Reporting from Nationals

[ngineer]

Hey there--reporting from Oklahoma City! With my new (and first) laptop no less. I feel like a 16 year old who just got the keys to the old man's car.:D
Went to the National Memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 this afternoon. Very moving and highly recommend to anyone who gets to this area.
Tournament starts tomorrow a.m. at 11 a.m. with 332 wrestlers going at for the gold. Prognosticators have Lehigh finishing between 10-15. I would hope we could come in a little higher (6-10). Letters at 165, and national champion in 2004 arrived with the team but still not 100% recovered from his neck injury. Will be a shame if he cannot 'go' well to finish his career this way, but we shall see how it plays out on the mat.
Must say, the pace of life around here is much different than back East. Everyone seems to take their 'good ol' time'..waitresses, cashiers, etc. all seem to want to 'chat'...regardless if there's a line of people waiting.:nod:

[wannabegaucho]

How is the Pac-10 doing?

[ngineer]

They're doing as good as everyone else as of right now....since the tournament starts tomorrow!;) (sorry, couldn't help it). I'think Cal Poly has about 6-7 qualifiers and UC-Davis has about 5 wrestlers. Two of the Poly wrestlers are seeded: Mendes #9 at 125 and Vasquez #10 at 133. UC-Davis' 141 pounder, Moore is seeded #8, and Cook #7 at 174. Arizona State has a number of qualifiers, with their highest seeded grappler being Velasquez at 285 seeded #4. They also have Dollaway at 184 seeded #10, and Pitsch at 165 #10. Oregon has one seeded wrestler at 184 at #5 with Webster.
Oops-forgot about ASU's Mendoza at 125-he's seeded #8.

[JohnG]

Hey how did Letters look today?

BTW: do you post on the wrestlingreport forums too?

[ngineer]

Unfortunately, Letters re-injured his neck today in the second round and got pinned as a result. He got caught in a hold that he would normally and easily break--however, he clearly had no strenth in the upper shoulder/neck area. Will be interesting to see if he tries to go tomorrow in the consolations. Only one of Lehigh's wrestlers is out of the tournament as of close of business on Thursday--Cassidy at 197. He jumped out to a lead and just appeared to die. Morrison of Rider finished strong and handed him his second loss.
Cooperman, Zinck and Frick are still in the Championship bracket. All others are are alive in the consolations.
Okie State is in position to run away with this in light of Minnesota's several losses of seeded wrestlers today. A huge logjam from #2-15.
As to your question about a wrestling forum--no, I do not post there. No more time available..:-)

[ngineer]

Lehigh's 2004 National Champion, Troy Letters had to medically forfeit his next match in consolations this morning, ending his stellar career a couple days before he planned. It was obvious yesterday that his neck injury was inhibiting his ability to maneuver, and at this level, the risk of serious injury is compounded.
However, despite this setback, Lehigh has stormed out of nowhere with the other horses picking up the slack, and as of early this afternoon with session 3 winding down, the Mountain Hawks had jumped to 6th place! They are part of a logjam of teams all fighting for spots 2-10. The Cowboys of Oklahoma State had 71 pts, and second place Oklahoma had 45, with 6th place Lehigh with 36. Tonights wrestlers in the championship round are guaranteed All-American status (top 8 finish). Lehigh has three still alive--two in the championship semis: Cooperman at 141 and Zinck at 157. Zinck stunned the crowd knocking off #3 Tirappele of Illinois. Zinckwas seeded #11. He will now go against #10 Stith of Ariz. St. The 157 Class was blown apart. The Final Four are made up of seeds 5, 9,10 and 11!
Cooperman goes against Ty Ware of Oklahoma, the #2 seed and defending National Champ. This is one class where the 1-4 seeds made it through to the semis.
Frick lost to Askren of Missouri this morning and will start his wrestlebacks tonight in attempt to finish 3rd.
The rest of Lehigh's team has been stellar, exceeding expectations in obtaining valuable team points in moving through their consolation brackets and getting bonus points as well. Paul Weibel at heavyweight , who's truly a 197 pounder stunned UNI's Rhodes with a fall at 2:19 yesterday, and today knocked off JMU's Cvitan 8-3, before being eliminated in a heartbreaker Harvard's 265 pounder Ogunwode 7-5.
Super frosh Fisk and Chinn also picked up a bunch of wins in consolations, as did 184 pounder Helfrich with a couple falls in consolations.
A number of good candidates for Outstanding Wrestler--Simmons (Mich St), Esposito (Ok.St.), Wagner (Mich), have pinned all three men they have faced in their respective championship brackets. Refs seem to be calling stalling more liberally this year, which is causing more wide open and agressive grappling.

