
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Steve Lomangino (Media Relations Director)
Email – sjl304@lehigh.edu
Story on Lehighsports.com
http://www.lehighsports.com/sports/wrestling/mountain_hawks_drop_20-13_decision_sunday_to_no_8_cornell.aspx
Steve Lomangino (Media Relations Director)
Email – sjl304@lehigh.edu
Story on Lehighsports.com
http://www.lehighsports.com/sports/wrestling/mountain_hawks_drop_20-13_decision_sunday_to_no_8_cornell.aspx
Mountain Hawks drop 20-13 decision Sunday to No. 8 Cornell
Posted: 01/06/2013
BETHLEHEM, Pa. –
Despite spotting No. 8 Cornell an early 11-0 lead, No. 25
Lehigh battled back winning four of the next six bouts, but
the Big Red ultimately prevailed by a 20-13 score Sunday
afternoon inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Senior
Robert Hamlin knocked off defending NCAA Champion Steve Bosak
3-1 in sudden victory at 184, but it wasn’t enough as the Big
Red won six bouts on the day.
The Mountain Hawks
trailed by four entering the final bout, but Stryker Lane’s
3-1 decision over Jack Delia clinched the dual for the
visitors. Lehigh falls to 3-4 with its third straight dual
loss, while Cornell improves to 5-2.
“It was a hard
fought dual,” explained Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. “We
wrestled well, it just wasn’t enough. 133 was a key match and
heavyweight was another one we needed. Cornell is a very good
team. We still have a lot of work to do before March, but
there were some good key matches today.
Santoro continued,
“Shane Welsh had a gut-check match and did a great job. Hamlin
did a great job against Bosak, those are two warriors out
there. We had a lot of positives but we have to work on a lot
of things.”
Lehigh was forced
to make several pre-match lineup changes with sophomore
Anthony Salupo and freshman Brian Brill out with injuries.
Cornell raced to
an early 11-0 lead with wins in the first three bouts. The
match began at 125 where junior Alex Abreu met 11th-ranked
Nahshon Garrett. Abreu hung tough early on, nearly scoring on
two quality shots, but Garrett opened the scoring with a quick
high double leg takedown. Garrett added a two-point near fall
at the end of the first period, and continued to improve as
the match progressed en route to an 18-3 technical fall
victory in 7:00.
At 133, Lehigh
sent out true freshman Randy Cruz, who was making his varsity
dual debut against Cornell’s Bricker Dixon. Dixon opened the
scoring with a second period takedown, and while Cruz took top
in the third and rode out the entire period, he wasn’t able to
turn Dixon and suffered a 2-1 loss with his only point being a
penalty point for stalling.
With Salupo out of
the lineup, true freshman Laike Gardner moved up to 141 to
face No. 10 Mike Nevinger. The Big Red returning All-American
used a headlock to lead 5-0 after one period and added two
more second period takedowns to extend his lead. Gardner
bounced back in the third period, scoring a reversal and then
a late takedown to avoid bonus points as he fell 11-5.
Senior Shane Welsh
needed a late rally to put the Mountain Hawks on the board
with a win over Ryan Dunphy at 149. Welsh mustered three
escapes in regulation, the second of which came after Dunphy
called an injury timeout, but a Dunphy third-period takedown
sent the match to overtime tied at three. After a scoreless
sudden victory period, Welsh was penalized for an illegal hold
in the first tiebreaker for an illegal figure four. Welsh was
able to ride out the period and trailed 4-3 going into the
second 30 second tiebreaker, where he scored a reversal and
then rode out to win 5-4.
Senior Joey Napoli
brought Lehigh within 11-7 at intermission with an 11-3 major
decision over Chris Dowdy at 157. Napoli scored a first period
takedown and a second period reversal then added three third
period takedowns plus riding time to get to the eight point
advantage.
After
intermission, both teams sent out backups at 165 as Lehigh
junior Albert Woody moved up two weight classes to face
Cornell’s Jesse Shanaman. The Big Red were able to extend
their team lead as Shanaman scored takedowns in the first and
third period to blank Woody 5-0.
Cornell then
bumped up top-ranked Kyle Dake from 165 to 174 to face
sophomore Nathaniel Brown, fresh off his runner-up finish at
the Midlands. Brown went for a big move early, but Dake ended
up on top for the takedown and controlled the match from
there, adding two second period takedowns and a reversal plus
riding time to win 9-3 and give the Big Red a 17-7 lead.
The featured bout
of the dual matched Hamlin and Bosak for the sixth time in
their careers. After a scoreless first period that saw Bosak
warned for stalling, Bosak escaped three seconds into the
second period to take a 1-0 lead after two. Hamlin chose down
for the third period, and after some early struggles on bottom
was able to escape to tie the match at one with Bosak only
able to accumulate 57 seconds of riding time advantage. The
match went to sudden victory where Hamlin secured the winning
takedown with 19 seconds remaining after a flurry of shots and
re-shots by the two wrestlers.
“Anytime he
wrestles Bennett or Bosak they’re going to try and ride him
for a minute,” Santoro said. “They’re such great competitors
and they’ll battle back-and-forth the rest of the year.”
Hamlin is now 5-1
versus Bosak all time, and the two-time EIWA champion and
All-American has never lost back-to-back matches since moving
up to 184 prior to start of the 2010-11 season.
Lehigh was able to
creep within four at 17-13 as freshman John Bolich defeated
No. 19 Jace Bennett at 197. The match was scoreless through
two periods with all action in the first five minutes taking
place from the neutral position. Bennett chose down to open
the third and Bolich was successfully able to ride out the
entire period to earn the victory.
Needing a
technical fall or a pin to win the dual for Lehigh, Delia
looked to upend Lane, but the Big Red senior scored a key
second period takedown to clinch Cornell’s second consecutive
win over Lehigh.
“We just need to
tighten some things up,” Santoro said. “Randy Cruz will get
some experience on the mat and get better. He had a great
Midlands performance. He learned a good lesson today.”
The Mountain Hawks
will take to the road next weekend for a pair of road duals
against EIWA opponents. Lehigh will battle Navy Saturday at 2
p.m. at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md. and then will square off
against American Sunday at 2 p.m. at Bender Arena in
Washington, D.C. Both matches will be broadcast live at
Lehighsports.com.
Cornell 20, Lehigh
13
125 – Nahshon
Garrett (Cornell) tech fall Alex Abreu (Lehigh) 18-3, 7:00
133 – Bricker
Dixon (Cornell) dec. Randy Cruz (Lehigh) 2-1
141 – Mike
Nevinger (Cornell) dec. Laike Gardner (Lehigh) 11-5
149 – Shane Welsh
(Lehigh) dec. Ryan Dunphy (Cornell) 5-4, t.b.
157 – Joey Napoli
(Lehigh) major dec. Chris Dowdy (Cornell) 11-3
165 – Jesse
Shanaman (Cornell) dec. Albert Woody (Lehigh) 5-0
174 – Kyle Dake
(Cornell) dec. Nathaniel Brown (Lehigh) 9-3
184 – Robert
Hamlin (Lehigh) dec, Steve Bosak (Cornell) 3-1, s.v.
197 – John Bolich
(Lehigh) dec. Jace Bennett (Cornell) 1-0
285 – Stryker Lane
(Cornell) dec. Jack Delia (Lehigh) 3-1
Attendance – 1,914
Referee – Jake
Llewellyn