Lehigh University
NCAA Championships
Zach Rey wins twice to earn third place at NCAAs
3/20/2010 2:00:00 PM | Men's Wrestling
 |
OMAHA, Neb. – After losing in the semifinals Friday night sophomore Zach Rey battled back to win both his matches on Saturday to claim third place at heavyweight at the 80th NCAA Championships at Qwest Center. Rey opened the day by beating defending national champion Mark Ellis of Missouri 3-1 in the consolation semifinals, then outlasted defending runner-up Konrad Dudziak to win 4-2 in the second sudden victory period in the third place match.
“Zach coming back was huge,” said Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. “If you can’t win this thing you have to take third. It’s all about your personal goals. You train hard for the tournament and try to win every match but if you don’t you have to come back and wrestle hard. That’s what Zach did.
Santoro added, “He had the opportunity to wrestle last year’s champ and runner-up and he wrestled hard and found a way to win at the end.”
Rey’s victories also vaulted Lehigh into 17th place in the team standings with 30.5 points entering the finals Saturday night.
Trailing 1-0 in the second period against Ellis, Rey countered an Ellis shot and spun behind for a takedown with 20 seconds remaining to take a 2-1 lead. Rey added a third period escape to win 3-1 and move into the third place match against Dudziak.
In the final Lehigh bout of the year, Rey and Dudziak battled for over nine minutes. Rey was warned for stalling in the first period and had several quality scoring opportunities in the second period, third period and sudden victory. The Hopatcong, N.J. native nearly rode out the first 30 second tiebreaker period but Dudziak escaped with one second remaining. Rey’s escape in the second tiebreaker period sent the match to a second sudden victory period. In the sudden victory period Dudziak shot at Rey’s leg but Rey was able to counter and spin behind for the decisive takedown to claim third place.
Rey is one of just two of the eight heavyweight All-Americans who will return next season.
“I fell short last year so this year I was pretty hungry for All-America status,” said Rey, who reached the round of 12 as a freshman. “I’m happy with the way things ended today. I didn’t want to do the ‘semis slide’ where you lose in the semis and go down to sixth. I wanted to come out and fight hard and I’m happy with the results.”
As a team, the Mountain Hawks improved on their 28th place finish from 2009. Rey broke a three-year All-American drought for Lehigh while senior co-captains Matt Fisk and Seth Ciasulli each advanced to the round of 12 falling one win short of All-America honors. Lehigh returns seven of its ten starters for the 2010-11 season.
“With Rey losing in the semifinals and two guys losing in the All-American round it left a bad taste in our mouths last night,” Santoro said. “Zach wanted to come back strong to help himself and the team. If we want to be in this thing in the future we have to go out there and fight for each other. That’s what Zach did today.”
Consolation Semifinals
|
Weight |
Match-up |
Result |
|
Score/Time |
|
285 |
Zach Rey (Lehigh) |
dec. |
Mark Ellis (Missouri) |
3-1 |
Third place match
|
Weight |
Match-up |
Result |
|
Score/Time |
|
285 |
Zach Rey (Lehigh) |
dec. |
Konrad Dudziak (Duke) |
4-2, s.v. 2 |
Lehigh NCAA Championships Post-Match Extra
