Defending champion Lehigh begins postseason push with EIWA Championships at Binghamton

Friday, March 8

Vestal, N.Y.

11:00 AM

Lehigh University

EIWA Championships

Defending champion Lehigh begins postseason push with EIWA Championships at Binghamton

3/6/2019 3:44:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh joins the other 15 EIWA member institutions in Vestal, N.Y. for the 115th EIWA Championships as Binghamton hosts for the first time Friday and Saturday at the Events Center. The EIWA is the nation's oldest wrestling conference, with Lehigh being the historically dominant team. The Mountain Hawks enter as the defending champions after winning their first title since 2006 last year at Hofstra. Lehigh now owns 35 team championships and a league-best 214 individual titles. The Mountain Hawks finished the dual season at 9-9 and ranked 20th in the NWCA top 25. Lehigh's lineup features three returning champions and five wrestlers who competed last year as the Mountain Hawks snapped Cornell's 11-year streak of team titles. Also at stake are 47 automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in Pittsburgh.

Five wrestlers appear in the latest InterMat rankings, with the trio of senior Ryan Preisch (184), junior Jordan Kutler (174) and sophomore Jordan Wood (285) all ranked fifth at their respective weights. Lehigh also has four wrestlers ranked by FloWrestling and The Open Mat, while five are ranked by Amateur Wrestling News. In addition to Preisch, Kutler and Wood, freshman Josh Humphreys (157) is ranked across the board. Lehigh has two wrestlers ranked by one of the four outlets. Sophomore Brandon Paetzell is 17th at 133 by AWN, and sophomore Chris Weiler comes in at No. 15 in the latest InterMat poll.

The NCAA released the third Coaches' Panel rankings and second RPI for the 2018-19 season along with the qualifier allocations for the NCAA Championships on March 1. Lehigh has eight wrestlers in the Coaches' Panel rankings and seven in the RPI. Jake Jakobsen did not have enough bouts to appear in the RPI. Seven of the 10 Lehigh EIWA Tournament entrants qualified a spot for their weight class for the NCAA Championships. Senior Jordan Wood is the highest ranked Mountain Hawk, coming in at No. 4 at 285, while senior Ryan Preisch owns the top RPI. Senior Gordon Wolf is ranked No. 22 by the coaches at 165 but did not crack the top 33 of the RPI.

The Mountain Hawks closed out the dual season by pulling away from Penn in the second half to top the Quakers 34-6. The dual was tied 6-6 after four bouts before Lehigh won the final six bouts, scoring bonus points in the final four. In fact, the Mountain Hawks closed out the dual and the dual season in style, with falls in the final three bouts. Senior Ryan Preisch started the pin party with a second period fall at 184. Sophomore Jake Jakobsen followed with a first period pin in his first action since Jan. 19, and sophomore Jordan Wood added the exclamation point with a first period fall at 285. Lehigh did fail to reach 10 dual wins for the first time since the 1998-99 season but the Mountain Hawks battled back from an 0-7 start to win nine of their final 11 duals.

As a junior last season, Ryan Preisch played a key role in Lehigh's first EIWA team title since 2006. Preisch went 4-0 with three falls to win his first individual EIWA title. In the finals, Preisch pinned Cornell's Max Dean at the 4:31 mark to secure Lehigh's fourth individual EIWA title and clinch the team title for the Brown and White. The performance helped deliver Preisch a pair of EIWA Tournament major awards. With three falls in a total time of 9:53, Preisch won the Sheridan Trophy, given to the wrestler with the most falls in the shortest time in the championship bracket. Preisch also won the Coaches Trophy, given to the tournament's outstanding wrestler, as he became the first Lehigh wrestler to win the award since Dave Esposito in 2001. Preisch has overcome a first-semester injury to go 16-2 in his senior season. He enters the tournament as one of the front runners for the Fletcher Trophy, given to the wrestler who scores the most career points at the EIWA Tournament. Darian Cruz won the award last season.

