Saturday, March 4
Philadelphia, Pa.
10:30 AM
Lehigh University
at
EIWA Championships
Photo by: Tony DiMarco
Lehigh Set For 119th EIWA Championships, Beginning Saturday In Philadelphia
3/2/2023 10:03:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh joins the other 16 EIWA member institutions in Philadelphia this Saturday and Sunday for the 119th EIWA Championships as Penn hosts at the Palestra for the first time since 2014. The EIWA is the nation's oldest wrestling conference, with Lehigh being the historically dominant team. The Mountain Hawks have won four of the last five team titles and a league-best 38 overall. Lehigh also has a league-leading 225 individual titles. The Mountain Hawks finished the dual meet season at 9-9 after finishing the season with three straight conference dual wins. Lehigh's lineup features five wrestlers with previous EIWA Tournament experience, including previous EIWA champions Josh Humphreys (157) and Malyke Hines (141). Also at stake are 45 automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
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Lehigh Probable EIWA Tournament Entrants (Rankings are NCAA coaches from Feb. 23)
125 Carter Bailey (Fy., Livermore, Calif.)
133 No. 5 Connor McGonagle (So., Danville, N.H.)
141 No. 27 Malyke Hines (So., Kissimmee, Fla.)
149 Max Brignola (So., Rumson, N.J.)
157 No. 4 Josh Humphreys (Sr., Parkersburg, W. Va.)
165 Connor Herceg (Fy., Nazareth, Pa.)
174 Jake Logan (So., New Rochelle, N.Y.)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
184 No. 18 Tate Samuelson (Gr., Castle Rock, Colo.)
197 No. 2 Michael Beard (So., Reading, Pa.)
285 No. 28 Nathan Taylor (Fy., Brookville, Pa.)
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Seven Lehigh wrestlers appear in the latest InterMat rankings, while six are ranked by both FloWrestling and WrestleStat. In addition, four Mountain Hawks are ranked by Amateur Wrestling News. Senior Josh Humphreys and sophomore Michael Beard are ranked in the top four by all four outlets, while sophomore Connor McGonagle is ranked fifth by three of the four outlets. Graduate student Tate Samuelson joins McGonagle, Humphreys and Beard in being ranked by all four outlets. Six Mountain Hawks appear in the latest NCAA coaches' rankings, while five have an RPI in the top 33. InterMat, WrestleStat and the Coaches rank from 1-33. FloWrestling ranks 1-24 plus honorable mentions, while AWN ranks 1-20.
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The EIWA received 45 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 46 at-large berths which will be announced on Tuesday, March 7.
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The NCAA also announced its third coaches' ranking and second RPI last week. Six Mountain Hawks appear in the top 33 of the coaches' rankings, with Michael Beard (2nd – 197), Josh Humphreys (4th – 157) and Connor McGonagle (5th – 133) all ranked in the top five of their respective weight classes. Five Mountain Hawks own an RPI ranking with Beard owning the No. 1 RPI at 197.
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Lehigh won its final three duals to finish the dual season at 9-9 with wins over Army West Point (Feb. 4), Bucknell (Feb. 10) and Princeton (Feb. 11). Against the Tigers, the won seven bouts overall as a technical fall by sophomore Malyke Hines (141) and a major decision by senior Josh Humphreys (157) staked Lehigh to a 15-3 lead at intermission. The dual was tied 3-3 after two bouts when Hines posted a dominant 15-0 technical fall over Chris Martino. An overtime win by sophomore Max Brignola followed by Humphreys' major decision over Ty Whalen put Lehigh up 15-3. Princeton battled back within 15-12 but Lehigh's upperweights came through as Tate Samuelson, Michael Beard and Nathan Taylor all posted wins by decision to close out the victory and the dual meet season.
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Senior Josh Humphreys is the most accomplished of all the returning Mountain Hawks. In his first three seasons, Humphreys won a pair of EIWA titles at 157, qualified for the NCAA Championships on three occasions and in 2020 was recognized as a NWCA first team All-American. Humphreys went 20-5 last season with four falls and 12 bonus wins. He won the 2020 Coaches Trophy as the Outstanding Wrestler at the EIWA Championships. The Parkersburg, W. Va., native returned to the lineup against Army after missing nearly six weeks. He improved to 12-0 on the season with a victory and owns a 72-18 career record.
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Lehigh's roster features a pair of accomplished transfer student-athletes who have been regulars in the Lehigh lineup. Sophomore Michael Beard comes to Lehigh from Penn State, where he earned All-America honors in 2021 with a seventh place finish at 197. Beard has three seasons of eligibility remaining. Tate Samuelson comes to Lehigh as a graduate transfer after four years at Wyoming where he was a four-time NCAA qualifier. Both wrestlers went 9-0 in duals in 2023. Beard is up to 16-2 on the season and has won 11 straight bouts, while Samuelson is now 16-7.
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A league-leading 225 individual EIWA titles have been won by 138 Lehigh wrestlers. Last year, heavyweight Jordan Wood became the first-ever five-time EIWA Champion.
