College Wrestling
Lehigh University
25, Rider University 9
LAWRENCEVILLE?The
Broncs lost to nationally ranked Lehigh Saturday night, with the Mountain Hawks
winning eight of the ten bouts. “We knew coming in that Lehigh was a very good
team, with a tough kid at every weight class,” said Rider head coach Gary
Taylor. “My hat's off to them, they out-wrestled us.”
For Rider
(1-1), freshman 125 Filiberto Colon (Belleville)
was losing 15-4 before winning by fall with just 31 seconds left to give Rider
a 6-0 lead. “He can pin anybody,” Taylor
said. “That's one of the advantages of being a ?pinner', you are never out of
it.”
“I was
going for the pin early, but that was resulting in the other guy getting a lot
of points,” Colon
said, “so I stopped going for it, seeing I was giving up so many points. At the
end I was down by a lot so I had to go for it and once he fell into that
position I locked it up.”
In the
battle at 157, junior Michael Kessler (Randallstown,
MD/Owings Mills) (12-4), a two-time NCAA qualifier ranked 32nd by
The Wrestling Report, defeated Lehigh's Sean Bilodeau (7-6), who is ranked 26th.
“Mike wrestled a very good kid and did a nice job of capitalizing when he had
position,” Taylor
said.
For the
seventh ranked Mountain Hawks of Lehigh (9-0), David Craig (7-3), who came
within one win of All-America honors in 2007, defeated senior Doug Umbehauer
(Shamong, NJ/Lenape), who came within one win of All-America honors in 2008,
8-6 in three overtimes. It was the first bout of the season for Umbehauer, who
took the first semester off from school “That
was a tough first bout to have,” Taylor said, “against a wrestler who came out
of high school as one of the top recruits in the country. He's very talented.
It is a shame Doug did not have two or three matches to get his timing back
before facing a wrestler of that caliber.”
Trevor
Chinn, who is ranked 12th by The Wrestling Report, won at 149 to give
Lehigh a 10-6 lead.
At 165,
Lehigh's Mike Galante (13-3), ranked 17th by InterMat, defeated
Rider senior Jason Lapham (West Chazy, NY/Beekmantown) (12-4), who is ranked 29th
by The Wrestling Report.
Alex
Caruso, ranked 16th at 174 by InterMat, won to give Lehigh a 16-9
lead.
Lehigh's
Zach Rey (6-2), ranked 24th by The Wrestling Report, defeated junior
Ed Bordas (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central) at heavyweight. Bordas
(8-7) was a CAA champion and an NCAA qualifier last year.
“I thought
both teams fought hard,” Taylor
said. “They obviously had the edge at
the key points when they had to have the edge. They've beaten some really good
teams (Michigan, Oklahoma State)
this year, and that really helps your confidence in those key moments.”
Rider and
Lehigh have now met 18 times, with Rider winning five, including a 24-14
victory in 2006-07 in Alumni Gym when Lehigh was ranked 21st.
The Broncs
travel to the prestigious Midlands Tournament December 29-30, hosted by Northwestern University. “The Midlands is the
toughest tournament in the country,” Taylor
said. “Iowa and Iowa State
will both be there, and those two teams alone make it a very tough tournament.”
L-R
125 Filiberto Colon-R wbf Mitch Berger-L 6:29 0-6
133 Matt Fisk-L major dec. Matt Bradley-R 11-3 4-6
141 Seth Ciasulli-L dec. Fred Rodgers-R 3-2 7-6
149 Trevor Chinn-L dec. Nick Weaver-R 6-2 10-6
157 Michael Kessler-R dec. Sean Bilodeau-L 7-1 10-9
165 Mike Galante-L dec. Jason Lapham-R 3-2 13-9
174 Alex Caruso-L dec. Mike Ward-R 4-2 16-9
184 David Craig-L dec. Doug Umbehauer-R 8-6
(ot) 19-9
197 Joe Kennedy-L dec. Tyler Smith-R 12-5 22-9
hwt Zach Rey-L dec. Ed Bordas-R 8-4 25-9
