Friday, February 26
Manheim, Pa.
10:00 AM
Lehigh University
vs
EIWA Championships
Photo by: Hannahally Photography
Lehigh Seeks Fourth Straight EIWA Crown Friday At Spooky Nook
2/24/2021 2:02:00 PM | Men's Wrestling
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The 117th EIWA Championships will be a one-day event at a neutral site, as Lehigh joins nine other participating EIWA schools Friday at Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim, Pa. The EIWA is the nation's oldest wrestling conference, with Lehigh being the historically dominant team. Lehigh owns 37 team championships and a league-best 220 individual titles. The Mountain Hawks enter as the three-time defending champions. Lehigh went 3-4 in the dual season and is expected to battle Navy and Army West Point among others for the 2021 team title. Also at stake are 45 automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in St. Louis.
Lehigh Probable EIWA Tournament Entrants with Pre-seed
125 No. 22 Jaret Lane (Jr., Catawissa, Pa.) – 1
133 No. 32 Malyke Hines (Fr., Kissimmee, Fla.) – 1
141 Connor McGonagle (Fr., Danville, N.H.) – 6
149 No. 25 Jimmy Hoffman (Jr., Drums, Pa.) – 4
157 Luca Frinzi (Fr., Quakertown, Pa.) – 6
165 Brian Meyer (So., Phillipsburg, N.J.) – 6
174 Jake Logan (Fr., New Rochelle, N.Y.) – 5
184 Dylan Ammerman (Sr., Dushore, Pa.) – 9
197 No. 19 Jake Jakobsen (Sr., Sciota, Pa.) – 1
285 No. 7 Jordan Wood (Sr., Gilbertsville, Pa.) - 1
Five Mountain Hawks appear in various rankings from five outlets. Senior heavyweight Jordan Wood is the lone Lehigh wrestler to be ranked by all five, with a high of No. 8 according to Amateur Wrestling News. Lehigh has five wrestlers ranked in the top 33 by The Open Mat, four are ranked in the top 33 by Trackwrestling and three ranked in the top 20 by AWN. Two Lehigh wrestlers are ranked by both InterMat and FloWrestling with junior Jaret Lane joining Wood in the InterMat rankings following his 5-0 regular season at 125 and senior Jake Jakobsen (197) joining Wood in the Flo rankings. Lane and Jakobsen are both ranked by four of the five outlets. Junior Jimmy Hoffman is ranked by two outlets while freshman Malyke Hines is ranked by just one.
The NCAA announced pre-allocations and the first coaches' rankings on Feb. 11. The EIWA was pre-allocated 35 spots plus 10 automatic qualifiers (the EIWA champion at each weight class) for a total of 45 spots. In addition to the conference champion at each weight class, conferences were awarded pre-allocations based on the five-year average (2016-20) of pre-allocations earned by the conference in each weight class. This differs from previous years where a formula including ranking, RPI and winning percentage was used. Five Mountain Hawks appeared in the first coaches' ranking, led by senior Jordan Wood, who is ranked seventh at 285. The second coaches' rankings are expected to be released on Feb. 25, the eve of the EIWA Championships.
Lehigh last competed the weekend of Feb. 6-7 when the Mountain Hawks went 1-2 in home duals, highlighted by a come-from-behind 18-16 win over Army West Point in the first of two duals on Feb. 6. The Mountain Hawks trailed 16-12 with two bouts to go but seniors Jake Jakobsen and Jordan Wood came through with back-to-back victories. Jakobsen defeated No. 15 JT Brown 7-1 to bring Lehigh within 16-15, then Wood clinched the dual with a 5-0 win over Bobby Heald. Lehigh dropped duals to No. 14 North Carolina and Rider. Junior Jaret Lane led the way for Lehigh in its last weekend of competition, going 3-0 with a pair of falls.
