Mountain Hawks ready for NCAA Championships
3/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
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“We’ve got four guys who have been here before, and they’ve all been here four times, and we also have five new guys, which gives us nine which is a record for us,” said Strobel, who was one of seven head coaches to address the media Wednesday afternoon inside
Leading the Lehigh contingent are four seniors, all of whom are four time NCAA qualifiers and all of whom have earned an All-American medal at least once.
Senior Troy Letters will try and become just the third four-time All-American in Lehigh history, which would place him in an elite club with Darryl Burley and Mike Brown. Letters, the 2004 national champion at 165 placed second as a freshman in 2003 and third last year. He missed nearly two months with a neck injury and is hoping to save his best for last at the NCAA Championships.
“The word I’ve used is agonizing,” said Strobel in regards to Letters’ senior season. “He has been through a lot of pain at times. He is learning to have to work through it, and being mentally tough and fighting through it. He didn’t have a good easterns, but did have a good week of practice and should be ready to go on Thursday.”
In addition to Letters, senior Cory Cooperman will look to earn All-American honors for the third time at 141. Classmates Derek Zinck and Travis Frick will look to place in the top eight for the second time in their final NCAA tournament.
The Mountain Hawks’ five first-time qualifiers include EIWA Champion Matt Cassidy at 197, freshmen EIWA runners-up Matt Fisk (125) and Trevor Chinn (149), plus juniors Dave Helfrich and Paul Weibel.
Overall, Lehigh has claimed 26 individual national championships, won by 20 different wrestlers. The Mountain Hawks have the ninth most career All-Americans with 124. The Brown and White have never won the NCAA Team Championship, coming as close as second in 1939 and third in 1965, 1979 and a tie for third in 2004. Lehigh has placed in the top ten at the NCAA Championships in four straight seasons and five of the last six.
The 76th NCAA Championships get underway Thursday at 11:00 am central time from
