Evanston, IL -
Senior
Jon Trenge became the first Lehigh wrestler to win two Midlands Championships on Thursday night, defeating Ohio State’s J.D. Bergman to capture the 197 pound division at the 42nd annual event hosted by Northwestern University. Trenge posted a perfect 5-0 record at the tournament, giving him a career total of 21 Midlands wins, making him the 17
th member of the illustrious “20 in 4” club, for matmen who won 20
Midlands bouts in their first four years. Trenge also won the 197 pound
Midlands title in 2002 and led the way for the Mountain Hawks, as three Lehigh grapplers placed in the tournament.
Sophomore Matt Ciasulli bounced back from a Wednesday defeat to post four wins on Thursday and capture a third place finish. In the third place bout Ciasulli mustered an exciting 8-4 sudden overtime victory over second seeded Matt Sanchez of Cal-Bakersfield.
Sophomore Paul Weibel placed eighth at 285 pounds, posting a 4-3 record in the tournament. He started the day well, beating Kirk Nail of Ohio State before falling to Harvard’s Bode Ogunwole 5-3. Weibel then fell to number three seed Matt Fields of Iowa.
Of the four Lehigh matmen to advance to the second day, only LeMay failed to place. The senior lost his consolation match to sixth seeded Donny Reynolds of Illinois.
LaMay posted a 3-1record on Wednesday with, two of the victories 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 before falling 5-2 to top seeded Mark Jayne of Illinois. Weibel went 3-1 on Wednesday, dropping a major decision to sixth seeded Pat DeGain of Indiana.
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.
The sixth ranked Mountain Hawks return to dual meet competition on Friday January 7, when they travel to Penn State to take on the 16th ranked Nittany Lions for the second time this season. Lehigh beat Penn State 24-15 in the finals of the Penn State Dual Championships in mid-November. The match gets underway at 7:30 and will be broadcast live in the Lehigh Valley on ESPN Radio 1230 and 1320 as well as online at lehighsports.com.