[ngineer]

With just a few consolation bouts remaining tonight, through the semis and first round of all-american consys, OSU has amasses 102 points. Minnesota's team has recovered from its debacle earlier in the tournament with guys wrestling back, but they are a distant second with about 71 pts. They are followed by Iowa and Oklahoma respectively and then about 6 teams are bunched within 10 pts of each other. Lehigh now stands 10th, with 3 alive in the consolations which shots at finishing as high as third.
Eastern teams as a whole have done well, with Hofstra, Penn, Cornell, Edinboro and Penn State filling out the rest of the top 10 at this point. One of the biggest surprises has been the collapse of Iowa State. Going into tonight's session they stood at 25th with only 20 pts with one alive in the championship bracket and three consys. Gallick at 141 won, so the Cyclones may move up some, but they have still fallen a long way from where they are accustomed.
For other I-AA schools, Cal Poly was 18th with 23 pts, Northern Iowa 23rd with 20.5, Chatty 32d with 10.5 and The Citadel 35th with 8.5. The Citadel has its first All-American in 165 pounder Dave Thompson who is still alive wrestling for 3rd-8th. Ironically, it was Thompson who upset Troy Letters in what became Letters' final match of his career due to his neck injury. No wrestlers from Appalachian State this year:confused: Must have been a down year?
Should anyone have any inquiries about any individual wrestlers either reply or pm me...Signing off to checkout the OKIE City nightlife....;)

[ngineer]

An interesting stat I found out today at the NCAA...Of the 330 wresters who qualified for the nationals, 104 are from PA (62), NJ (25) and NY (17). Of the 120 wrestlers who were seeded (12 in each of the 10 wt. classes), 63--over half--were from 6 states: Ohio (12), PA (16), NJ (10),
Mich (9),Calif (8) and NY (8). These are based on the students hometowns, not the schools they are wrestling for. Oklahoma has only 6 native sons seeded and Iowa 4....

[ngineer]

Oklahoma State 106
Minnesota 72.5
Oklahoma 64.5
Iowa 61.5
Arizona St. 56
Cornell 54Penn State 53.5
Michigan 52
Hofstra 47
]Lehigh 46[/B]
Edinboro 45
Northwestern 44
Penn 44
Iowa State 41
Missouri 39
Nebraska 33
Purdue 33
Wisconsin 32.5
Cal Poly 32
Indiana 30

The teams in bold are I-AA football schools. The only other non-I-A football school is D-II Edinboro, whose wrestling program has become another Eastern power in the past decade.

Consolations for determining 3rd, 5th and 7th place will take place late this morning. The finals will start at 6:30 p.m. CST--AND WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON ESPN! I'll wave ;)

[igo4uni]

Oklahoma has only 6 native sons seeded and Iowa 4....

That is really interesting. Given the popularity of wrestling in the state of Iowa, I thought that number would be much higher.

[Hansel]

Oklahoma State 106
Minnesota 72.5
Oklahoma 64.5
Iowa 61.5
Arizona St. 56
Cornell 54Penn State 53.5
Michigan 52
Hofstra 47
]Lehigh 46[/B]
Edinboro 45
Northwestern 44
Penn 44
Iowa State 41
Missouri 39
Nebraska 33
Purdue 33
Wisconsin 32.5
Cal Poly 32
Indiana 30

The teams in bold are I-AA football schools. The only other non-I-A football school is D-II Edinboro, whose wrestling program has become another Eastern power in the past decade.

Consolations for determining 3rd, 5th and 7th place will take place late this morning. The finals will start at 6:30 p.m. CST--AND WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON ESPN! I'll wave ;)
Watched the finals on TV, it appears OK City is an excellent host. Also enjoyed watching Askren (Mizzou) take it to his opponent. Watched him at the Big 12's two years ago when he was a freshmen, and one could immediately tell he had excellent scrambling ability.

