BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh hits the road for the first time this season, as the Mountain Hawks make their first-ever trip to the Cornhusker State to face No. 14 Nebraska. The Mountain Hawks won just three bouts in a 24-9 loss to No. 20 Pittsburgh in Sunday’s season opener and will have their hands full with a Nebraska team that has eight wrestlers ranked nationally. Lehigh received victories from juniors Kevin Vinh and Trevor Chinn, and sophomore Mike Galante versus the Panthers. Nebraska opened its season with a convincing 47-0 win over Wyoming on Friday, and added six individual titles at the Cowboy Open the following day.
True freshman Mitch Berger and deferred freshman Alex Caruso each made their varsity debuts against Pittsburgh. Both wrestlers impressed despite losing. Berger led Brad Gentzle 4-3 midway through the second period at 125 before being taken down and cradled for a fall. Caruso stood toe-to-toe with top-ranked Keith Gavin at 174, taking the defending NCAA runner-up into overtime before falling 4-2 in the second 30 second tiebreak period. This weekend, another Lehigh freshman will make his varsity dual debut as former Michigan state champion Kyle Rosser will start in place of Jeff Santo at 141.
With eight wrestlers ranked in InterMat’s preseason poll, Nebraska should prove to be a very formidable test for Lehigh. The 14th-ranked Cornhuskers were dominant in a 47-0 throttling of Wyoming in their dual opener on Friday. The following day Nebraska entered a contingent of wrestlers into the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyo. and came away with six individual champions.
The Cornhuskers are led by junior Paul Donahoe, the defending national champion who is ranked No. 1 at 125. Four additional Husker grapplers are ranked in the top ten including Craig Brester (fourth at 197) and Jon May (fifth at 285). Nebraska’s projected starting lineup also features a pair of New Jersey natives in Jordan Burroughs (149) and Vince Jones (184).
When considering some of the places Lehigh has traveled for a dual meet in its 99-year wrestling history, it’s hard to believe that this weekend Lehigh will make its first-ever foray into Nebraska for a dual meet. Lehigh will have wrestled in 21 states, plus the District of Columbia after Friday’s match. Of the five previous duals with Nebraska, two were in Bethlehem, one was at the National Duals at Penn State and two were at the Virginia Duals. Nebraska joins Oregon (Dec. 1995) and Hawaii (Nov. 2003) as states in which Lehigh has wrestled just one dual meet.
Friday night’s match marks just the sixth ever meeting between Lehigh and Nebraska. The Mountain Hawks are visiting the Cornhusker state for the first time ever, after Nebraska visited Bethlehem in February, and came away with a 27-15 win in the 2007 Sheridan Dual. Lehigh and Nebraska squared off in the finals of the Virginia Duals in 2003 and 2004. The Mountain Hawks won the initial meeting in 2003, with the Huskers gaining revenge a year later.
There’s more to Lehigh’s trip to Nebraska than Friday’s dual. On Saturday, Lehigh heads to Omaha to compete in the Kaufman-Brand Open, hosted by Nebraska-Omaha at Sapp Fieldhouse. The nation’s largest single-day collegiate meet features over 650 wrestlers from more than 40 schools from all classifications. Action begins at 9 a.m. local time (10 a.m. EST) and will continue all day.
The Lehigh-Nebraska match gets underway at 7:30 p.m. CST (8:30 EST) from the NU Coliseum in Lincoln. Live streaming video of the match will be available through Nebraska at www.huskers.com or by visiting the link above.
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Date: |
November 16, 2007 |
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Opponent: |
No. 14 Nebraska Cornhuskers |
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First match: |
7:30 p.m. (CST) |
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Arena: |
NU Coliseum (4,030) |
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Location: |
Lincoln, Neb. |
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Lehigh’s record: |
0-1 overall, 0-0 EIWA |
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Nebraska’s record: |
1-0 overall, 0-0 Big XII |
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Series: |
Lehigh leads 3-2 |
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Streak: |
Nebraska has won the last two meetings |
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Television: |
None |
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Radio: |
None |
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Internet broadcast: |
Nebraska’s streaming video can be found here |
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Behind enemy lines: |
http://www.huskers.com
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