EIWA Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh

[ngineer]

Begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. The oldest and one of the largest tournaments in the country as 14 teams will square off. Cornell is 'odds on' favorite this year with five men projected to be champs. Lehigh is pre-tourney #2 is hoping to make inroads with better overall balance across all ten weight classes. Rutgers, Bucknell and Navy could also make some noise. EIWA will send at least 41 wrestlers to the NCAA beginning March 18. Several 'wild card' selections are possible next week.
Lehigh sent 7 wrestlers last year and is looking to send at least that many this year. Zack Rey at 285 is the Mountain Hawk's best shot at a champ, with Fisk (133), Ciasulli (141), and Craig (184) the better shots at getting on the top podium. Lehigh does have the potential of placing all 10 wrestlers in the top 6 of each class. The team's final standing will have more to do with how well some guys exceed their 'seeding', and Lehigh has had a reputatation for being the 'over-achievers'.
Semi-Finals will be early Sunday, with Finals set to start at 3 pm on Sunday afternoon.
Full schedule at www.lehighsports.com

[ngineer]

Disappointing weekend for the Lehigh wrestling faithful (the b-ball faithful, of which there is significant overlap, had a great weekend.).

Cornell, as many expected ran away with the Tourney Championship with 5 champs. Penn, Lehigh and Bucknell ended up in a good dogfight for second and finished in this order (Penn, 113; Lehigh 109.5 and Bucknell 103).

Lehigh is guaranteed 5 qualifiers to NCAA: Champion Rey at 285; Second place Fisk at 133; Second place Hatchett at 165; Third place Craig at 184 (with an amazing five point reversal in the last 10 seconds to win 8-5!), and Fourth place Hamlin at 174.

Ciasulli who finished a surprising 5th at 141, will have to see if he gets a one of the 46 'wild cards' issued by the NCAA committee on Wednesday. Same goes for 6th place Joe Kennedy at 197.

Fisk did win the Sheridan Award (most pins in championship bracket in least time) for the second time in his four year career at Lehigh. OW award went to Cornells, Matt Lewnes, defending national champ at 174.