Lehigh University
EIWA Finals
Four peat! Lehigh holds off Cornell to claim EIWA title
3/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
While the fourth time remained a charm for Lehigh, it was not so kind to the Mountain Hawks’ Matt Ciasulli. The sophomore faced off against Cornell’s Travis Lee in the finals, their fourth meeting in the last two years and for the fourth time Lee was the victor scoring a major decision. Lee has now won all four meetings against Ciasulli including last year’s final by an identical 13-4 score. The Big Red’s senior from
Lehigh would claim its first title at 141 as Cory Cooperman put forth a dominating performance, earning crucial bonus points in a 14-1 major decision over Navy’s Nate Gulosh. Cooperman wins his second EIWA title, after taking first place at 133 in 2003.
At 157 Derek Zinck took part in the evening’s highest scoring bout. With takedowns coming from all over the place Zinck fell a point short against American’s top seeded Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov. Zinck suffered his first loss ever in EIWA competition but still qualifies for nationals.
Troy Letters followed Zinck beating Matt Palmer of
Lehigh’s final bout of the night had huge team implications at 197. In the end Jon Trenge outlasted Cornell’s Jerry Rinaldi 4-1 as Trenge picked up his third career EIWA championship and joined Letters as three-time champions. Trenge received the Sheridan Award for the most falls in the shortest period of time, scoring two in four minutes in the quarters and semifinals.
“Heading into tonight I told the team not to worry about what you can’t control,” said victorious head coach Greg Strobel. “Cooperman went out and got us bonus points which were huge. We picked up more bonus points than anyone else and that was huge.”
In other championship finals, Robbie Preston of Harvard took the title at 125. Philip Simpson helped Lehigh’s team cause edging Cornell’s top ranked Dustin Manotti by an 8-7 score. The Big Red joined the Mountain Hawks with three individual titles as Joe Mazzurco and Tyler Baier were victorious at 174 and 184 respectively. In the final bout of the night, Matt Feast of Penn won his third straight EIWA title in overtime over Navy’s Tanner Garrett.
In the end, Lehigh qualified seven wrestlers for nationals and placed all ten. The five finalists all received automatic bids as did third place finishers Matt Anderson at 149 and Travis Frick at 174. Brian LaMay gave a spirited effort throughout the weekend but had to settle for fourth at 184. Andrew Rizzi and Paul Weibel placed sixth at 125 and heavyweight respectively.
“Our goal was to place all ten and we did that,” Strobel said. “We would have liked to qualify all ten for nationals but we know that would have been tough. If Weibel and LaMay finished one place higher they probably would have gotten wild cards. But the team we are sending to nationals can hopefully do some good things.”
By claiming the team title Lehigh becomes the first team since Penn from 1996-99 to win four straight team titles. The time Lehigh won at least four in a row was from 1931-35 when the Brown and White took home five straight team titles. The two and half point margin of victory tied for the second smallest in the last 30 years.
Lehigh will send seven wrestlers to the 2005 NCAA Championships which take place March 17-19 from the
Championship Finals
Weight | Match-up | Result | Score | |
125 | Robbie Preston (Harvard) | Dec | Mike Mormile (Cornell) | 7-3 |
133 | Travis Lee (Cornell) | Maj. dec. | Matt Ciasulli (LU) | 13-4 |
141 | Cory Cooperman (LU) | Maj. dec. | Nate Gulosh (Navy) | 14-1 |
149 | Philip Simpson (Army) | Dec. | Dustin Manotti (Cornell) | 8-7 |
157 | Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov (AU) | Dec. | Derek Zinck (LU) | 14-13 |
165 | Troy Letters (LU) | Dec. | Matt Palmer ( | 7-2 |
174 | Joe Mazzurco (Cornell) | Maj. dec. | Andy Roy ( | 11-3 |
184 | Tyler Baier (Cornell) | Dec. | Josh Glenn (AU) | 4-1 |
197 | Jon Trenge (LU) | Dec. | Jerry Rinaldi (Cornell) | 4-1 |
285 | Matt Feast (Penn) | Dec. | Tanner Garrett (Navy) | 2-1 2o.t. |
Final Team Scores
1. Lehigh 133.5
2. Cornell 131
3. Navy 96.5
4.
5. Penn 77.5
6. American 63.5
7. Army 61
8.
9. Harvard 30
10. Brown 22
11.
12. F&M 13
13. ESU 11
Photo © 2005, Lehigh Athletics, Jeff Nolan
