“Wrestle-offs are always difficult for the guys because you want to be intense and aggressive,” said Santoro, who begins his second season as head coach. “It’s tough for the guys to wrestle against teammates and friends. The important thing for our wrestlers is that they’ve worked so hard in the preseason. As coaches, we want to see them go out and just let it fly. We want to see them score points and be aggressive and opportunistic.”
The lineup features nine returning starters from last season and six NCAA tournament qualifiers from a year ago. Three bouts will be rematches from last year as sophomore John McDonald squares off against junior Mitch Berger at 125 and junior Alex Caruso meets deferred freshman Robert Hamlin at 174. At heavyweight, sophomore Zach Rey will meet slimmed down senior Justin Allen.
One of the more competitive battles in the preseason has been at 149, where as many as eight grapplers have challenged for the starting spot. The official starter likely will not be determined until next week, but Friday night sophomore Brian Tanen will meet true freshman Joey Napoli in the official wrestle-off at 149, while junior Kyle Rosser will meet deferred freshman Justin Koren in an exhibition bout. In addition, two other members of Lehigh’s true freshman class will compete as freshman Albert Woody will meet EIWA Champion Seth Ciasulli at 141 and Austin Meys will wrestle an exhibition bout against senior Mike Galante at 165.
Santoro also indicated that one or two more exhibition bouts may be added to the slate.
“The other important thing is to have the guys get their weight down and to get them in front of a crowd, with an official,” said Santoro. “We’ve seen what they can do in the room, now we can see how they perform in competition.”
The wrestle-offs get underway at 7 p.m. Friday from Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by visiting the Lehigh ticket office, located in Grace Hall. For those unable to make it to Grace Hall on Friday, the wrestle-offs can be seen both live and on-demand at Lehighsports.com, with Lehigh wrestling historian Denny Diehl ’70 joining Steve Lomangino for the commentary.
Friday’s probable match-ups:
Weight Brown vs. White
125 John McDonald vs. Mitch Berger
133 Mike Margherita vs. Matt Fisk
141 Albert Woody vs. Seth Ciasulli
149 Brian Tanen vs. Joey Napoli
149 EX Kyle Rosser vs. Justin Koren
157 Sean Bilodeau vs. Josh Fitch
165 EX Mike Galante vs. Austin Meys
174 Alex Caruso vs. Robert Hamlin
184 Kadeem Samuels vs. David Craig
197 Robert Prigmore vs. Joe Kennedy
285 Zach Rey vs. Justin Allen
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