Lehigh wrestling begins preseason practice
10/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
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“I’m pleased with how our preseason planning worked out,” said head coach Greg Strobel, who begins his 12th season at the helm of the Lehigh program. “It’s good to have the guys back in pretty good shape and I think this group is up to par with a lot of our recent teams in terms of coming into the preseason in shape.”
The Mountain Hawks return seven NCAA Qualifiers, tied for the most returning qualifiers in school history, which should offset the fact that Lehigh does not have a returning All-American for the first time in 10 years. There are new faces in the wrestling room, with a highly touted recruiting class of 11 freshmen joining the program, as well as three new coaches: assistants Tim Dernlan and Jon Trenge and volunteer coach John Clark.
“The new coaches bring a lot of good new stuff to our practices,” explains Strobel, who earned his fourth EIWA Coach of the Year award in 2006. “Obviously Jon (Trenge) has been around this program for a while and we know what he brings, but Tim Dernlan and John Clark have brought in some interesting new techniques from other programs that should be very helpful.
Last year Lehigh put together a 13-5-1 record during the dual season. The Mountain Hawks crowned three individual champions en route to a fifth straight EIWA team title. Lehigh qualified nine wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, where the Brown and White produced three All-Americans and a ninth place finish.
Senior tri-captain Matt Cassidy is Lehigh’s lone returning EIWA Champion after winning the 197 pound title a year ago. Cassidy is one of five returnees who qualified for last year’s NCAA Championships, joining seniors Paul Weibel and David Helfrich and sophomores Trevor Chinn and Matt Fisk. Seniors Matt Ciasulli and Matt Anderson both competed at the NCAAs in 2004 and 2005.
“Obviously, we’re working towards figuring out our line-up for the coming season,” said Strobel. “The first two weeks, we will work mostly on technique, then we will get into more matches as we move closer to the wrestle-offs. We have some very tough early duals, so we’re going to have to get ready for those matches.”
Lehigh’s annual wrestle-offs will take place on Tuesday November 7, inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. The Mountain Hawks will kick off the dual season on Friday November 10, when they visit Rider at 7:00 pm.