The graduation of Darian Cruz and an injury to Scott Parker has left junior Jordan Kutler as Lehigh's lone active All-American from last season. Kutler capped a 28-5 sophomore season by winning his first EIWA title last March and then gutted through an injury to finish sixth at 174 to earn All-America honors. He earned Lehigh's lone bonus point win at the NCAA Championships with a major decision in the consolation quarterfinals. The Sparta, N.J. native owns a 17-4 record this season. He had a six-bout winning streak snapped against Arizona State's Zahid Valencia, but came back to defeat then-No. 6 David McFadden of Virginia Tech the following day. Kutler is ranked fifth by InterMat with his four losses this season coming against wrestlers currently ranked No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the nation. He owns recent wins over current No. 6 David McFadden of Virginia Tech and former top-five Joe Smith of Oklahoma State.

Five of the ten Mountain Hawks expected to compete in the EIWA Tournament have competed in the tournament before. Senior Ryan Preisch will compete in his fourth tournament, having placed third, second and first in his first three tournaments. Gordon Wolf owns first two fifth place finishes, while Cortlandt Schuyler took fourth last year. Junior Jordan Kutler and sophomore Jordan Wood both won EIWA titles in their first appearances. Sophomore Brandon Paetzell went 0-2 at 125 competing for Rutgers at the 2017 Big Ten Tournament.

Lehigh's EIWA lineup is veteran-laden with three seniors, two juniors and three experienced sophomores, but two freshmen will compete for the Mountain Hawks in Binghamton. Deferred freshman Luke Resnick wrestled in 15 of Lehigh's 18 duals at 125 with an EIWA win over Navy's Jacob Allen. True freshman Josh Humphreys will man 157 where he will be the first true freshman to compete at EIWAs for Lehigh since Kyle Gentile in 2017. Twelve Lehigh wrestlers have won EIWA titles as freshmen, most recently Jordan Wood last year. The last true freshman to win an EIWA title for Lehigh was Randy Cruz in 2013.

The EIWA received 47 automatic bids to the NCAA Championships when the NCAA announced its qualifier allocations last week. Each qualifying tournament was awarded spots per weight class based on current year data including Division I winning percentage, RPI and a coaches ranking. Wrestlers who fail to qualify this weekend will be eligible for one of 44 at-large berths which will be announced on Tuesday, March 12.

This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 115th championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 35 team titles including last year's title. Cornell had won 11 straight team titles before Lehigh's win last year at Hofstra.

Lehigh qualified 10 wrestlers for the NCAA Championships last year, including nine at the EIWA Tournament, and has qualified at least five wrestlers in each of the last 19 EIWA tournaments.

Preliminary tournament seeds will be agreed upon at Thursday's coaches meeting. Seeds will be finalized and brackets will be unveiled following Friday morning weigh-ins.

The 115th EIWA Championships get underway Friday at 11 a.m. from Binghamton's Events Center. Friday's opening session will feature the first round in both the championship bracket and consolations. Session two, set for 6 p.m. Friday will feature the championship quarterfinals and a round of consolations. Session three, featuring the championship semifinals plus consolation third round, consolation semifinals and seventh place matches, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. The final session, featuring matches for first, third and fifth place, will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday and will be preceded by the EIWA Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The EIWA has partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament via its subscription-based FloPro service. Lehigh will broadcast Saturday's finals session on Fox Sports Radio 1230 and 1320 and LVFoxSports.com beginning at 2:45 p.m.

Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the 89th NCAA Championships, March 21-23 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. The Mountain Hawks finished 15th last year, with Darian Cruz, Scott Parker and Jordan Kutler earning All-America honors. Lehigh has two national champions, seven finalists and 22 All-Americans in the last eight years, including 14 All-Americans over the last five seasons. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday March 12 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day at 6 p.m.

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

Event:	115th EIWA Championships
Dates:	March 8-9, 2019
March 8 Schedule:	Session 1: Championship first round and consolations, 11 a.m. Session 2: Championship quarterfinals and consolations, 6 p.m.
March 9 Schedule	Session 3: Semifinals, consolation semifinals and 7th place matches, 10 a.m, Session 4: Finals (1st, 3rd, 5th), 3 p.m.
Arena:	Events Center
Location:	Vestal, N.Y.
Lehigh's dual record:	9-9 overall, 6-1 EIWA
History	Lehigh has won 35 team championships, most of any EIWA school, and are defending champions
Television:	None
Radio:	Saturday's finals session will air on Fox Sports Radio 1230 and 1320 and LVFoxSports.com beginning on 2:45 p.m.
Internet broadcast:	The EIWA has partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video of the entire tournament via its FloPro subscription-based service.