Cooperman, Zinck advance to national semis

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Lehigh seniors Cory Cooperman and Derek Zinck won matches in Friday’s afternoon session to advance to the national semifinals at the 76th NCAA Championships at Ford Center. After Friday’s morning session the Mountain Hawks are in sixth place with 39 points and three wrestlers remain alive heading into Friday night’s session.

Cooperman advanced after pinning No. 6 seed Ryan Lang of Northwestern in 6:05. After a scoreless first period, Cooperman turned Lang onto his back for a three point near fall early in the second and eventually built a 6-1 lead before wrapping things up with the pin. Cooperman will next face No. 2 seed and defending national champion Teyon Ware of Oklahoma in the semi-finals. He also became a three-time All-American in the process.

Zinck downed No. 3 seed Alex Tirapelle of Illinois 3-2 in a tiebreaker. Tirapelle led 1-0 with riding time late in the third period, before Zinck converted a takedown with 20 seconds left to force overtime. After a scoreless sudden victory period, Zinck escaped in the first 30 second tiebreaker and then rode out Tirapelle in the second tiebreaker to advance to his first national semifinal. Zinck will meet No. 10 seed Brian Stith of Arizona State in the semifinals, and has earned the second All-American medal of his career.

Senior Travis Frick was not as fortunate, as he fell to the undefeated top seed Ben Askren of Missouri in the quarterfinals at 174. The nation’s top ranked wrestler proved simply too much accumulating five takedowns and three near falls in the win.

Frick will now meet Kenneth Robertson of Eastern Illinois in Friday night’s wrestle-back round needing one win to earn his second All-American honors.

Friday afternoon was not so kind to Lehigh’s other four remaining qualifiers. Freshman Matt Fisk and Trevor Chinn and juniors Dave Helfrich and Paul Weibel each won their first consolation bout of the day, with Helfrich pinning Ryan Halsey of Cal Poly. All four however lost their second match of the afternoon to a seeded opponent, thus ending their tournament.

Also for Lehigh, senior Troy Letters forfeited his consolation bout due to injury. Despite the setback, Letters, the last Mountain Hawk to win a national title, will leave Lehigh as a three-time All-American and EIWA Champion.

Three time defending team champion Oklahoma State has increased its lead on the field. The Cowboys have 76 points and have five wrestlers alive in the championship bracket and seven overall.

The 76th NCAA Championships continue Friday evening with the championship semifinals and two rounds of consolations. Action gets underway at 6:00 CST with live audio coverage available online at lehighsports.com with streaming powered by Yahoo! Sports.

Championship Quarterfinals

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score
141	Cory Cooperman (LU)	WBF	Ryan Lang (Northwestern)	6:05
157	Derek Zinck (LU)	dec.	Alex Tirapelle (Illinois)	3-2 t.b.
174	Ben Askren (Missouri)	tech. fall	Travis Frick (LU)	19-3, 5:13

Second Round Consolations

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score
125	Matt Fisk (LU)	dec.	Luke Magnani (Iowa)	4-2
149	Trevor Chinn (LU)	dec.	Robert Sanders (Nebraska)	5-2
184	Dave Helfrich (LU)	WBF	Ryan Halsey (Cal Poly)	1:57
285	Paul Weibel (LU)	dec.	Chris Cvitan (JMU)	8-4

Third Round Consolations

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score
125	Kyle Ott (Illinois)	dec.	Matt Fisk (LU)	7-2
149	Matt Dragon (Penn)	dec.	Trevor Chinn (LU)	5-3
184	Kurt Backes (Iowa State)	dec.	Dave Helfrich (LU)	6-2
285	Bode Ogunwole (Harvard)	dec.	Paul Weibel (LU)	6-3

Team Scores
Team	Points
1. Oklahoma State	76
2. Iowa	47.5
3. Oklahoma	47
4. Minnesota	44.5
5. Penn State	39.5
6. LEHIGH	39
7. Arizona State	38.5
7. Hofstra	38.5
9. Michigan	38
10. Cornell	33

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