Junior Jaret Lane has emerged as a key contributor for the Mountain Hawks this season. With senior Brandon Paetzell competing at a higher weight this season, Lane has held down the spot at 125 and is 5-0 in five appearances with three wins by fall. His first period pin of Army's Ryan Chauvin was key in Lehigh's come-from-behind victory over the Black Knights. Lane competed at 133 last year and led the Mountain Hawks with nine falls, giving him 12 for his Lehigh career. This year, Lane also opened the Pitt and Rider duals with pins.
Lehigh received a boost with the return of heavyweight Jordan Wood to the lineup in late January. Wood went 2-0 with two falls in his opening weekend of competition, the first of which clinched the Mountain Hawks' come-from-behind win over Binghamton. Wood is ranked seventh in the first coaches' ranking and has a chance this year to become Lehigh's fifth four-time EIWA champion. Wood went 17-5 last season and was a second team NWCA All-American. The two-time All-American owns a 68-18 career record. Wood originally planned on an Olympic redshirt and spent his fall semester active in freestyle. He was eligible for the Olympic redshirt by way of winning a Cadet world silver medal in 2014.
A league-leading 220 individual EIWA titles have been won by 135 Lehigh wrestlers. Only four men who have donned the brown and white Lehigh singlet have won four titles and senior heavyweight Jordan Wood has a chance to become the fifth and the first to win four titles at the same weight class. A first-place showing on Friday would also make Wood the 13th four-time EIWA champion in league history and the first heavyweight to accomplish the feat. Cornell's Gabe Dean is the last EIWA wrestler to win four titles, having captured his fourth in 2017.
Lehigh's projected EIWA Tournament lineup features four wrestlers who competed at last year's tournament, four deferred freshmen and two upperclassmen competing in the postseason for the first time. Senior Jordan Wood is a three-time NCAA qualifier and three-time EIWA champion. Senior Jake Jakobsen is a two-time NCAA qualifier. Junior Jimmy Hoffman qualified for his first NCAA Tournament last March and sophomore Brian Meyer is a returning starter at 165.
This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 117th championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 37 team titles including the last three. Cornell had won 11 straight team titles before Lehigh's last three victories and the Mountain Hawks won five straight prior to the start of Cornell's run.
Lehigh has been well represented among the three major EIWA Tournament individual awards in recent years. Three years ago, Lehigh swept the major awards with Ryan Preisch winning the Coaches' Trophy (Outstanding Wrestler) and the Sheridan Award (Most Falls in the Championship Bracket) and Darian Cruz capturing the Fletcher Trophy (EIWA Tournament Career Team Points Scored). Two years ago, Preisch won the Fletcher Trophy, while freshman Josh Humphreys won the Sheridan Award. Last year, Humphreys picked up another major award, capturing the Coaches' Trophy after winning a stacked bracket at 157. Lehigh wrestlers top the lists in terms of all three major awards. Thirteen Lehigh wrestlers have won the Sheridan Award since 1964, including nine of the last 18. Twenty Lehigh wrestlers have won the Fletcher Award since 1955 including two of the last three. Twenty have won the Coaches' Trophy, dating back to 1936, with Preisch and Humphreys the first Lehigh winners since John Van Doren in 1998.
Preliminary tournament seeds were announced Monday. This year, replacements are permitted up until weigh-ins with the coaches meeting virtually Thursday evening to consider COVID-related replacements for seeding. Seeds will be finalized and brackets will be unveiled following Friday morning weigh-ins.
The 117th EIWA Championships begin Friday at 10 a.m. from Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim, Pa. Session one will feature the pigtail round, quarterfinals and pigtail consolations. Session two, featuring semifinals, consolation quarterfinals and consolation semifinals, begins at 2 p.m. while session three, featuring placement bouts for first, third, fifth and seventh will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Spectators will not be permitted at the EIWA Championships. The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). There will be no Lehigh-specific radio or audio coverage of this year's tournament.
Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the NCAA Championships, March 18-20 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday, March 9 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day at 6 p.m.
