The Mountain Hawks scored 19 bonus points, by way of eight falls, and three major decisions, with seven of the eight pins coming in Saturday's morning session. Lehigh finished day one with 88.5 points and holds an 8.5 point lead over Cornell heading into the final day of competition. The Mountain Hawks posted a 19-3 record on the tournament's opening day.
"Overall a good day," Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said. "We have eight in the championship bracket and one on the back side. We've put ourselves in a good position but we have to wrestle really well tomorrow.
"We needed bonus points," Santoro added about the day's early bonus barrage. "We knew they'd be available early in the tournament, and sometimes on the back side. We needed to take advantage of that. Our guys were looking for them and did a nice job getting them."
Senior Darian Cruz led the way with falls in both of his matches Saturday to reach the semifinals at 125. Cruz built a 14-0 lead over Navy's Aslan Kilic in the semifinals before picking up Lehigh's eighth pin early in the third period. He will face Binghamton's Joe Nelson in the semifinals Sunday morning.
Lehigh's two other top seeds, sophomore Jordan Kutler (174) and junior Ryan Preisch (184) were part of the group of eight that advanced to the semifinals. Both wrestlers opened with first period falls in their opening bouts. Kutler needed a strong second period ride to defeat Drexel's Austin Rose 2-0 in the quarterfinals, while Preisch was in control throughout in an 8-1 win over Bucknell's Drew Phipps.
Freshman heavyweight Jordan Wood joined Cruz as the lone Mountain Hawks to post two bonus point wins Saturday. Wood opened with a first period fall over Binghamton's Sean Dee before riding a strong third period to a 10-2 major decision over Princeton's Christian Araneo. Next up for Wood is defending champion and No. 3 seed Garrett Ryan of Columbia.
Second seeded junior Scott Parker advanced to the semifinals in his bid for a second EIWA title. Leading late, Parker left no doubt by pinning Princeton's Jonathan Gomez with four seconds remaining in his first bout, before recording a takedown in each period to defeat Navy's Cody Trybus 7-4 in the quarterfinals. Parker will next face No. 3 seed Josh Terao of American in the semifinals.
Freshman Luke Karam and junior Cortlandt Schuyler made the semifinals as No. 3 seeds at 141 and 149, respectively. Karam won by major decision in his opener against Hofstra's Vinny Vespa, then edged Joe Russ of Binghamton thanks to a strong third period ride. He will look to avenge a loss to Bucknell's Tyler Smith in Lehigh's season opener last November.
Schuyler was the lone Mountain Hawk not to score bonus points on Saturday, holding off Zach Krause of Brown 6-4 before posting a solid 6-3 win over Harvard's Hunter Ladnier. He will next face No. 10 seed Frank Garcia of Binghamton.
Lehigh's eighth semifinalist is freshman Chris Weiler, who needed just 29 seconds to pin Joe Toci of Sacred Heart, then dominated Jeric Kasunic of American with more than four minutes of riding time in an 8-1 decision.
Wins by Preisch and Weiler in the quarterfinals make them Lehigh's first two automatic NCAA qualifiers.
Sunday's semifinal round will feature two head-to-head matchups: Kutler and Brandon Womack at 174 and Weiler against top seed Ben Darmstadt at 197.
Juniors Ian Brown and Gordon Wolf both opened with bonus point wins before suffering close losses in the quarterfinals. A second period ride out was the difference as Brown lost to Brown's Justin Staudenmayer 2-1 at 157 with riding time the deciding point. Brown was then eliminated by Binghamton's Tristan Rifanburg.
Wolf held a late lead on riding time against Navy's Drew Daniels in the quarterfinals at 165, but a stall warning sent the match to overtime and Daniels converted a double leg takedown to win 5-3. He fell into an early 6-0 hole against Binghamton's Vincent DePrez in the second round of consolations, but battled back to claim a 12-10 decision. While Lehigh and Cornell both have eight semifinalists, Wolf is the only wrestler on either team currently alive in the consolations.
"We have to put guys in the finals," Santoro said. "We have eight in the semifinals. They have eight in the semifinals. It's basically even and will come down to how many guys can punch through. It's a big day tomorrow. For both teams. Both teams know what's at stake and both teams will wrestle hard tomorrow. We just have to be ready for the dog fight."
The EIWA Championships conclude Sunday at Hofstra's Mack Sports Complex. Session three, featuring the championship semifinals and two rounds of consolations, begins at 10 a.m. while the final session with bouts for first, third and fifth place will begin at 3 p.m. Video for the entire tournament is available on FloWrestling.org while Lehigh will offer audio of the finals session on ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley (1230/1320/1160-AM) and ESPNLV.com.
Top Five Teams
1. Lehigh 88.5
2. Cornell 88
3. Princeton 56.5
4. Drexel 53
5. Navy 52
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