consolation bouts on Thursday. LaMay picked up three victories on Wednesday at 165 pounds, two coming over seeded opponents before losing in the quarterfinals to Jared Frayer of the Dave Shultz wrestling club. Ciasulli picked up a pair of wins at 133 before falling 5-2 to top seeded Mark Jayne of Illinois. He will next face Brian Heller of Penn State, with the winner placing and the loser being eliminated. Weibel went 3-1 on Wednesday at 285 and will face Kirk Nail of Ohio State on Thursday with the winner guaranteed a place.
Things did not go so well for Andrew Rizzi at 125 or Dave Helfrich at 184. Rizzi lost his two bouts on Wednesday, including a tech-fall to number two seed Efren Ceballos of Bakersfield. Helfrich picked up a victory over Northern Iowa’s Dan Dunning but dropped a pair of one-point decisions to nationally ranked opponents.
Action from the 42nd Midlands Championships continues Thursday afternoon, with Championship bouts set for Thursday night.
