Three Mountain Hawks advance to EIWA semis

LANCASTER, Pa. – All three of Lehigh’s No. 2 seeded wrestlers reached Sunday’s semifinals to lead the way for the Mountain Hawks on day one of the 104th EIWA Championships Saturday at the Mayser Center. Sophomore Seth Ciasulli, junior Trevor Chinn and senior Dave Nakasone all went 2-0 on Saturday for Lehigh, which sits in seventh place with 30 points after day one. Three other Mountain Hawks: sophomores Mike Galante and Manuel Schubert, and freshman Alex Caruso are still alive in the consolation brackets.

“Overall, we are where we thought we’d be,” said Lehigh head coach Greg Strobel. “Our workhorses did their job. We started off with a bang with some pins. Schubert exceeded our expectations making it to the second day, but even guys like Iacocca, Santo and Berger were in the hunt and continued to fight hard.”

Ciasulli and Chinn both started the day with wins by fall. Ciasulli pinned Nikhil Pereira of Princeton in 1:37 at 133 and then won by decision over Tom Picarsic of Harvard 5-1. He will face No. 3 seed David Marble of Bucknell in the semifinals.

Chinn earned a rematch with third seed Cesar Grajales of Penn at 149, pinning Jack Barrett of Rutgers at the end of the second period then upending Bucknell’s Kevin LaValley 7-4.

Nakasone became Lehigh’s third semifinalist after securing a takedown in the final seconds of sudden victory to beat Army’s Christian Snook 3-1 at 157. In his first match, Nakasone scored an 18-6 major decision over Brantley Hooks of Bucknell. Nakasone will meet No. 3 Spencer Manley of Navy in the semifinals.

The only other Mountain Hawk to win his opening round match was Caruso (174), who won by technical fall over Kasey McCurdy of Brown. Caruso faced Penn’s Scott Giffin in the quarterfinals, but found himself pinned from the neutral position with the score tied 1-1 with nine seconds remaining. In his first wrestleback Caruso defeated Mike Whalen of Rutgers 4-1, and will now meet Ryan Mergen of Army in Sunday’s third round of consolations.

At 165, Galante nearly upset No. 2 seed Michael Cannon of American in the quarterfinals. After earning a first round bye, Galante scored the opening takedown, but was taken down at the end of the second period. In the end three seconds of riding time was the difference in a 4-3 win for Cannon. Galante did bounce back with a 44 second fall to remain alive in the consolations. He will meet Chris Musser of Brown on Sunday.

Schubert delivered a pleasant surprise, winning his first round consolation 4-1 in overtime over Rutgers’ Keith Dobish at 184. The wrestlers were tied 1-1 after regulation, but in the first tiebreaker period Schubert escaped and scored a takedown to remain alive and move on to face Casey Caldwell of Navy.

Of the five Mountain Hawks to lose in the opening round, sophomore Alex Iacocca came closest to upsetting a seeded opponent. Iacocca went into sudden victory with No. 7 seed Dave Williams of ESU. After a scoreless sudden victory period, Iacocca was reversed in the first 30 second tiebreak, but escaped in the final seconds. Iacocca’s attempts at an escape or reversal were unsuccessful in the second 30 second period, as Williams held on for an 8-7 win. Iacocca won his first round consolation over Zack Morse of Princeton before falling to Navy’s Matt Parsons.

Three Mountain Hawks went 0-2 on the afternoon. Senior Jeff Santo dropped a tough 7-4 decision to No. 3 seed Steve Adamscik of Rutgers, and then had to wrestle No. 5 seed Adam Frey of Cornell. Santo and Frey engaged in one of the day’s wildest matches, with points going up on the scoreboard at an alarming rate; however, it was Frey eliminating Santo by major decision 22-14. Sophomore Justin Allen (285) and freshman Mitch Berger (125) also were eliminated after dropping two bouts.

Defending champion Cornell placed eight wrestlers in the semifinals to lead after the first day. Lehigh sits a point behind sixth place Bucknell and five behind fifth place Navy.

The 104th EIWA Championships continue Sunday morning with the semifinals and third round consolations, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The Finals are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast online at Lehighsports.com.

First Round

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score/Time
125	Rollie Peterkin (Penn)	tech fall	Mitch Berger (Lehigh)	18-0, 3:25
133	Seth Ciasulli (Lehigh)	Fall	Nikhil Pereira (Princeton)	1:37
141	Steve Adamscik (Rutgers)	dec.	Jeff Santo (Lehigh)	7-4
149	Trevor Chinn (Lehigh)	Fall	Jack Barrett (Rutgers)	5:00
157	Dave Nakasone (Lehigh)	maj. dec.	Brantley Hooks (Bucknell)	18-6
174	Alex Caruso (Lehigh)	tech fall	Kasey McCurdy (Brown)	18-3, 7:00
184	Lior Zamir (Penn)	dec.	Manuel Schubert (Lehigh)	6-3
197	Dave Williams (ESU)	dec.	Alex Iacocca (Lehigh)	8-7, t.b.
285	Chris Birchler (ESU)	dec.	Justin Allen (Lehigh)	8-5

Quarterfinals

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score/Time
133	Seth Ciasulli (Lehigh)	dec.	Tom Picarsic (Harvard)	5-1
149	Trevor Chinn (Lehigh)	dec.	Kevin LaValley (Bucknell)	7-4
157	Dave Nakasone (Lehigh)	dec.	Christian Snook (Army)	3-1, s.v.
165	Mike Cannon (American)	dec.	Mike Galante (Lehigh)	4-3
174	Scott Giffin (Penn)	Fall	Alex Caruso (Lehigh)	6:51

First Round Consolations

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score/Time
197	Alex Iacocca (Lehigh)	dec.	Zack Morse (Princeton)	8-3
285	Samuel Ritter (Princeton)	dec.	Justin Allen (Lehigh)	4-2

Second Round Consolations

Weight	Match-up	Result		Score/Time
125	Jacob Bucha (F&M)	maj. dec.	Mitch Berger (Lehigh)	8-0
141	Adam Frey (Cornell)	maj. dec.	Jeff Santo (Lehigh)	22-14
165	Mike Galante (Lehigh)	Fall	Joe Kushnerick (Columbia)	0:44
174	Alex Caruso (Lehigh)	dec.	Mike Whalen (Rutgers)	4-1
184	Manuel Schubert (Lehigh)	dec.	Keith Dobish (Rutgers)	4-1, t.b.
197	Matt Parsons (Navy)	dec.	Alex Iacocca (Lehigh)	8-4

Team scores after day one

Team	Points
1. Cornell	68.5
2. Penn	56.5
3. Army	41.5
4. American	37.5
5. Navy	35
6. Bucknell	31
7. Lehigh	30
8. Brown	21
9. Harvard	18.5
10. Columbia	16.5
11. Rutgers	16
12. ESU	8.5
13. F & M	7.5
14. Princeton	4

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