Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh ready to defend crown
9/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
Bethlehem, PA – Lehigh (17-3, 8-0 EIWA) travels to Cornell this weekend for the EIWA Championships. The fourth ranked Mountain Hawks are the favorite to repeat as team champions and five Lehigh wrestlers should be the favorites at their weight when seedings are released.
Junior All-American Jon Trenge, classmate Brad Dillon, and freshmen Troy Letters, Cory Cooperman, and Derek Zinck are all ranked No. 1 in the EIWA and are in the top 10 nationally at their weights as well. Trenge is the defending champion at 197 and currently holds the top ranking in the country. Dillon will be making his first appearance in the tournament at 174. Injuries have prevented the ninth ranked grappler from competing the last two seasons. Letters is ranked No. 3 in the nation and has only one loss on the season. Zinck also has only one loss and ranks as highly as No. 5 in the polls at 157. At 133, Cory Cooperman ranks seventh in the nation and has not lost a bout since losing his first two.
A fourth freshman, Travis Frick, and another junior, Joe Sahl, figure to be in the mix for titles as well. Both wrestlers are ranked third by the EIWA. Frick is the nation’s ninth ranked wrestler at 184, but the league contains two wrestlers ranked ahead of him, Princeton’s Greg Parker and Clint Wattenburg of Cornell. Sahl sits third in the EIWA and No. 17 in the polls, behind Matt Feast of Penn and Army’s John Paxton.
Lehigh could be without two of its starters at the remaining three weights. Both junior Mario Stuart at 125 and sophomore Tommy Rohn at 149 are suffering from injuries, which will probably keep them out of the line up. Sophomore Terrance Clendenin will step in for Stuart, the EIWA’s third ranked man at 125. Clendenin stands in at 10-6 on the season. At 149, another sophomore, Aaron Kling, will go to the mat for the Mountain Hawks. Kling has been in and out of the line up with Rohn all season, and has a record of 6-7. Lehigh’s lone senior starter, Tristan Boyd, who has all of his career pins in the EIWA Tournament, will be the Mountain Hawks’ entry at 141.
Cornell and Penn figure to be the best bets to try and knock Lehigh from its perch. The Big Red has six wrestlers ranked in the top three at their weights in the EIWA, while the Quakers send five entries to the mat rated that highly. The Mountain Hawks ran the table in the EIWA in duals, winning all eight matches, including victories over both Cornell and Penn.
The Championship rounds of the EIWA Tournament will be broadcast live on both the Lehigh website at www.lehigh.edu and on 1230 AM, The Sports Monster. Ross Nunamaker will call the action, beginning at 6:00 on Saturday.
For more information, please contact Geoff Goyne, Lehigh Sports Media Relations.
Posted Wednesday, March 05, 2003.
