Santoro announces 2009-10 wrestling schedule
9/10/2009 11:45:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Seven home duals and match-ups with four of the top ten team finishers at last year’s NCAA Championships highlight Lehigh’s 2009-10 wrestling schedule announced by head coach Pat Santoro on Thursday. The Mountain Hawks compiled a school-record 23-1 dual mark last year against a tough schedule and will face yet another challenging slate this season. Lehigh will make return trips to the Northeast Duals and the Virginia Duals, and will send wrestlers to the prestigious Midlands Championships for the first time in five years. In addition, the Mountain Hawks will host the 106th EIWA Championships at Stabler Arena in March.
“This is a really tough schedule,” explained Santoro, who begins his second season as head coach. “One of the strongest we’ve had just in terms of the quality of teams that are on it. We’ve got some top-ten teams. We’ve added some new teams, like Virginia Tech that could be a top-20 team. We’ll face all our big rivals, plus teams like Rutgers and Penn who are always challenging.
Santoro continued, “Our main goal is always going to be the NCAA tournament and I believe this schedule will prepare us best for what we’ll see at the NCAA tournament.”
The 101st season of Lehigh wrestling begins with the annual wrestle-offs, scheduled for Friday, October 30 inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. The regular season begins with three straight home duals, starting with the season-opener against Rider in Grace Hall on Sunday, November 8.
The following weekend, the Mountain Hawks will take on their two oldest in-state rivals. On Friday, November 15, Penn State, under new head coach Cael Sanderson visits Stabler Arena for the 98th meeting between the two teams. Lehigh will look to build on last year’s 17-16 win at Rec Hall, which stopped a four dual Nittany Lion winning streak in the series. Two days later, the Mountain Hawks welcome Santoro’s alma mater Pittsburgh for a Sunday afternoon showdown.
Lehigh’s first road trip of the season features a pair of very talented foes from the Big Ten. The Mountain Hawks will travel to Columbus, Ohio to face Ohio State on November 20. The Buckeyes are coming off a second place team finish at the NCAA Championships. On November 22, Lehigh heads to Ann Arbor, Michigan to battle the Wolverines in what has become an annual meeting between the schools.
For the third straight year Thanksgiving weekend will see Lehigh up to Troy, N.Y. for the Northeast Duals. Last year the Mountain Hawks went 4-0 at the event, highlighted by Lehigh’s first ever win against Oklahoma State. This season, Lehigh will battle another Big XII foe in Nebraska, plus Santoro’s former school Maryland, and ACC member North Carolina.
After breaking for final exams and the holidays in December, action will pick up once again on December 29 and 30 when Lehigh heads to Evanston, Illinois for the Midland’s Championships, hosted by Northwestern. The Mountain Hawks have not sent wrestlers to the Midlands since 2004 and last sent a full squad of ten back in 1998.
“The Midlands is one of the premier tournaments in wrestling,” Santoro said. “Two in-season tournaments really come to mind, Las Vegas and the Midlands. By going to the Midlands, we will see a lot of Big 10 and Big XII teams. Lehigh hasn’t been there in a while, but it’s exciting to be returning to this prestigious national tournament.”
The Mountain Hawks will begin 2009 at the Virginia Duals; January 8-9 in Hampton, Va. Lehigh will be making its third straight appearance at the duals. Last year the Mountain Hawks beat Ohio, Kent State and Edinboro to reach the finals, where they suffered their only dual loss of the season to Central Michigan.
After two months away from home, Lehigh makes its return to Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall with home duals on Friday, January 15 and Saturday, January 16. On Friday night the Mountain Hawks will entertain West Virginia, while the next day longtime EIWA rival Navy comes to town.
Another of the EIWA’s most intense rivalries will be renewed on Friday, January 22 when Lehigh travels to Ithaca, N.Y. to face Cornell. The two teams have not met in a dual since Lehigh upset the Big Red at Stabler Arena in 2007 and Cornell has since won the last three EIWA team championships.
“Getting Cornell back on the schedule had to happen,” said Santoro. “We need to wrestle the best teams, especially those within our conference. It should be a fun dual meet for the fans of both teams.”
Following a weekend off, Lehigh will wrap-up its home dual schedule with a pair of duals on February’s first weekend. On Friday, February 5, the Mountain Hawks will meet Virginia Tech inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. The following day, Lehigh will wrap up its home dual schedule against Rutgers at Stabler Arena.
The final three regular season duals will all be on the road against Ivy League opposition. Lehigh will make its annual trek to New England with matches at Brown on February 12 and Harvard on February 13. The Mountain Hawks wrap up the regular season against Penn at the famed Palestra on Sunday February 21.
The EIWA Championships return to Stabler Arena for the first time since 2006, with the 106th edition of college wrestling’s oldest conference tournament, March 6 and 7. Lehigh finished second to Cornell last year and will look to regain its perch atop the conference for the first time since winning the title at Stabler in 2006.
“Hosting the conference tournament always helps in terms of travel and logistics,” explained Santoro. “It should be a very competitive tournament with a number of good teams in our conference. It should also be very convenient for our athletes.”
The 2010 NCAA Championships are scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska and will run from March 18-20 at Qwest Center.
Lehigh returns 17 letter winners in 2009-10, including nine starters and EIWA Champions Seth Ciasulli and David Craig.
