EIWA Wrestling Tourney: Can Anyone Stop Cornell?

[ngineer]

Tournament begins Saturday a.m. at Bucknell's Sojka Pavillion. Cornell will come in with possibly 5 #1 seeds. If Lehigh, American and Bucknell hope to derail the The Big Red, more than one team will need to step up. The Heavyweight class will have the #1, #3 and #4 ranked wrestlers in the country.

[ngineer]

The answer to the above question was "No." Cornell sent six into the finals and Lehigh was forced to forfeit four bouts due to illness and injuries to thwart any long shot at stopping the The Big Red. Moreover, #1 285 lb.Zach Rey lost for the first time this year to #3 ranked Flores, 4-2 in sudden victory overtime. He had beaten Flores twice earlier this year in very close bouts, so both should be seeded #1 and #2 at the NCAA's.
This year's Easterns were held at Sojka Pavillion, which is a great facililty for a tournament like this. Unfortunately, the attendance was poor as significantly less than 2,000 attended each session. The contrast with the packed house a few hours later for the Lehigh-Bucknell basketball game was telling.
Robert Hamlin led the way for Lehigh with a scintillating win over Cornell's Bosak, 6-5 and joins Rey as a legitimate NCAA champion contender. Injuries to Catagna, Meys and illnesses to Hatchett prevented them from wrestling for higher places. Catagna finished 2nd, Meys 4th and Hatchett 6th. Lehigh is assured 7 NCAA qualifiers and a possible 8th depending on Hatchett's RPI score.

EIWA Top Five Team Scores:

Cornell 173
Lehigh 119
Rutgers 106.5
American 106
Penn 98