Karam, Schuyler and Preisch win titles to lead Lehigh contingent at Wilkes Open

Karam, Schuyler and Preisch win titles to lead Lehigh contingent at Wilkes Open

12/22/2018 8:20:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Lehigh wrestling team closed out the fall semester by sending 18 wrestlers to Saturday's Wilkes Open. The Mountain Hawks' contingent featured a mix of attached and unattached wrestlers, including several veterans returning to action after missing time due to injury. On the day, Lehigh crowned three champions, had eight finalists and had 12 wrestlers place in the top six of their respective weight classes.

Lehigh's three individual champions were sophomore Luke Karam (141), senior Cortlandt Schuyler (149) and senior Ryan Preisch (184). Karam and Preisch returned to action for the first time since the Nov. 11 Journeymen Collegiate Classic, while Schuyler made his season debut. Schuyler and Preisch bested Lehigh teammates in their finals bouts.

After suffering an injury in his first bout at the Journeymen Classic, Karam rolled through the 141-pound bracket, going 6-0 with five falls to claim the title. Karam's fastest fall was a 1:13 pin over Kyle Medrow of Wilkes in the quarterfinals. In the finals, Karam bested Patrick Quinlan of Franklin & Marshall 9-3. Quinlan knocked off junior Ryan Pomrinca 5-4 in the semifinals. Pomrinca went on to finish third, going 4-1 on the day.

Schuyler's debut action for the season featured three wins by technical fall before defeating teammate Jimmy Hoffman 7-4 in the finals at 149. Hoffman had two technical falls and a fall prior to his loss to Schuyler in the finals.

Also competing for the first time since Nov. 11 was Preisch, who won his first four bouts on the day, with two falls, before facing sophomore Chris Weiler in the finals. Preisch claimed a 7-0 decision over Weiler, who competed down at 184 for the first time since his deferred season, to win the title at 184.

Senior Gordon Wolf also made his season debut at 165, going 4-0 with all four wins by technical fall, before medically forfeiting in the finals to take second place.

Competing unattached, freshman Brian Meyer reached the finals at 157, winning three bouts before suffering a 4-1 loss to American's Kizhan Clarke in the finals. Sophomore Kyle Gentile made the finals at 197 before dropping a 5-3, sudden victory decision to Rutgers' Matt Correnti.

Lehigh's other place winners included freshman Satoshi Abe, who took third at 133, freshman heavyweight Victor Lacombe, who claimed third place and freshman Austin Burkhart, who took fourth at 149.

Also competing for the Mountain Hawks at Wilkes were junior Paul Dunn (174), deferred freshman Dan Moran (141) and Eli Grape (184) and true freshmen Mitchell Polito (133), Elijah Jones (184) and Andrew Shedleski (184).

Complete results and brackets are available on FloArena and via the link above.

The Mountain Hawks will return to dual competition at the South Beach Duals, Dec. 29-30 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lehigh will face Minnesota and Missouri on Dec. 29 and North Carolina and Virginia the following day.

The 2018-19 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.