The Mountain Hawks posted three bonus wins with sophomore Darian Cruz winning by technical fall, freshman Ryan Preisch earning a major decision and junior Ben Haas winning by injury default in the final bout of the dual.
“That was a great match,†Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said. “We knew it would be a battle, and it was. Penn came to wrestle and I'm proud of the way our guys got through this.
“Three guys got banged up last week,†Santoro continued. “We sat them yesterday but they were day-to-day. They all wanted to wrestle. They didn't have a lot of mat time last week so it was good to see them go out there and wrestle hard.
Penn elected to draw the starting weight and pulled 285. Lehigh took the first two bouts to claim an early 8-0 lead. Senior Max Wessell starting things off with an 11-4 decision over Patrik Garren, falling one takedown short of a major decision. Darian Cruz followed with a dominant offensive performance against Jeremy Schwartz at 125, scoring 11 takedowns including one at the buzzer to get the 26-9 technical fall.
The Quakers posted their first win at 133 as Caleb Richardson edged Mason Beckman 4-3 with 1:05 riding time the difference. Richardson had the only takedown of the bout, which came in the first period.
Junior Randy Cruz gave Lehigh three of the first four bouts with a 6-3 win over Marc Mastropietro at 141.
Penn's second win of the day also was decided by riding time. Junior Laike Gardner returned to action after missing the Navy dual against Penn's C.J. Cobb. In the second period, Cobb was able to build a sizeable riding time advantage before Gardner could escape and after a third period escape of his own, survived several Gardner flurries to win late on riding time. Cobb's win cut Lehigh's lead to 11-6 at the halfway point of the dual.
Junior Mitch Minotti returned to the lineup against May Bethea at 157 after missing Saturday's dual. Bethea scored the first takedown at the end of the first period but a Minotti escape and takedown in the second period plus solid defense in neutral in the third gave Minotti a 3-2 decision.
Preisch gave Lehigh a big boost in the second half of the dual with his second bonus win of the weekend. Leading 4-1 with riding time late in the third period, Preisch cradled Ray Bethea for a takedown and four point near fall, which turned the match into an 11-2 major decision for Preisch and an 18-6 Lehigh lead.
At 174, Lehigh once again turned to freshman Gordon Wolf, who took on Penn's 16th-ranked Casey Kent. While Wolf kept fighting, Kent opened up a 9-0 lead into the third period before Wolf scored a takedown of his own and then a penalty point for stalling. A late reversal gave Kent a 12-3 major decision, which kept the Quakers alive in the team race with two bouts remaining.
Brown and Thomas met for the second time in eight days and again the Lehigh senior found just enough to win. Brown scored a takedown for the only points of the first period, then went up 3-0 on a second period escape before Thomas countered a Brown shot for a takedown to climb within 3-2 after two. Needing a strong third period, Brown rode out Thomas while thwarting a late reversal attempt. The riding time point gave Brown a 4-2 win and clinched the dual for the Mountain Hawks.
“Nate wasn't feeling well today but he just kept battling,†Santoro said. “That's why he's such a great leader.â€
In the final bout of the dual junior Ben Haas, subbing for senior John Bolich, won by injury default over Frank Mattiace in 2:07. Mattiace opened the scoring with a takedown but Haas escaped and was in on a shot when Mattiace called for injury time. After Mattiace used up all of his injury time, Haas escaped to tie the score at 2-2 then scored a takedown to go in front before Mattiace took a second injury timeout and defaulted.
The Mountain Hawks will return to the mats next Saturday when they travel to Lancaster to face Franklin & Marshall at 2 p.m. The match will be broadcast on WLVR-FM (91.3) and wlvr.org beginning at 1:45 p.m.
Results:
285 – Max Wessell (Lehigh) dec. Patrik Garren (Penn) 11-4
125 – Darian Cruz (Lehigh) tech fall Jeremy Schwartz (Penn) 26-9, 7:00
133 – Caleb Richardson (Penn) dec. Mason Beckman (Lehigh) 4-3
141 – Randy Cruz (Lehigh) dec. Marc Mastropietro (Penn) 6-3
149 – C.J. Cobb (Penn) dec. Laike Gardner (Lehigh) 2-1
157 – Mitch Minotti (Lehigh) dec. May Bethea (Penn) 3-2
165 – Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) major dec. Ray Bethea (Penn) 11-2
174 – Casey Kent (Penn) major dec. Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) 12-3
184 – Nathaniel Brown (Lehigh) dec. Lorenzo Thomas (Penn) 4-2
197 – Ben Haas (Lehigh) injury default Frank Mattiace (Penn) 2:07
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