Annual wrestle-offs set for Sunday afternoon
10/31/2008 8:30:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
 |
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh fans will get their first look at the 2008-09 Mountain Hawks on Sunday afternoon with the annual wrestle-offs, inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. This season marks the 100th season of wrestling at Lehigh, and first-year head coach Pat Santoro and his coaching staff has put together a slate of ten exciting match-ups as the Brown and White will take to the mat in Leeman-Turner Arena in preparation for the November 9 season opener against No. 17 Maryland.
“What we’re really looking to do is put our guys in a competitive environment,” said Santoro. “We had the guys make weight last week. They’ll make weight again this week, and now we’ll put them in a singlet in front of over 1,000 people. It should be good preparation for our first dual.”
The ten-match lineup features nine returning starters from last season and six wrestlers who have previously qualified for the NCAA Championships. Junior co-captain Matt Fisk returns from his deferred year at 133, while David Craig returns to 184 after missing the second half of last season. In addition, fans will get to see four deferred freshmen: John McDonald, Sean Bilodeau, Brian Tanen and Zach Rey in action, along with five true freshmen from Lehigh’s most recent recruiting class.
“As a coach its tough because we won’t actually be coaching during the wrestle-offs,” said Santoro. “For us, it’s important to see the intensity level, the positioning of our wrestlers and to see how creative they are out there. We want to see a good intensity, with guys trying to score points. This isn’t the end all for them, so we want them to be pretty aggressive and open.”
The wrestle-offs get underway at 1 p.m. from Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (610) 7LU-GAME or visiting the Lehigh ticket office, located in Grace Hall. For those unable to make it to Grace Hall on Sunday, the wrestle-offs can be seen both live and on-demand at Lehighsports.com with streaming video powered by Yahoo! Sports College Broadcast.
Here’s a weight-by-weight look at Sunday’s probable match-ups.
|
Weight |
Brown |
vs. |
White |
|
|
125 |
John McDonald |
vs. |
| |
|
133 |
Patrick Wieger |
vs. |
| |
|
141 |
vs. |
| ||
|
149 |
vs. |
| ||
|
157 |
vs. |
| ||
|
165 |
vs. |
| ||
|
174 |
vs. |
| ||
|
184 |
vs. |
| ||
|
197 |
vs. |
| ||
|
285 |
vs. |
|