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Five of the ten Mountain Hawks expected to compete in the EIWA Tournament have competed in the tournament before. Senior Josh Humphreys is looking to win his third title while sophomore Malyke Hines is bidding for his second. Graduate student Tate Samuelson is a four-time Big 12 place winner (6th, 6th, 2nd, 7th), while sophomore Michael Beard placed sixth in his only Big Ten Tournament appearance in 2021.
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This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 119th championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 38 team titles including four of the last five. Cornell had won 11 straight team titles before Lehigh's four victories and won last year's title on its home mats.
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Lehigh has been well represented among the three major EIWA Tournament individual awards in recent years. Five 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). Four years ago, Preisch won the Fletcher Trophy, while freshman Josh Humphreys won the Sheridan Award. In 2020, Humphreys picked up another major award, capturing the Coaches' Trophy after winning a stacked bracket at 157. The 2021 season saw, Jake Jakobsen (Sheridan) and Jordan Wood (Fletcher) took home major awards, with Wood repeating as the Fletcher Trophy winner last season. Lehigh wrestlers top the lists in terms of all three major awards. Fourteen Lehigh wrestlers have won the Sheridan Award since 1964, including 10 of the last 20. Twenty-one Lehigh wrestlers have won the Fletcher Award since 1955 including four of the last five. Twenty have won the Coaches' Trophy, dating back to 1936, with Preisch and Humphreys the first Lehigh winners since John Van Doren in 1998.
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Tournament pre-seeds were announced Tuesday afternoon. Seeds will be reviewed Friday following a meeting of the league's head coaches and will be locked in at weigh-ins Saturday morning.
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The 119th EIWA Championships will feature two sessions Saturday and two sessions Sunday from the Palestra in Philadelphia. Saturday's first session begins at 10:30 a.m. while the second session, featuring quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations, begins at 4:30 p.m. Wrestling on Sunday begins at 10:30 a.m. with the championship semifinals, consolation quarterfinals and semifinals and seventh place matches. The finals session, featuring placement matches for first, third, fifth, will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will begin with the EIWA Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
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The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). Lehigh is planning radio coverage of Sunday's finals session on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM, beginning at 4:30 p.m. as long as there is no conflict with a potential Lehigh men's basketball Patriot League semifinal game.
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Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the NCAA Championships, March 16-18 at BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday, March 7 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day.
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The 2022-23 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
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Like Lehigh Wrestling on Facebook and follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive updates throughout the season.
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Lehigh Probable EIWA Tournament Entrants (Rankings are NCAA coaches from Feb. 23)
125 Carter Bailey (Fy., Livermore, Calif.)
133 No. 5 Connor McGonagle (So., Danville, N.H.)
141 No. 27 Malyke Hines (So., Kissimmee, Fla.)
149 Max Brignola (So., Rumson, N.J.)
157 No. 4 Josh Humphreys (Sr., Parkersburg, W. Va.)
165 Connor Herceg (Fy., Nazareth, Pa.)
174 Jake Logan (So., New Rochelle, N.Y.)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
184 No. 18 Tate Samuelson (Gr., Castle Rock, Colo.)
197 No. 2 Michael Beard (So., Reading, Pa.)
285 No. 28 Nathan Taylor (Fy., Brookville, Pa.)
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Seven Lehigh wrestlers appear in the latest InterMat rankings, while six are ranked by both FloWrestling and WrestleStat. In addition, four Mountain Hawks are ranked by Amateur Wrestling News. Senior Josh Humphreys and sophomore Michael Beard are ranked in the top four by all four outlets, while sophomore Connor McGonagle is ranked fifth by three of the four outlets. Graduate student Tate Samuelson joins McGonagle, Humphreys and Beard in being ranked by all four outlets. Six Mountain Hawks appear in the latest NCAA coaches' rankings, while five have an RPI in the top 33. InterMat, WrestleStat and the Coaches rank from 1-33. FloWrestling ranks 1-24 plus honorable mentions, while AWN ranks 1-20.
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The EIWA received 45 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 46 at-large berths which will be announced on Tuesday, March 7.
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The NCAA also announced its third coaches' ranking and second RPI last week. Six Mountain Hawks appear in the top 33 of the coaches' rankings, with Michael Beard (2nd – 197), Josh Humphreys (4th – 157) and Connor McGonagle (5th – 133) all ranked in the top five of their respective weight classes. Five Mountain Hawks own an RPI ranking with Beard owning the No. 1 RPI at 197.
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Lehigh won its final three duals to finish the dual season at 9-9 with wins over Army West Point (Feb. 4), Bucknell (Feb. 10) and Princeton (Feb. 11). Against the Tigers, the won seven bouts overall as a technical fall by sophomore Malyke Hines (141) and a major decision by senior Josh Humphreys (157) staked Lehigh to a 15-3 lead at intermission. The dual was tied 3-3 after two bouts when Hines posted a dominant 15-0 technical fall over Chris Martino. An overtime win by sophomore Max Brignola followed by Humphreys' major decision over Ty Whalen put Lehigh up 15-3. Princeton battled back within 15-12 but Lehigh's upperweights came through as Tate Samuelson, Michael Beard and Nathan Taylor all posted wins by decision to close out the victory and the dual meet season.
