“Watered-Down” Lehigh Ease Past Harvard, Brown

Watered-down Hawks ease past Harvard, Brown
By BRIAN FORTNER
The Express-Times

BETHLEHEM — The college wrestling season has reached the point where coaches look for any opportunity to provide much-needed down time for their starters.

That opportunity came Saturday afternoon for coach Greg Strobel’s Lehigh University Mountain Hawks.

Lehigh, ranked fifth nationally by InterMat Wrestling and competing with a make-shift lineup, cruised to a pair of victories — 27-10 over Brown and 37-12 over Harvard — in an Eastern Interscholastic Wrestling Association doubleheader before a crowd of 1,783 at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.

“We were able to make some lineup changes today and the guys that filled in did a nice job, “Strobel said. “The key to being a solid dual-meet team is having quality backups that can come in and get the job done when called on.”

The Mountain Hawks took on Brown without two of its returning All-Americans — Nazareth Area High School’s Travis Frick (174) and two-time NCAA runner-up Jon Trenge of Parkland (197) — in the starting 10.

In the nightcap, it was Cory Cooperman’s and Derek Zinck’s turns to take a break — at 141 and 157. And starting 285-pounder Paul Weibel sat out with an ankle injury.

Strobel simply gave Cooperman, the Blair Academy alumnus, the match off. Zinck was held out of the Harvard match as a precaution after aggravating a minor injury in the win over Brown.

The Mountain Hawks never missed a beat, improving to 17-3 overall and 5-0 in the EIWA.

Trenge was given the day off after an up and down performance last weekend at The NCWA National Duals at Cleveland State University.

Trenge became Lehigh’s all-time wins leader, surpassing assistant coach Chris Ayers’ mark of 120, in the Hawks’ 20-16 semifinal loss to top-ranked Oklahoma State. In the process, the senior reclaimed his No. 1 national ranking from Jake Rosholt with a 10-8 decision.

Trenge later was disqualified while the Hawks wrestled Minnesota for third place. The Golden Gophers won 24-13, leaving Lehigh in fourth place.

“Jon needed a cooling-down period, “Strobel said. “The disqualification was unfortunate. He was reacting to a situation, nothing more. He’s a trained fighter.”

Zinck suffered a slight pinched nerve in his neck in a 21-8 major decision over David Saahad, prompting Strobel to end his day early.

The bout featured a wild first period with both wrestlers giving up a penalty point for illegal holds, Zinck taking injury time and Saahad being put on his back and nearly pinned in the final 30 seconds. Zinck, ranked No. 11 by InterMat, led 11-5 after one.

“We were hoping we didn’t water it down too much, “Strobel said. “Brown has been wrestling real well and Harvard has given a lot of good teams fits.”

The Mountain Hawks would not be one of those teams.

Easton’s Matt Ciasulli began the afternoon with a hard-fought 3-0 decision over Brown’s Dan Appello at 133. The win put the Hawks up 3-0 and sparked a run of five straight wins that produced a 21-0 lead.

Ciasulli and Appello battled to a scoreless tie after two periods, and the Hawks’ sophomore chose the bottom position to start the third.

Appello, who forced Ciasulli into a stalling warning in the second period by keeping the pressure on and forcing him to play defense, opted to cut Ciasulli loose to start the third and work takedowns.

Ciasulli, clinging to a 1-0 lead, slipped behind the Bears’ junior with 36 seconds remaining to ice the decision.

Cooperman made it 9-0 with a fall in 2:31 over Brown’s Ross Johnson.

Major decisions by Matt Anderson (149), Zinck and Troy Letters followed before the Bears answered with Mike Pedro’s 6-2 decision over Bryan Bernal, wrestling for Frick at 174.

Letters, the defending 165-pound NCAA champion, scored five takedowns in a 14-4 major decision over Heath Lohrman, a senior out of Wilson Area High School.

Strobel planned to sit Letters against Harvard, but the Crimson were without a 165-pounder so Letters went through the motion of having his hand raised in victory.

Ciasulli (21-3) wasted little time in putting Lehigh on top 6-0 in the nightcap, needing just 44 seconds to pin Harvard’s Brent Kakesako.

David Helfrich (184), Jon Bruno (197) had pins against Harvard while Anderson (157) added his second major decision of the day and David Nakasone (149) won by decision.

Bruno, wrestling for Trenge, was perfect in the first two varsity bouts of his career, defeating Brown’s Leo Saniuk 11-6 and pinning Harvard’s Andrew Dane in 41 seconds.

LEHIGH 37, HARVARD 12

133 — So. Matt Ciasulli, L, p. So. Brent Kakasako, :44.

141 — Jr. Mike Baria, H, d. Jr. Mark McCauley, 8-1.

149 — Fr. David Nakasone, L, d. Fr. Dominic DeNunzio, 6-3

157 — So. matt Anderson, L, md. Fr. Matt Button, 8-0.

165 — Jr. Troy Letters, L, forfeit.

174 — Jr. Travis Frick, L, forfeit.

184 — So. Dave Helfrich, L, p. Fr. Billy Colgan, :52.

197 — Jr. Jon Bruno, L, p. Fr. Andrew Dane, :41

285 — Sr. Jonas Corl, H, d. So. Tom Curl, 3-2.

125 — So. Robbie Preston, H, p. Sr. Andrew Rizzi, 2:08.

Records — Lehigh 17-3, 5-0; Harvard 0-5, 0-1.