Season Preview: Mountain Hawks focused on effort and improvement

11/7/2019 7:40:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

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The college wrestling season can be a grind. Officially, just over four months from the start of practice to the final day of the NCAA Championships. Last year, the Lehigh wrestling team successfully navigated its long and sometimes difficult journey, shaking off an 0-7 dual start to go 9-9 and more importantly, used a total team effort to win its second straight EIWA title and 36th overall.

For years, the Mountain Hawks have talked about performing at their best during the postseason. "Eyes on March," has been the rallying cry. While that remains important, the 2019-20 edition of the Mountain Hawks are taking a more simplified approach, focused solely on improvement on a day-to-day basis.

"It's important to realize that the end is always in mind, but we have to keep getting better," 12th-year head coach Pat Santoro said. "There are going to be holes, this weekend, next month, but we have to get better.

"We'll always have March in mind, but our number one goal every day is to get better today."

Lehigh enters the 2019-20 season with a 38-man roster. The Mountain Hawks return two All-Americans, three EIWA Champions and seven wrestlers that have competed at the NCAA Championships. The roster features four fifth-year seniors and 10 fourth-year juniors. On the other side, Lehigh has added eight true freshmen to its roster, while five others will compete for the first time after deferring eligibility last season.

Leading the way for the Mountain Hawks will be senior Jordan Kutler and junior Jordan Wood, who will serve as team captains. Kutler has won back-to-back EIWA titles at 174 and earned his second consecutive All-America honor. Wood also became a two-time EIWA champion at 285 and made the NCAA podium for the first time with a fourth place finish.

"We have some really great leadership," Santoro said. "We're excited to see how this group will respond to the challenges we'll face and the adversity that we're probably going to deal with at some point. That's when you find out about true leadership. When you see how they respond to adversity."

The other returning conference champion is sophomore Josh Humphreys, who became just the second Lehigh wrestler since 1980 to win an EIWA title as a true freshman.

To test their daily improvements and prepare for the postseason, Lehigh will face another challenging schedule. Several early-season tournaments will help shape the lineup, while the dual slate features eight teams in the preseason NWCA Top 25, including No. 1 Penn State and No. 4 Oklahoma State at Stabler Arena. The Mountain Hawks will also host the EIWA Tournament in March as they bid for a third consecutive team title. The NCAA Championships will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., as Lehigh looks to get back into the top 10 for the first time since 2012.

"A lot of our early season competition will create opportunities for our guys to try to become 'the guy,'" Santoro said. "As the season progresses we'll try to narrow down who those people will be.

"If you talk about the end of the year now, guys can lose focus," he continued. "That's four-and-a-half or five months away. We have to focus on getting better today. That's the mentality. We always say 'Eyes on March,' which is our ultimate goal, but really the goal is how can we get better on a daily basis. Who is going to show up? How are you going to show up? What are you going to do every day? We have a lot of good wrestlers and they all want that opportunity to wrestle. We're going to watch what happens and see what unveils itself."

Here's a weight by weight look at what to expect from the Mountain Hawks in 2019-20:

125 – There will be good competition here. Sophomore Luke Resnick ended up manning the weight for most of last year and improved as the season progressed. He received the Gerald G. Leeman Award at the year-end Lewis Wrestling Dinner. NCAA qualifier Brandon Paetzell has dropped down after competing at 133 last season. The junior wrestled 125 at Rutgers as a true freshman in 2016-17. Deferred freshman Mitchell Polito will also be part of the competition here.

133 – With Paetzell moving down, this could prove to be one of Lehigh's most wide-open weight classes. Junior Nick Farro moved up from 125 midway through last season and has experience I competition. Junior Joe Lobeck competed primarily at 141 last year, but competed here as a freshman and could make the move back down. Sophomore Jaret Lane appeared in two duals at 125 last year before suffering a season-ending injury. Satoshi Abe will miss the start of the season due to injury but could figure in here along with any of the 125-pounders.

141 – Senior Ryan Pomrinca emerged as the starter last season and placed sixth at the EIWA Championships. Sophomore Dan Moran enjoyed his first dual action last year and will be in the mix here as well. Lehigh also has a pair of talented true freshmen, Connor McGonagle and Malyke Hines, waiting in the wings along with sophomore Brock Herring and freshmen Nathan Haubert and Paul Watkins.

149 – The graduation of two-time NCAA qualifier Cortlandt Schuyler creates an opening here. Sophomore Jimmy Hoffman competed in four first semester duals last year in place of Schuyler. Lehigh also returns Luke Karam, a NCAA qualifier in 2018, who moves up permanently after missing most of last season due to injury. Freshmen Haubert and Watkins could also figure here.

157 – Josh Humphreys burst onto the scene with one of the top true freshmen campaigns for a Lehigh wrestler in recent memory. Humphreys became the second Lehigh true freshman since 1980 to win an EIWA title and finished one win shy of becoming an All-American. Deferred freshman A.J. Burkhart and sophomore JT Cooley will provide depth behind Humphreys.

165 – Another open weight with the graduation of Gordon Wolf. Deferred freshman Brian Meyer, Lehigh's Deferred Eligibility Wrestler of the Year last year, and fifth-year Chase Gallik are the top returnees. Gallik has previous competitive experience, mostly at 174, but the prolific pinner has dropped down a weight class. Other contenders include senior Kent Lane and junior Trey Cornish, both of who competed in duals at this weight last year, and true freshmen Luca Frinzi and Edmond Ruth.

174 – Jordan Kutler has an opportunity to close out his career as a three-time All-American and three-time EIWA Champion. Last year, Kutler won his second straight conference title at this weight and added a seventh place finish in Pittsburgh. He brings a 66-12 career mark into his senior campaign. Gallik, Ruth and senior Charlie Sell provide depth here.

184 – The graduation of Ryan Preisch, who capped his career with a podium finish, creates an opportunity for junior Chris Weiler to focus full-time on his natural weight. Weiler reached the All-America round of 12 at the NCAA Championships in 2018 and went 20-11 last year, splitting his time between 184 and 197. Junior Dylan Ammeriman, sophomore Eli Grape, deferred freshman Andrew Shedleski and true freshman Jake Logan will all compete for time behind Weiler.

197 – Junior Jake Jakobsen overcame a midseason injury scare to win the spot and qualify for the NCAA Championships, where he upset Ben Honis of Cornell in the first round and finished one win shy of the All-American round. He will be backed up by Ammerman, freshman Elijah Jones and junior Andrew McDonald.

285 – With NCAA champion Zach Rey on the coaching staff, Jordan Wood won his second straight EIWA title and earned his first All-America medal with a fourth-place finish. Wood will look to improve upon his NCAA finish as he enters his junior campaign with a 47-12 record. Sophomore Victor Lacombe will once again see time behind Wood. Freshman Louden Haga will likely miss time due to injury.

Lehigh opened its season with 13 place winners at the Princeton Open Nov. 3. The Mountain Hawks, ranked 10th in the NWCA Coaches Poll, will next compete at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic, Sunday in Troy, N.Y. The dual meet season begins when No. 4 Oklahoma State visits Stabler Arena on Saturday November 16 at 1 p.m. Tickets to all Lehigh home duals are available and can be purchased online at LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during normal business hours.

The 2019-20 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.