Lehigh University Athletics
Trenge, Letters gain top seeds
9/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
Bethlehem, PA – Junior All-American Jon Trenge is the favorite to claim the national title at 197 according to the seedings for the NCAA Championships released Monday evening. Freshman Troy Letters gained the two seed at 165.
Trenge and Letters headline a group of eight Mountain Hawks’ who qualified for the championships. Trenge is 30-2 on the season and is ranked No. 1 in the nation. For his career, last year’s runner up has 99 wins. A win in his first match will make him the fastest wrestler in school history to reach the century mark. Letters, meanwhile, enters the championships with a 30-1 record, including an astounding 21 bonus wins. The only loss of his career came against the No.1 seeded wrestler at his weight, Matt Lackey of Illinois.
Freshman Cory Cooperman is seeded sixth at 133, while freshman Derek Zinck and junior Brad Dillon sit in the seven position at 157 and 174, respectively. The Mountain Hawks’ fourth freshman qualifer, Travis Frick, received the 11 seed at 184. Lehigh’s remaining pair of qualifiers, sophomore Terrance Clendenin and Joe Sahl, went unseeded.
Zinck enters the competition with a 26 bout win streak, while Cooperman has won 19 straight. Dillon joined Trenge, Letters, Cooperman and Zinck in the winner’s circle two weeks ago at the EIWA Championships, as all five won individual titles. Sahl received Lehigh’s final automatic bid, reaching the finals of the heavyweight competition. Clendenin and Frick enter the match as wild card berths, after each placed third in the EIWA Championships.
The eight qualifiers give Lehigh a chance for a strong team performance at the championships, held March 20-22 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO.
To see complete championship brackets, please click here.
For more information, contact Geoff Goyne, Lehigh Sports Media Relations.
Posted Monday, March 17, 2003.
