Lehigh Seeks Second Straight EIWA Title This Weekend at American

Friday, March 6

Washington, D.C.

10:00 AM

Lehigh University

EIWA Championships

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Lehigh Seeks Second Straight EIWA Title This Weekend at American

3/4/2026 12:58:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

Tournament Notes Tournament Central Watch on FloWrestling Brackets Listen (Finals only)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh joins the other 11 EIWA member institutions at Bender Arena in Washington for the 122nd EIWA Championships, as American hosts for the first time. The EIWA is the nation's oldest wrestling conference, with Lehigh serving as the historically dominant team, winning a league-best 39 team titles including five of the last eight (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2025). Lehigh has also won a league-best 235 individual titles. The Mountain Hawks finished the dual meet season at 11-7, winning eight straight duals to open 2026 prior to a season-ending loss at Arizona State. Nine of the 10 wrestlers in Lehigh's lineup own previous EIWA Tournament experience, including 2024 champions Luke Stanich (141) and Nathan Taylor (285) and 2025 champions Sheldon Seymour (125) and Logan Rozynski (157). Also at stake are 26 automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in Cleveland.

Lehigh Probable EIWA Tournament Entrants (Rankings are NCAA coaches from Feb. 26)
125 No. 3 Sheldon Seymour (Gr., Troy, Pa.)
133 Ethan Smith (So., Lincoln Park, N.J.)
141 No. 5 Luke Stanich (So., Roxbury, N.J.)
149 Carter Bailey (Sr., Livermore, Calif.)
157 No. 11 Logan Rozynski (So., Sparta, N.J.)
165 No. 12 Max Brignola (Sr., Fair Haven, N.J.)
174 Richie Grungo (So., Shamong, N.J.)
184 No. 15 Rylan Rogers (Jr., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho)
197 JT Davis (Gr., Middletown, Del.)
285 No. 9 Nathan Taylor (Sr., Brookville, Pa.)

Seven Lehigh wrestlers appear in the latest rankings from InterMat, while six are ranked by FloWrestling and The Open Mat. Five Mountain Hawks appear in the Amateur Wrestling News rankings. Graduate student Sheldon Seymour (125) is the highest ranked Mountain Hawk across the board, with sophomore Luke Stanich (141) also ranked in the top five by all outlets.

Six Mountain Hawks appeared in the third NCAA coaches' ranking, announced Feb. 26, with Seymour, Stanich and Nathan Taylor (285) all ranked in the top 10. Four Lehigh wrestlers appear in the top 33 of the latest RPI. The coaches' ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee during the at-large selection and seeding process for the NCAA Championships. Wrestlers must have eight Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days. Fifteen Division I matches are required for an RPI.

The EIWA received 26 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 42 at-large berths which will be announced on Tuesday, March 10.

In the final dual of the regular season, No. 22 Lehigh fell 24-11 at Arizona State Feb. 21 in Tempe, Ariz. The Sun Devils turned two close wins into a five-match run as Arizona State handed Lehigh its first dual loss of 2026 and stopped the Mountain Hawks' eight match winning streak. Lehigh finishes the dual season at 11-7. Despite being down several starters, things started well for the Mountain Hawks, who won two of the first three bouts. Seamus Mack started things off with a technical fall victory at 141 and two bouts later Griffin Gonzalez posted his first dual win of the season to stake Lehigh to an 8-3 lead. Graduate student Sheldon Seymour also won at 125 to cap a 16-0 regular season.

The Mountain Hawks opened the 2026 portion of their dual schedule by reeling off eight consecutive victories prior to their dual finale at Arizona State. The run began with a 20-17 rivalry win over Cornell Jan. 10, where the Mountain Hawks won the final three bouts, capped by Sheldon Seymour's win over Greg Diakomihalis at 125. Final bout victories from Nathan Taylor at 285 secured key EIWA dual wins over Navy (Jan. 17) and Bucknell (Feb. 14). Lehigh also posted EIWA wins over American, Army West Point and Morgan State and defeated former conference rivals Princeton and Penn during the streak. The Morgan State victory was Pat Santoro's 200th career dual win as Lehigh's head coach.

