Lehigh advances five in morning session at NCAAs

3/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling

St. Louis, MO – The first round of the 75th NCAA Wrestling Championships is in the books and Lehigh placed five of seven qualifiers through to the second round in the Championship Bracket. Five of six seeded Mountain Hawks won their first matches, including a fall, a tech fall and a major decision. The Brown and White were done in by a tough draw at 149 and a minor upset by a tough freshman at 157.

 

Sophomore Matt Ciasulli was the first Mountain Hawk to take to the mats and the number six seed worked out a gritty 3-1 decision over Hofstra’s Charles Griffin. As Ciasulli’s bout ended No. 4 seed Cory Cooperman went out and dominated Cal Poly’s Steve Esparza for an 11-0 major decision.

 

The Mountain Hawks would then drop their next two bouts. At 149 the luck of the draw placed unseeded Matt Anderson against top-seed Zack Esposito of Oklahoma State. Esposito was in control throughout and scored the 13-2 major decision. Then at 157 Derek Zinck dropped a tough 7-4 decision to C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota. Schlatter, a tough freshman, frustrated Zinck and did not allow the No. 9 seed from Lehigh to display his best form.

 

“He (Schlatter) was a No. 1 recruit a few years ago,” said head coach Greg Strobel after the morning session. “Zinck had a slow start and was playing catch-up. Now he’s got his hands full in the toughest weight class in the country.”

 

Lehigh was able to win its final three bouts. Troy Letters opened defense of his national championship at 165 with a tech fall over John DeCault of Purdue. Up next for Letters is a rematch of this year’s EIWA Championship bout with Matt Palmer of Columbia. Travis Frick, seeded eighth at 174 defeated Rocco Caponi of Virginia 9-5, and in Lehigh’s final bout of the afternoon it was Jon Trenge scoring a third-period pin over Brendan McLean of Air Force.

 

“It was a good round, but we started slow,” Strobel explained. “We need to have a better warm-up next time out.”

 

Action resumes later Thursday evening from St. Louis, as preliminary bouts continue, and wrestle-back preliminaries get underway.  Scheduled start time for Session II is 6:30 pm CST from Savvis Center.  An audio recap of the entire day’s events will begin at approximately 10:30 pm EST on lehighsports.com, with interviews and highlights off all the day’s action.

 

SCENES FROM ST. LOUIS … All 330 wrestlers made weight Thursday morning … only four (4) wrestlers enter the tournament with an undefeated record: Nate Gallick, Iowa State (141, 25-0), Troy Letters, Lehigh (165, 22-0), Greg Jones, West Virginia (184, 20-0), and Steve Mocco, Oklahoma State (285, 32-0) … Oklahoma State, the No. 1 ranked team, also appeared to have the biggest fan contingent, with over 2,000 Cowboy fans in the stands at Savvis Center.

 

2005 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships – Session I Top Team Scores

Team

Score

1. Oklahoma State

23.5

2. Minnesota

23.0

3. Cornell

18.5

4. Oklahoma

16.5

5t. Illinois

16.0

5t. Iowa

16.0

5t. Iowa State

16.0

8. Northwestern

13.0

9. LEHIGH

12.5

10t. Hofstra

12.0

10t. Indiana

12.0

10t. Michigan

12.0

 

Lehigh individual results – Session I

Weight

Match-up

Result

 

Score

133

Matt Ciasuli (Lehigh)

dec.

Charles Griffin (Hofstra)

3-1

141

Cory Cooperman (Lehigh)

maj. dec.

Steve Esparza (Cal Poly)

11-0

149

Zach Esposito (Okla. St.)

maj. dec.

Matt Anderson (Lehigh)

13-2

157

C.P. Schlatter (Minnesota)

dec.

Derek Zinck (Lehigh)

7-4

165

Troy Letters (Lehigh)

tech. fall

John DeCeault (Purdue)

19-4, 4:47

174

Travis Frick (Lehigh)

dec.

Rocco Caponi (Virginia)

9-5

197

Jon Trenge (Lehigh)

WBF

Brendan McLean (Air Force)

6:37

Photos (c) 2005, Lehigh Athletics/Jeff Nolan

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