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Lehigh Probable EIWA Tournament Entrants with Pre-seed
125 No. 22 Jaret Lane (Jr., Catawissa, Pa.) – 1
133 No. 32 Malyke Hines (Fr., Kissimmee, Fla.) – 1
141 Connor McGonagle (Fr., Danville, N.H.) – 6
149 No. 25 Jimmy Hoffman (Jr., Drums, Pa.) – 4
157 Luca Frinzi (Fr., Quakertown, Pa.) – 6
165 Brian Meyer (So., Phillipsburg, N.J.) – 6
174 Jake Logan (Fr., New Rochelle, N.Y.) – 5
184 Dylan Ammerman (Sr., Dushore, Pa.) – 9
197 No. 19 Jake Jakobsen (Sr., Sciota, Pa.) – 1
285 No. 7 Jordan Wood (Sr., Gilbertsville, Pa.) - 1
Five Mountain Hawks appear in various rankings from five outlets. Senior heavyweight Jordan Wood is the lone Lehigh wrestler to be ranked by all five, with a high of No. 8 according to Amateur Wrestling News. Lehigh has five wrestlers ranked in the top 33 by The Open Mat, four are ranked in the top 33 by Trackwrestling and three ranked in the top 20 by AWN. Two Lehigh wrestlers are ranked by both InterMat and FloWrestling with junior Jaret Lane joining Wood in the InterMat rankings following his 5-0 regular season at 125 and senior Jake Jakobsen (197) joining Wood in the Flo rankings. Lane and Jakobsen are both ranked by four of the five outlets. Junior Jimmy Hoffman is ranked by two outlets while freshman Malyke Hines is ranked by just one.
The NCAA announced pre-allocations and the first coaches' rankings on Feb. 11. The EIWA was pre-allocated 35 spots plus 10 automatic qualifiers (the EIWA champion at each weight class) for a total of 45 spots. In addition to the conference champion at each weight class, conferences were awarded pre-allocations based on the five-year average (2016-20) of pre-allocations earned by the conference in each weight class. This differs from previous years where a formula including ranking, RPI and winning percentage was used. Five Mountain Hawks appeared in the first coaches' ranking, led by senior Jordan Wood, who is ranked seventh at 285. The second coaches' rankings are expected to be released on Feb. 25, the eve of the EIWA Championships.
Lehigh last competed the weekend of Feb. 6-7 when the Mountain Hawks went 1-2 in home duals, highlighted by a come-from-behind 18-16 win over Army West Point in the first of two duals on Feb. 6. The Mountain Hawks trailed 16-12 with two bouts to go but seniors Jake Jakobsen and Jordan Wood came through with back-to-back victories. Jakobsen defeated No. 15 JT Brown 7-1 to bring Lehigh within 16-15, then Wood clinched the dual with a 5-0 win over Bobby Heald. Lehigh dropped duals to No. 14 North Carolina and Rider. Junior Jaret Lane led the way for Lehigh in its last weekend of competition, going 3-0 with a pair of falls.
Junior Jaret Lane has emerged as a key contributor for the Mountain Hawks this season. With senior Brandon Paetzell competing at a higher weight this season, Lane has held down the spot at 125 and is 5-0 in five appearances with three wins by fall. His first period pin of Army's Ryan Chauvin was key in Lehigh's come-from-behind victory over the Black Knights. Lane competed at 133 last year and led the Mountain Hawks with nine falls, giving him 12 for his Lehigh career. This year, Lane also opened the Pitt and Rider duals with pins.
Lehigh received a boost with the return of heavyweight Jordan Wood to the lineup in late January. Wood went 2-0 with two falls in his opening weekend of competition, the first of which clinched the Mountain Hawks' come-from-behind win over Binghamton. Wood is ranked seventh in the first coaches' ranking and has a chance this year to become Lehigh's fifth four-time EIWA champion. Wood went 17-5 last season and was a second team NWCA All-American. The two-time All-American owns a 68-18 career record. Wood originally planned on an Olympic redshirt and spent his fall semester active in freestyle. He was eligible for the Olympic redshirt by way of winning a Cadet world silver medal in 2014.
