Lehigh University Athletics
Incoming class earns national recognition
7/7/2009 10:30:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
 |
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Pat Santoro’s first recruiting class at Lehigh is already gaining national recognition. The class, released in late May, has recently garnered a pair of top-25 national rankings from major wrestling publications. InterMat Wrestling ranked the Mountain Hawks’ five-wrestler class as the No. 25 class in the country on Tuesday, while last month the website d1collegewrestling.net ranked Lehigh’s incoming class No. 19 in the nation.
Despite being small in numbers, Lehigh’s incoming class brings a wealth of talent and potential to South Mountain. The quintet combined to win five state titles while also experiencing success on the national level.
Two of Lehigh’s five incoming freshmen, Joey Napoli and Austin Meys, are ranked in the top-100 by InterMat for the class of 2009. Napoli won a state championship in 2008 and was 45-1 as a senior with the lone loss coming in the state finals. The Cumberland Valley native is ranked ninth by InterMat and is regarded as the best senior wrestler not to win a state championship last season. Napoli did bounce back however, winning his match at the Dapper Dan Classic before capturing a Senior High School National title in Virginia in April.
Meys is a three-time state champion for Shenendehowa High School in New York. He had a career high school of 263-8, was undefeated his final two seasons and had an incredible 42 wins by fall as a senior. Meys was twice named Outstanding Wrestler at the state tournament and is ranked 67th by InterMat.
Also joining the Mountain Hawks as part of the Class of 2013 are David Della Torre from New Jersey, Albert Woody from Maryland and Watson Sweat from Tennessee.
The Mountain Hawks have put together some highly-ranked recruiting classes in the last decade, including the nation’s top recruiting class in 2006. Santoro also has a history of inking highly regarded classes, dating back to his five years at Maryland.
Nationally, Oklahoma State topped InterMat’s top five, with Minnesota, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa rounding out the top five.
Lehigh is currently in the midst of its summer camp season. The Mountain Hawks return a wealth of talent, including nine starters, seven NCAA qualifiers and two EIWA Champions.
