Lehigh had to deal with a litany of lineup issues this year. 

The Mountain Hawks had guys recovering from injuries at the start of the season. Then they had to weather the storm as others missed time with setbacks suffered during the year. 

But Lehigh has started to put it all together at the right time of the year — for the postseason. Since January, Lehigh won eight of its final nine duals, dropping only a contest last week at Arizona State, where a handful of starters were held out.

“I think the consistent competition just makes you a little sharper,” Lehigh coach Pat Santoro said. “Our guys like to compete and make those adjustments week-to-week.

“We had a lot of tight duals, and I think our guys wrestled pretty well. We held a lot of guys out last weekend (at Arizona State), but we’re just trying to keep them fresh for the postseason.”

Now it’s time for March, and time for the Mountain Hawks to show the wrestling world all of the work they have put into getting prepared for this moment.

Seymour’s Last Go

A lot of firepower returned at 125 pounds this year. Six of the eight All-Americans from last year all returned at the weight, including both finalists.

But one of those All-Americans might have been flying under the radar all year. Despite entering the postseason with a perfect 16-0 record, Lehigh’s Sheldon Seymour does not get the headlines as some of the others in the stacked weight class.

“Yeah, a lot of people don’t talk about Sheldon, and I’m OK with that,” Santoro said. “I think he’s OK with that, too.

“We are right where we need to be at this time of year, and he is going to go out there and show everybody what he loves to do. I’m excited to watch him this postseason make a lot of noise.”

Seymour had his breakout season last year. After splitting time at 125 pounds in his previous years, it was all Seymour’s last year. 

After winning the EIWA title, he reached the NCAA semifinals by knocking off the #1 seed Luke Lilledahl of Penn State. He went on to place sixth, but has much higher aspirations this year.

“He just needs to keep doing what he does best,” Santoro said. “He is really good at keeping himself in position, and he is good in all three positions — good on his feet, good on top and being good on bottom, that takes you a long way in this sport. Sheldon can do all three.”

A member of the Lehigh program since the 2020-21 season, Seymour is in his final campaign and this will be his last attempt at winning a national title.

“He has meant so much to our program his whole career,” Santoro said. “He had to wait his turn a little bit, but he never wavered from what he wanted.

“He wants to be a national champion. He is such a hard worker. Our team just loves him for who he is.”

Stanich Is Fully Back

A second Mountain Hawk enters the postseason also with a perfect record, as Luke Stanich is 10-0 at 141 pounds. But Stanich has been held out of action for almost a month, last appearing in a dual against Morgan State on February 6.

“We could have gotten him back on the mat this past weekend (in the Arizona State dual),” Santoro said. “But he is ready, he looks great. He has looked like a beast in practice, and he is doing some really good things.

“We are excited for him to be back on the mat.”

Stanich is coming off a redshirt year last season, making his way up to 141 pounds from 125, and this past summer won gold at the U20 World Championships. But he missed the first semester of action and only has 10 matches under his belt thus far.

“He had an extremely busy summer getting ready for the (U20) World Championships,” Santoro said. “We were planning on giving him a lot of time off in the fall anyway, so it kind of worked out where he was able to fully recover.

“He got to wrestle a lot of different people and be in a lot of different training environments this summer. He is excited to compete in a very good weight class. He just wants to wrestle, and he wants to wrestle the best guys.”

2026 EIWA Championships

Ivy League schools broke away from the EIWA last year and held their own conference tournament. It went from a 16-team tournament to a 12-team tournament.

Lehigh came out on top, led by four individual champions. While some programs might talk about defending their team trophy, Lehigh doesn’t see it that way.

“We never use the word defending because I think it's a passive term,” Santoro said. “We really don't talk about it much. I think we just have to wrestle extremely well. It's going to be like a four- or five-team race again like it was last year.

“It is a really solid two-day tournament, and I think it is just a fun environment."

One question remains to be answered for Lehigh: Who gets the start at 133 pounds? We know Ryan Crookham suffered a season-ending injury earlier this semester.

Sophomore Mason Ziegler has bumped up and taken over that spot, but was unavailable last weekend, and Lehigh was forced to forfeit the weight at Arizona State.

“We are still deciding, probably here in the next day or two,” Santoro said.

The Mountain Hawks enter the 2026 edition of the EIWA Championship as the favorite. Lehigh was a perfect 5-0 in conference duals this year, and should have six wrestlers among the top two seeds in their weight class.

“Obviously, you want to win every time you're out there, but I really want to see as many guys get to that national tournament as possible,” Santoro said. “That's the ultimate goal — to get you guys there.

“But winning is a fun thing, right? We all want to go out and win. We have to have our guys wrestle the way they're capable of wrestling. Nothing fancy, just go do your thing, wrestle in all three positions, wrestle through positions.”