Â
Senior Josh Humphreys is the most accomplished of all the returning Mountain Hawks. In his first three seasons, Humphreys won a pair of EIWA titles at 157, qualified for the NCAA Championships on three occasions and in 2020 was recognized as a NWCA first team All-American. Humphreys went 20-5 last season with four falls and 12 bonus wins. He won the 2020 Coaches Trophy as the Outstanding Wrestler at the EIWA Championships. The Parkersburg, W. Va., native returned to the lineup against Army after missing nearly six weeks. He improved to 12-0 on the season with a victory and owns a 72-18 career record.
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Lehigh's roster features a pair of accomplished transfer student-athletes who have been regulars in the Lehigh lineup. Sophomore Michael Beard comes to Lehigh from Penn State, where he earned All-America honors in 2021 with a seventh place finish at 197. Beard has three seasons of eligibility remaining. Tate Samuelson comes to Lehigh as a graduate transfer after four years at Wyoming where he was a four-time NCAA qualifier. Both wrestlers went 9-0 in duals in 2023. Beard is up to 16-2 on the season and has won 11 straight bouts, while Samuelson is now 16-7.
Â
A league-leading 225 individual EIWA titles have been won by 138 Lehigh wrestlers. Last year, heavyweight Jordan Wood became the first-ever five-time EIWA Champion.
Â
Five of the ten Mountain Hawks expected to compete in the EIWA Tournament have competed in the tournament before. Senior Josh Humphreys is looking to win his third title while sophomore Malyke Hines is bidding for his second. Graduate student Tate Samuelson is a four-time Big 12 place winner (6th, 6th, 2nd, 7th), while sophomore Michael Beard placed sixth in his only Big Ten Tournament appearance in 2021.
Â
This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 119th championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 38 team titles including four of the last five. Cornell had won 11 straight team titles before Lehigh's four victories and won last year's title on its home mats.
Â
Lehigh has been well represented among the three major EIWA Tournament individual awards in recent years. Five 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). Four years ago, Preisch won the Fletcher Trophy, while freshman Josh Humphreys won the Sheridan Award. In 2020, Humphreys picked up another major award, capturing the Coaches' Trophy after winning a stacked bracket at 157. The 2021 season saw, Jake Jakobsen (Sheridan) and Jordan Wood (Fletcher) took home major awards, with Wood repeating as the Fletcher Trophy winner last season. Lehigh wrestlers top the lists in terms of all three major awards. Fourteen Lehigh wrestlers have won the Sheridan Award since 1964, including 10 of the last 20. Twenty-one Lehigh wrestlers have won the Fletcher Award since 1955 including four of the last five. Twenty have won the Coaches' Trophy, dating back to 1936, with Preisch and Humphreys the first Lehigh winners since John Van Doren in 1998.
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Tournament pre-seeds were announced Tuesday afternoon. Seeds will be reviewed Friday following a meeting of the league's head coaches and will be locked in at weigh-ins Saturday morning.
Â
The 119th EIWA Championships will feature two sessions Saturday and two sessions Sunday from the Palestra in Philadelphia. Saturday's first session begins at 10:30 a.m. while the second session, featuring quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations, begins at 4:30 p.m. Wrestling on Sunday begins at 10:30 a.m. with the championship semifinals, consolation quarterfinals and semifinals and seventh place matches. The finals session, featuring placement matches for first, third, fifth, will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will begin with the EIWA Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Â
The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). Lehigh is planning radio coverage of Sunday's finals session on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM, beginning at 4:30 p.m. as long as there is no conflict with a potential Lehigh men's basketball Patriot League semifinal game.
Â
Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the NCAA Championships, March 16-18 at BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday, March 7 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day.
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The 2022-23 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
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| Event: | 119th EIWA Championships |
| Dates: | March 4-5, 2023 |
| Schedule | Saturday, March 4 11:30 a.m. – Preliminaries, round of 16, first round consolations 4:30 p.m. – Quarterfinals, second and third round consolations Sunday, March 5 10:30 a.m. – Semifinals, consolation quarterfinals, consolation semifinals, seventh place matches 4:30 p.m. – Finals and placement matches (1st, 3rd, 5th) |
| Arena: | The Palestra |
| Location: | Philadelphia, Pa. |
| Lehigh's dual record: | 9-9 overall, 6-3 EIWA |
| History | Lehigh has won 38 team championships, most of any EIWA school, and have won four of the last five (Cornell won in 2022). |
| Television: | None |
| Radio: | Finals session only on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM (subject to change based on potential Lehigh men's basketball Patriot League semifinal game) |
| Internet broadcast: | The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). Â |
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Players Mentioned
125
/ Men's Wrestling
197
/ Men's Wrestling
149
/ Men's Wrestling
165
/ Men's Wrestling
141
/ Men's Wrestling
157
/ Men's Wrestling
174
/ Men's Wrestling
133
/ Men's Wrestling
184
/ Men's Wrestling
285
/ Men's Wrestling
285
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