NCAA Wrestling Tournament--Lehigh gets 7 entries

[MrTitleist]

Iowa has captured the team title already without having wrestled tomorrow. It's a race between Cornell, Iowa St, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma state for the next spots in line. Wyoming sitting in the 30s. One wrestler left, he'll finish somewhere between 3rd and 6th.

[BlueHen86]

Iowa has captured the team title already without having wrestled tomorrow. It's a race between Cornell, Iowa St, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma state for the next spots in line. Wyoming sitting in the 30s. One wrestler left, he'll finish somewhere between 3rd and 6th.

Cornell ended up taking second.

In a somewhat related note, Team USA beat Team PA 30-13 in this years Dapper Dan Classic. The Dapper Dan is a meet where high school seniors from around the USA take on the top PA high school seniors. This year Team USA was represented by wrestlers from Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Idaho, Delaware, New Jersey and Michigan. (Team PA won last year. )

[ngineer]

Sorry I haven't posted about the tourney. Up to my eyeballs in work for taking off a couple days Plus my lap top was giving me problems in Omaha. Anyway, Lehigh had a 'good' tourney with a 3rd place at 285 in Rey, and who should be the favorite next year. Fisk and Ciasulli made the "Round of 12" and just missed placing as All-Americans. Our 17th place is a big improvement from last year with 30 pts, versus 28 and 20 pts in 2009; however, celebration muted, as we expect to be challenging in the Top 10. Next two years should show greater improvement with returnees and some new RSFrosh and recruits.

Wyoming's LeBlanc is for real. He had a real nice tourney and VomBaur is a tough guy, too. Sorry about about the 'close win'. Met a HS wrestling coach out there from Wyoming, who said he's trying to land a wrestling job in PA, as 'that is where the action is'. My old High School had four guys wrestling in the tournament and two on the mats at the same time at one point (Oliver from Okie State, and Ciasulli from Lehigh).

Next year, site moves to Wachovia Center in Philly. We had 250 seats reserved in the lower level suites, so that should be 'sweet'.

[MrTitleist]

Sounds like you had a pretty good time. Disappointing finish for a couple of Cowboy wrestlers who were slotted as potential All-Americans, but getting one isn't too bad of a deal. VomBaur will be missed, but there's plenty of youngin' ready to take his spot.. the team is backloaded with sophomores and freshman.. this is a young and up and coming team. What did you think of Cornell finishing second? They beat out some pretty stiff competition.. you don't usually think of Ivy's competing up there with the big boys, but they certainly proved their mite.

[ngineer]

Sounds like you had a pretty good time. Disappointing finish for a couple of Cowboy wrestlers who were slotted as potential All-Americans, but getting one isn't too bad of a deal. VomBaur will be missed, but there's plenty of youngin' ready to take his spot.. the team is backloaded with sophomores and freshman.. this is a young and up and coming team. What did you think of Cornell finishing second? They beat out some pretty stiff competition.. you don't usually think of Ivy's competing up there with the big boys, but they certainly proved their mite.

Cornell's placing 2d was no surprise. They had two returning national champs and a #1 rated frosh at 141, plus some other depth. The IL does not have wrestling The IL schools are part of the EIWA which is mostly Ivy and Patriot schools (F&M and Rutgers being the others), though not all IL and PL schools have wrestling. Cornell has put a ton of money in their program and it is paying off. Of course, being part state-school gives them a bit of advantage in recruiting. Regardless, I expect them to be around and not be a short term blip. Likewise, Penn, Rutgers, Bucknell and American are making major commitments to wrestling as well. With Cael Sanderson at Penn State, it would appear that a lot of HS wrestlers will be sticking around rather than travelling to the midwest. Time will tell. We haven't had an eastern NCAA champ since 1953 (Penn State) and this was the highest an eastern school has finished since PSU was 2d in 1993.

After next year in Philly, NCAAs will return to St. Louis, a great spot for this tournament. Easy to get to and a very convenient location downtown near alot of hotels. Also rumored that the collegiate wrestling season may be shifted back about a month, so that beginning in 2013 the tourney would be in April.

Lehigh's 285 pounder Rey, who finished 3rd, should be the #1 rated in that class next season. With some of the youngsters having learned from this tourney, we should get a couple more on the podium and crack the Top 10, with 2012 being a peaking year, IMO. Time will tell...but check out "Austin Meys" on Youtube...Lehigh's 174 pounder next year.