[Hansel]

PS, I also thought the wrestler from Michigan (cherella?) got hosed against Hendricks from Okie State

[ngineer]

PS, I also thought the wrestler from Michigan (cherella?) got hosed against Hendricks from Okie State

Yes, you and about 12,000 others. the other 4,000 were OSU fans. This years tournament was very well run. I was very impressed with the Oklahoma City's friendliness and helpfulness. Tournament was also well organized. They had a great program before the finals that selected the top 5 'greatest wins' of all-time. Of course, we Lehigh fans roared when they selected our Rob Rohn's great comeback in 2002 against Josh Lambrecht when he pinned Lambrecht while after trailing 14-2. He escaped and then hit the Sooner with our Lehigh Valley patented 'cement job'. Of course, his match was right before Cael Sanderson's final bout and had it not been for that, I think Rob would have been Outstanding Wrestler.
The matches tonight were much more exciting than last years. More offense---with the exception of heavyweight which was ridiculous. The officials have to start hitting these dancing bears with stalling.

[ngineer]

Here are the final team scores for the top 25:
Oklahoma State 122.5
Minnesota 84
Oklahoma 80,5
Iowa 70
Cornell 62
Arizona State 61.5
Michigan 57.5
Edinboro 56
Lehigh 53.5
Penn State 53.5
Hofstra 52.5
Pennsylvania 51
Northwestern 48.5
Iowa State 48.5
Missouri 45
American 40
Indiana 35
Michigan State 35
Purdue 34
Wisconsin 33.5
Oregon 33
Cal Poly 32
Boise State 31.5
Illinois 29
Central Michigan 26
West Virginia 23
Northern Iowa 20.5

I-AA Football Schools in bold

This was the first time in Lehigh's history that it has finished in the Top Ten 6 years in a row. Three more All-Americans in Cooperman (3rd), Zinck (5th) and Frick (6th). The team accomplishment was all the more amazing being attained without its star captain and 2004 national champ Troy Letters who had to withdraw with a medical forfeit. A healthy Letters would have had us in a close fight for fourth.

Ben Askren of Missouri, IMO was the most outstanding wrestler. Amazing balance and technique.

[*****]

Nice job ngineer!! Thanks.

[Hansel]

[/B]

Yes, you and about 12,000 others. the other 4,000 were OSU fans. This years tournament was very well run. I was very impressed with the Oklahoma City's friendliness and helpfulness. Tournament was also well organized. They had a great program before the finals that selected the top 5 'greatest wins' of all-time. Of course, we Lehigh fans roared when they selected our Rob Rohn's great comeback in 2002 against Josh Lambrecht when he pinned Lambrecht while after trailing 14-2. He escaped and then hit the Sooner with our Lehigh Valley patented 'cement job'. Of course, his match was right before Cael Sanderson's final bout and had it not been for that, I think Rob would have been Outstanding Wrestler.
The matches tonight were much more exciting than last years. More offense---with the exception of heavyweight which was ridiculous. The officials have to start hitting these dancing bears with stalling.
The HWT match was ridiculous, I can't beleive they werent' both called multiples time for stalling

[ngineer]

After the tournament Saturday night over 260 Lehigh fans took over Coaches' Restaurant in Bricktown and celebrated the team's 9th place finish and salute the wrestlers and coaches--especially the "Fab Four" of Letters, Cooperman, Zinck and Frick who all graduate. What a tremendous run. Their combined records were something like 396-75, with Letters going 106-7 (the last two due to injury default) and Cooperman going 99-12.
Only 6 teams have made the Top Ten each of the last five years:
Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Lehigh. Not bad company.;)
Next year's tournament will be at The Palace at Auburn Hills, Michigan, March 15-17, 2007.

[JohnG]

Thanks for the reports, it was good to see Lehigh get another top 10 finish, I just wish Coop would have been able to make the finals and win the championship.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to make the trip to Nationals (as well as my third trip to Easterns).
My plans for next year: Go to all 15 Lehigh football games, all home wrestling duals as well as several away ones, EIWA tourny, Nationals, and hopefully an NCAA tourny game or two (move over Bucknell it's Lehigh's turn). Oh and per my parents request I'll go to a class or two.

BTW: Do you know if they are doing the EIWAs next year fri/sat or are they keeping it sat/sun? I kinda liked sat/sun because I didnt have to skip any classes.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Thanks for the reports, it was good to see Lehigh get another top 10 finish, I just wish Coop would have been able to make the finals and win the championship.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to make the trip to Nationals (as well as my third trip to Easterns).
My plans for next year: Go to all 15 Lehigh football games, all home wrestling duals as well as several away ones, EIWA tourny, Nationals, and hopefully an NCAA tourny game or two (move over Bucknell it's Lehigh's turn). Oh and per my parents request I'll go to a class or two.

BTW: Do you know if they are doing the EIWAs next year fri/sat or are they keeping it sat/sun? I kinda liked sat/sun because I didnt have to skip any classes.


