Lehigh rises to #7 in NWCA Poll

[ngineer]

Mountain Hawks now ranked #7 in latetes National Wrestling Coaches Poll. They will host #19 Va. Tech on Friday night at Grace Hall, and then host rising star Rutgers on Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena before a crowd expected to exceed 3,000. The Scarlet Knights of the Raritan have been coming on strong as a program the past two years and are now getting votes in the Top 25 poll. Va.Tech is also coming off a strong upset of, #11 Central Michigan earlier in the month.

Tickets for the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Assoc. Tournament the first weekend in March have been mailed to season ticket holders; however, seats still remain in Lehigh's 5,600 arena. Big battle expected among Cornell, American, Lehigh, Navy and Rutgers.

BTW--WYOMING is receiving votes in the NWCA poll, so 'unofficially' 29th. Full poll:

1. Iowa 275
2. Iowa State 264
3. Ohio State 249
4. Oklahoma State 246
5. Minnesota 231
6. Cornell 218
7. Lehigh 207
8. Boise State 187
8. Oklahoma 187
10. Maryland 181
11. Central Michigan 155
12. Wisconsin 150
13. Penn State 149
14. Indiana 135
15. Missouri 110
16. Cal Poly 108
17. Kent State 94
18. Pittsburgh 85
19. Va. Tech. 76
20. Illinois 62
21. Oregon State 54
22. Edinboro 52
23. Virginia 43
24. Arizona State 24
25. Purdue 15
Others:Navy, Old Dominion, Rutgers, Wyoming.

FCS schools highlighted

[ngineer]

Rising Rutgers, now #23 in last NWCA poll, visits Stabler Arena Saturday afternoon to take on #7 Lehigh. Should be a very good match with only two weights (once each) considered 'automatic' wins. The other eight should all be competitive with a number of top 20 ranked wrestlers facing each other. Tickets still available,as Stabler seats 5,600 verus Grace Hall that only seats 2,000.

[BlueHen86]

Rising Rutgers, now #23 in last NWCA poll, visits Stabler Arena Saturday afternoon to take on #7 Lehigh. Should be a very good match with only two weights (once each) considered 'automatic' wins. The other eight should all be competitive with a number of top 20 ranked wrestlers facing each other. Tickets still available,as Stabler seats 5,600 verus Grace Hall that only seats 2,000.

Good luck to Lehigh tomorrow.


PA high school post season starts tomorrow. I'll be splitiing time between my older sons HS sectional tourney and my younger sons MS district championship tourney.

[ngineer]

In what was expected to be a tense dual meet, turned into a blowout as the Mountain Hawks rolled over the Scarlet Knights, 28-3. Going in, I had Lehigh favored in 4 weights, Rutgers in 2 and four toss ups. Lehigh' s only loss was one of the toss-ups at 157. Meanwhile unheralded John MacDonald at 125 (9-11) knocked off #21 Langel, 5-4, to start off Lehigh's surge. At 141, #17 Seth Ciasulli got revenge against #24 Trevor Melde, who had beaten Ciasulli at The Midlands in December. The other slight upset was freshman Joe Napoli beating #33 Dave Greenwald, 4-2. At that point, Lehigh lead 12-0, and the handwriting was on the wall.

Rutgers came in with a 15 match unbeaten streak (with only a 16-16 tie with Michigan State being the only blemish since December 12). Total recap of results at www.lehighsports.com

Lehigh now 15-3-1 on the season, closes out regular season at Penn Sunday afternoon at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The "Easterns" (EIWA) Tournament will be held March 6-7 at Lehigh hosting the 15 teams of the conference hoping to qualify as many as possible to NCAA in Omaha.

[ngineer]

Mountain Hawks rolled to another convincing team win Sunday with a 30-9 victory over the Quakers in their fabled Palestra. Lehigh won 7/10 bouts with two falls. Tough match coming on the heels of the Rutgers dual the day before. Lehigh finishes regular season 16-3-1 and 34-4-1 over the past two years!