EIWA Day 1: LEHIGH HOLDING SLIM LEAD

[ngineer]

The 102nd EIWA Wrestling Championships got off to a rousing first day, and, as expected, Lehigh, Cornell and Penn are the 'Big 3', although Harvard, Navy and Army have made some noise.
After the first day through semi-finals and consoloation quarterfinals, the team standings are:
Lehigh 104
Cornell 100.5
Penn 85.5
Harvard 70.5
Navy 64.5
Army 58.5
Columbia 49.5
American 44.5
Brown 19
Rutgers 11.5
ESU 9
Princeton 2
F & M 1.5
The stunning development has been the losses by two of Lehigh's stars, Derek Zinck (157) and Troy Letters (167). Both are alive in Consolation semis tomorrow, but both were expected to be wrestling Sunday afternoon for gold. Now, bronze will be the best these two seniors can get. However, qualifying for the NCAA's is still the ultimate goal. LU's two freshman, Fisk (125) and Chinn (149) were fantastic as both will be wrestling for gold tomorrow. Cooperman (141), Frick (174) and Cassidy (194) also will be in the Championship Finals.
The hero of the day was unseeded Dave Helfrich (184) who lost to the NCAA #1 ranked wrestler, Glenn, in overtime after a questionable decison regarding 'loss of control' left him with 59 seconds of riding time in regulation;otherwise he would have won the match. Also, Lehigh's 'token' heavyweight--197 pounder Paul Weible made it to the Semifinals before losing a close , 8-6, bout to #1 Garrett of Navy.
Consolations for 5th and 3rd place begin Sunday at 10 a.m. Championship Finals will begin at 3 p.m.

[wannabegaucho]

Is this a conference torunament? I hope the Pacific 10 (specifically Davis, Poly, and Bakersfield) have success in wrestling.

[ngineer]

Is this a conference torunament? I hope the Pacific 10 (specifically Davis, Poly, and Bakersfield) have success in wrestling.

Yes. The EIWA is the oldest collegiate wrestling conference in the country. At one time it had 16 teams. Currently 13, with Bucknell joining next year. Unfortunately several teams, who were quite successful, have dropped the sport under the excuse of Title IX, which is a lame excuse. Those schools are Yale, Syracuse, and Colgate. Pitt and Penn State were members of the EIWA years back but left to form a different league before PSU went to the Big Ten. Lehigh, Cornell and Penn have been perennial powers in the East; and Navy, Harvard and Army have had very good teams at times. American is starting to make a name for itself.
Cal Poly has had some great wrestling teams over the years. Every now and then Lehigh has traveled out to California and wrestled them--7 times since 1973, with CP winning 4 to date. We wrestled Bakersfield twice in the late 1990's and lost both., wrestled Cal-Davis once (1998) and won.