A league-leading 220 individual EIWA titles have been won by 135 Lehigh wrestlers. Only four men who have donned the brown and white Lehigh singlet have won four titles and senior heavyweight Jordan Wood has a chance to become the fifth and the first to win four titles at the same weight class. A first-place showing on Friday would also make Wood the 13th four-time EIWA champion in league history and the first heavyweight to accomplish the feat. Cornell's Gabe Dean is the last EIWA wrestler to win four titles, having captured his fourth in 2017.
Lehigh's projected EIWA Tournament lineup features four wrestlers who competed at last year's tournament, four deferred freshmen and two upperclassmen competing in the postseason for the first time. Senior Jordan Wood is a three-time NCAA qualifier and three-time EIWA champion. Senior Jake Jakobsen is a two-time NCAA qualifier. Junior Jimmy Hoffman qualified for his first NCAA Tournament last March and sophomore Brian Meyer is a returning starter at 165.
This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 117th championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 37 team titles including the last three. Cornell had won 11 straight team titles before Lehigh's last three victories and the Mountain Hawks won five straight prior to the start of Cornell's run.
Lehigh has been well represented among the three major EIWA Tournament individual awards in recent years. Three years ago, Lehigh swept the major awards with Ryan Preisch winning the Coaches' Trophy (Outstanding Wrestler) and the Sheridan Award (Most Falls in the Championship Bracket) and Darian Cruz capturing the Fletcher Trophy (EIWA Tournament Career Team Points Scored). Two years ago, Preisch won the Fletcher Trophy, while freshman Josh Humphreys won the Sheridan Award. Last year, Humphreys picked up another major award, capturing the Coaches' Trophy after winning a stacked bracket at 157. Lehigh wrestlers top the lists in terms of all three major awards. Thirteen Lehigh wrestlers have won the Sheridan Award since 1964, including nine of the last 18. Twenty Lehigh wrestlers have won the Fletcher Award since 1955 including two of the last three. Twenty have won the Coaches' Trophy, dating back to 1936, with Preisch and Humphreys the first Lehigh winners since John Van Doren in 1998.
Preliminary tournament seeds were announced Monday. This year, replacements are permitted up until weigh-ins with the coaches meeting virtually Thursday evening to consider COVID-related replacements for seeding. Seeds will be finalized and brackets will be unveiled following Friday morning weigh-ins.
The 117th EIWA Championships begin Friday at 10 a.m. from Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim, Pa. Session one will feature the pigtail round, quarterfinals and pigtail consolations. Session two, featuring semifinals, consolation quarterfinals and consolation semifinals, begins at 2 p.m. while session three, featuring placement bouts for first, third, fifth and seventh will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Spectators will not be permitted at the EIWA Championships. The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). There will be no Lehigh-specific radio or audio coverage of this year's tournament.
Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the NCAA Championships, March 18-20 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday, March 9 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day at 6 p.m.
| Event: | 117th EIWA Championships |
| Date: | Feb. 26, 2021 |
| Schedule | 10 a.m. - First round, quarterfinals and first round consolations 2 p.m. - Semifinals, consolation quarterfinals and consolation semifinals 5:30 p.m. - Championship placement matches (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th) |
| Arena: | Spooky Nook Sports Complex |
| Location: | Manheim, Pa. |
| Lehigh's dual record: | 3-4 overall, 3-1 EIWA |
| History | Lehigh has won 37 team championships, most of any EIWA school, and are the three-time defending champions |
| Television: | None |
| Radio: | None |
| Internet broadcast: | The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). |
Players Mentioned
184/197
/ Men's Wrestling
125
/ Men's Wrestling
157/165
/ Men's Wrestling
133
/ Men's Wrestling
149
/ Men's Wrestling
157
/ Men's Wrestling
197
/ Men's Wrestling
125
/ Men's Wrestling
174
/ Men's Wrestling
141
/ Men's Wrestling
157/165
/ Men's Wrestling
125
/ Men's Wrestling
184
/ Men's Wrestling
285
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