First of all, all *15* games? :)

Second, with a schedule like that, are you auditioning for Jeff's job? You'll need to add the women's Christmas City Classic and a trip to Wyoming for men's b-ball then :)

[JohnG]

First of all, all *15* games? :)

Second, with a schedule like that, are you auditioning for Jeff's job? You'll need to add the women's Christmas City Classic and a trip to Wyoming for men's b-ball then :)

What can I say I am very optimistic. I'm hoping to be able to make it to 19 football games next year (20 if my hometown team, NCSU makes it to a bowl game). I was thinking about trying to double dip on 9/9/06 with another game in the phili area, on 9/16/06 with a night game over in easton, and maybe a second game on 10/7/06 down in the DC area. Also I was thinking about making the trip to Princeton to watch a game on 9/23.

I think I'll skip the Christmas City Classic in favor of the Southern Scuffle which I seem to remember hearing we were going to again (although hopefully this year everybody will return in one piece) it's a little warmer down there and closer to home for me. As far as Wyoming goes I'll probably pass on that although they do have some good skiing I hear so you never know.

Nah I'm not really going for Jeff's job, I like being just that random screaming lunatic in the stands. Although I might have to start a blog for my travels. "Lehigh Sports Through a Students Very Brown and White Glasses"

[ngineer]

Thanks for the reports, it was good to see Lehigh get another top 10 finish, I just wish Coop would have been able to make the finals and win the championship.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to make the trip to Nationals (as well as my third trip to Easterns).
My plans for next year: Go to all 15 Lehigh football games, all home wrestling duals as well as several away ones, EIWA tourny, Nationals, and hopefully an NCAA tourny game or two (move over Bucknell it's Lehigh's turn). Oh and per my parents request I'll go to a class or two.

BTW: Do you know if they are doing the EIWAs next year fri/sat or are they keeping it sat/sun? I kinda liked sat/sun because I didnt have to skip any classes.

Not 100% sure, but I think with all the favorable comments about the Sat/Sunday format it is likely to be repeated. Plus helps attendance. Next year's EIWA will be at East Stroudsburg University. Not sure how good their venue is--chair seating? I hope so. My old back is not up to two days on a bench.
I like the '15' football game schedule. Each year I blockoff those two Saturdays and the one Friday on my calendar in the hope....;)

[JohnG]

[/B]

Not 100% sure, but I think with all the favorable comments about the Sat/Sunday format it is likely to be repeated. Plus helps attendance. Next year's EIWA will be at East Stroudsburg University. Not sure how good their venue is--chair seating? I hope so. My old back is not up to two days on a bench.
I like the '15' football game schedule. Each year I blockoff those two Saturdays and the one Friday on my calendar in the hope....;)
I heard that they only have a few hundred chair back seats which is really disappointing because sitting on a bench for 6 straight hours is tough for anybody. I might have to invest in one of those seat cushions with a back.

[ngineer]

I heard that they only have a few hundred chair back seats which is really disappointing because sitting on a bench for 6 straight hours is tough for anybody. I might have to invest in one of those seat cushions with a back.

Thanks for the info. Now I just have to remember it:D I have those black cushioned Lehigh stadium seats that have the flap for holding programs, etc. I use them for football, and in Grace Hall--Highly recommend them. Bookstore sells them...

[JohnG]

Thanks for the info. Now I just have to remember it:D I have those black cushioned Lehigh stadium seats that have the flap for holding programs, etc. I use them for football, and in Grace Hall--Highly recommend them. Bookstore sells them...
I might have to look into one of those, I just have one of those cheap white Lehigh seat cushions that turns into a pancake after a couple of minutes (although it does help with those ice cold goodman seats in november).

Also I did some searching on the internet and it lists the EIWAs for next year as March 2nd & 3rd (Fri/Sat) so we'll have to see if that changes later on.

BTW: Only 31 days till the spring game, hopefully it wont rain this year and we'll have a nice 70 degree day.

[ngineer]

I might have to look into one of those, I just have one of those cheap white Lehigh seat cushions that turns into a pancake after a couple of minutes (although it does help with those ice cold goodman seats in november).

Also I did some searching on the internet and it lists the EIWAs for next year as March 2nd & 3rd (Fri/Sat) so we'll have to see if that changes later on.

BTW: Only 31 days till the spring game, hopefully it wont rain this year and we'll have a nice 70 degree day.

Yes! Practice begins March 31, I believe. May try and get over there before the Brown & White game to see any changes in approach--especially on the offense.