Sunday, January 8
Ithaca, N.Y.
1:00:00 PM
Lehigh University
12
at
24
Cornell
Mountain Hawks drop 24-12 decision Sunday at Cornell
1/8/2012 7:51:00 PM | Men's Wrestling
ITHACA, N.Y. – On a day in which six of the ten matches were decided by two points or less, No. 4 Cornell won seven of ten bouts hand No. 12 Lehigh a 24-12 setback Sunday at Newman Arena. The Big Red built a 17-0 lead at intermission and clinched the dual when Steve Bosak upset top-ranked Robert Hamlin 2-1 at 184.
The loss drops Lehigh to 5-4 on the dual season and 1-1 against EIWA opponents, while Cornell is now 2-0 (1-0 EIWA). Cornell's win was its first over Lehigh since 2006.
“It had nothing to do with breaks we just didn't wrestle well,” said Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. “We couldn't get off the bottom in eight of our matches. The effort was a little disappointing on bottom. We wrestled hard on our feet. We were coming off a tough week of practice and it's a tough time of year but we need to do more of the little things right.”
Cornell built a 17-0 lead at intermission with wins by decision at the first four bouts followed by a dominant 16-0, second period technical fall by top-ranked Kyle Dake over senior Brian Tanen at 157. The Big Red won the opening bout at 125 by decision and then bumped up sixth-ranked Frank Perrelli to 133 to face freshman Mason Beckman. In the first of three bouts on the day decided by riding time, Perrelli trailed 5-4 after two periods, but scored a third period takedown and won 7-6 thanks to a 1:30 riding time advantage.
At 141, Steve Dutton was also done in by riding time, as he fell 4-2 to Mike Nevinger. The Big Red sophomore scored the first takedown and built up over three minutes of riding time. Dutton scored in the third period to tie the bout, but Nevinger secured an escape on the edge of the mat and managed to run out the rest of the clock while Dutton was trying to cut him loose so he could go after another takedown. The riding time point made the final score 4-2.
Freshman Anthony Salupo dropped another close match at 149 as Chris Villalonga countered a Salupo shot for a takedown to break a 2-2 tie in the third period in a 4-2 Villalonga win.
The Mountain Hawks finally pieced together a pair of hard-fought wins after intermission as senior Sean Bilodeau and freshman Nate Brown won in sudden victory at 165 and 174 respectively. Bilodeau downed Marshall Peppelman 3-1 after gaining control in a Petersen-like position with just two seconds remaining in sudden victory. Brown and Billy George were scoreless through seven minutes with Brown riding out the second period and George riding out the third. Despite Brown taking an injury timeout at the end of regulation, George chose neutral, and Brown was able to come up with a takedown at the edge of the mat with just six seconds remaining to win 2-0. The featured bout of the dual matched up Hamlin and Bosak in a rematch of last year's EIWA finals and NCAA semifinals. Hamlin won all three meetings last season but on Sunday, Bosak found a way to defeat Hamlin for the first time. After a scoreless first period, Bosak rode Hamlin for the first 1:50 of the second period before Hamlin finally escaped to get on the scoreboard. Bosak tied the score with a third period escape, and after numerous shot attempts from Hamlin resulted in zero takedowns and just one stall warning on Bosak, the Big Red grappler won in riding time 2-1.
Senior Kadeem Samuels replaced injured senior Joe Kennedy against No. 1 Cam Simaz at 197, and although Samuels struck first with a quick double leg takedown, Simaz would score the next ten points of the match to win by major decision 10-2.
In the final bout of the dual, senior Zach Rey returned to the mats after missing the Midlands while recovering from a minor injury. Facing off against Maciej Jochym, Rey opened the scoring with a second period escape before taking Jochym down to his back for a fall in 3:46. The pin was Rey's 98th career victory.
The Mountain Hawks will return home for their next three duals beginning Saturday January 14 when they host Navy at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. The match is slated for a 7 p.m. start and tickets can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by logging on to Lehighsports.com.
125 – Bricker Dixon (Cornell) dec. Alex Abreu (Lehigh) 6-1
133 – Frank Perrelli (Cornell) dec. Mason Beckman (Lehigh) 7-6
141 – Mike Nevinger (Cornell) dec. Steve Dutton (Lehigh) 4-2
149 – Chris Villalonga (Cornell) dec. Anthony Salupo (Lehigh) 4-2
157 – Kyle Dake (Cornell) tech fall Brian Tanen (Lehigh) 16-0, 3:45
165 – Sean Bilodeau (Lehigh) dec. Marshall Peppelman (Cornell) 3-1 s.v.
174 – Nate Brown (Lehigh) dec. Billy George (Cornell) 2-0 s.v
184 – Steve Bosak (Cornell) dec. Robert Hamlin (Lehigh) 2-1
197 – Cam Simaz (Cornell) major dec. Kadeem Samuels (Lehigh) 10-2
285 – Zach Rey (Lehigh) Fall Maciej Jochym (Cornell) 3:46
Attendance – 2,379
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