A league-leading 235 individual EIWA titles have been won by 146 Lehigh wrestlers. Last year, Lehigh won four titles with Sheldon Seymour (125), Logan Rozynski (157), Michael Beard (197) and Owen Trephan (285) winning titles. Luke Stanich and Nathan Taylor won EIWA titles in 2024 and are gunning for their second individual championships this year.

Nine of Lehigh's EIWA Tournament entrants have competed in the tournament before. Sophomore Luke Stanich and senior Nathan Taylor won EIWA titles in 2024 but did not compete last year. Graduate student Sheldon Seymour and sophomore Logan Rozynski will defend titles won in 2025. Carter Bailey and Max Brignola will wrestle at EIWAs in their third different weight class. The only EIWA newcomer is 133-pound entrant Ethan Smith.

This year the nation's oldest college wrestling conference holds its 122nd championships. Lehigh has historically dominated the EIWA's, having won 39 team titles, most recently, last year. This marks the second straight year the former EIWA members from the Ivy League are contesting their own tournament.

Lehigh has been well represented among the three major EIWA Tournament individual awards in recent years, beginning eight years ago, when 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). In 2024, Lehigh won two awards with Ryan Crookham capturing the Coaches' Trophy and Nathan Taylor winning the Sheridan Award. Last year, Michael Beard shared the Coaches' Trophy. Fifteen Lehigh wrestlers have won the Sheridan Award since 1964, including 11 of the last 23. Twenty-one Lehigh wrestlers have won the Fletcher Award since 1955 including four of the last eight. Twenty-two have won the Coaches' Trophy, dating back to 1936, with Preisch and Josh Humphreys (2020) the first Lehigh winners since John Van Doren in 1998.

Tournament pre-seeds were released Tuesday afternoon, with Seymour, Stanich and Brignola seeded No. 1 at their respective weight classes and Rozynski, Rogers and Taylor seeded second. Seeds will be reviewed Thursday following a meeting of the league's head coaches and will be locked in at weigh-ins Friday morning.

The EIWA Championships features a full day of wrestling Friday at Bender Arena, beginning at 10 a.m. Other than an expected lunch break from 2-3 p.m. wrestling will continue through the championship semifinals, beginning at approximately 6:30 p.m. Saturday's action begins at 11 a.m. with the matches for
first, third and fifth places beginning at approximately 2 p.m.

The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video coverage of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required). Lehigh will offer radio coverage of Saturday's finals session on FOX Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM and LVFOXSports.com, beginning at 1:45 p.m.

Lehigh's NCAA tournament qualifiers will move on to the NCAA Championships, March 19-21 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. The NCAA will announce the at-large qualifiers and complete field of 330 on Tuesday, March 10 and will then unveil the seeds and brackets the following day.

The 2025-26 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

Event:	122nd EIWA Championships
Dates:	March 6-7, 2026
Schedule	Friday, March 6 10 a.m. – Preliminary round of 12 12 p.m. – Quarterfinals 3:30 p.m. – Consolation round one 5:30 p.m. – Quarterfinal consolations 6:30 p.m. – Championship semifinals Saturday, March 7 11 a.m. - Consolation semifinals, 7th place matches 2 p.m. - Finals and placement matches (1st, 3rd, 5th)
Arena:	Bender Arena
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Lehigh's dual record:	11-7 overall, 5-0 EIWA
History	Lehigh has won 39 team championships, most of any EIWA school, and has won five of the last eight (Cornell won in 2022, 2023, 2024).
Video:	The EIWA has once again partnered with FloWrestling to provide streaming video of the entire tournament at FloWrestling.org (subscription required).
Radio:	Finals session only on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM and LVFOXSports.com beginning at 1:45 p.m.