100th EIWA Tournament Preview: Penn, Cornell To Challenge Lehigh

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John J. Harmon (EIWA Newsletter Editor)
03/04/2004


Philadelphia, Pa. - With three returning champions and a returning runner-up, and six returning NCAA Qualifiers, Lehigh is clearly the team to beat this weekend. Winning a team title would be the third-straight crown for the Engineers.     But Penn and Cornell each have five returning NCAA Qualifiers, and each appears to have the potential to mount a serious challenge to the Mountain Hawks. To do this, two things must fall into place for the Quakers and the Big Red.     They must avoid beating each other up early in the tournament and they must pull off two or more major upsets of highly-seeded Lehigh wrestlers prior to the final round.     The rest of the field is seen participating in a fierce battle for fourth place, with Rutgers, Navy, Harvard and Brown given the best chance of finishing that high.     In addition to the team title and ten individual titles, 39 wrestlers will qualify for participation in the NCAA Championships in St. Louis in two weeks. All finalists automatically qualify, with 19 wild cards to be named by the coaches from wrestlers who place third, fourth or fifth.     The trio of returning champions for Lehigh includes All-Americans Derek Zinck (157), NCAA-runnerup Troy Letters (165) and Brad Dillon (174). Teammate Cory Cooperman, runner-up at 133 pounds last year, moves up to 141 where he will be the top seed in EIWA tournament. Mario Stuart is a two-time finalist and former All-American who will get the number two seed at 125, while freshman Matt Ciasulli has been ranked second at 133 most of the season. Travis Frick was third at 184 pounds last season, and hopes to improve on that finish, while another freshman, Matt Cassidy will likely be seeded third at 197 pounds. Two more freshmen round out the Mountain Hawk lineup. Matt Anderson is a rapidly improving freshman at 149 pounds with high hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. Paul Weibel, newly bulked up from 197 pounds, will man heavyweight, where he has had considerable success substituting for the injured Joe Sahl most of the season. Lehigh will be hoping to qualify all ten wrestlers for Nationals, something no EIWA team has ever done.     The Quakers have an excellent tournament team which could qualify as many as eight grapplers to the National Tournament.     They are led by sophomore Matt Valenti, a 2003 runner-up who has been ranked first at 125 all season, and junior Matt Feast, the defending heavyweight champion. NCAA Qualifier Doug McGraw returns at 141 pounds, where he placed third last year, along with sophomore Matt Herrington at 174 pounds and junior Paul Velekei, dropping down to 184 pounds from 197 pounds, where he was third last year. The Quakers have proven performers in sophomore Matt Eveleth at 133 pounds and junior Marcus Schontube at 197 pounds, and have been pleased by the emergence of senior Brett Vanderveer at 157 pounds into a potential NCAA qualifier.     The Big Red will bring a well balanced team to The Palestra mats, led by returning NCAA Champion Travis Lee, up a weight to 133 pounds, Matt Greenberg, runner-up at 197 pounds a year ago, and returning All-American Dustin Manotti at 149 pounds. Scott Roth qualified for nationals at 165 a year ago, and hopes to repeat that accomplishment at 157 pounds this year. Another qualifier, Tyler Baier, returns at 174 pounds. Mike Mormile has fought his way into the starting lineup at 125 pounds, where he has become a proven performer. Sophomore Joe Mazzurco has lost some time due to a broken jaw at 165, but is expected back in time for the tournament.     Heavyweight Matt Bogumil has shown great improvement this season, and is now considered to be a possible NCAA qualifier. Good performances by freshmen Keith Dickey at 141 pounds and Jerry Rinaldi at 184 pounds could make a total of ten NCAA qualifiers for Cornell as well.     Rutgers is led by returning runnerup Andy Roy at 174. Potential qualifiers include Amir Khan at 157 pounds, Donnie Defillippis, at 141 pounds and Chris Ressa at 165.     Harvard returns Jesse Jantzen, who has been ranked first in the nation at 149 all season. Sophomore Max Meltzer will likely get the number two seed at 141, while heavyweight freshman Bode Ogunwole, substituting for the injured Jonas Corl, and rugged Reggie Lee at 197 pounds are potential qualifiers.     Navy will be led by Mike Barikian at 165 pounds, who has stepped into the breach left by injured All-American Frank Edwards. Freshman John Cox has shown great promise at 149 pounds, and heavyweight Tanner Garrett is much improved over his freshman season. Other Midshipmen to watch include Sam Gray at 125 pounds, Nate Gulosh at 141 pounds and Thayer Paxton at 197 pounds.     Brown has high hopes from a trio of top performers, including seniors Nick Ciarcia at 184 pounds, Sean Jenkins at 165 pounds and David Dies at 149 pounds.     Army will be somewhere in the top eight, led by Phillip Simpson, returning champion at 141 pounds, who will be competing at 157 this year. Returning qualifier Bernard Gardner returns at 133 pounds, while sophomore Luke Calvert could be a qualifier at 174 pounds.     125  Penn's Matt Valenti will be the top seed assuming he beats Stuart of Lehigh in the dual (this feature went to press February 11-Ed). Mike Mormile, Cornell, beat Jeff Sato of Columbia 3-0 in the dual, so Mormile gets the third seed. Navy's Sam Gray has not met any of the leaders this year, so watch him for upset potential.     133  Travis Lee has lost only once all year, in the first round at Midlands. His opponents have regretted it ever since. Matt Ciasulli will get the number two seed after a 9-1 victory over Matt Eveleth in late February. Pencil in returning qualifier Bernard Gardner of Army as the fourth seed, but Princeton senior Brian Kirschbaum could mount a challenge as he beat Eveleth, 5-2 in a late season dual. Franklin & Marshall returns former place winner Rich Gebauer after a year off. He has a loss to Kirschbaum on his record, but has not met the leaders.     141  Lehigh's Cory Cooperman will get the top seed based on a 7-3 dual meet win over Penn’s Doug McGraw will most likely be the third seed. Harvard’s Max Meltzer owns a win over McGraw and should get the second seed. Nate Gulosh of Navy will get the fourth seed based on a wild and wooly, 14-12, overtime win over Donnie Defillippis of Rutgers. Defillippis, who was seeded fifth at the NCAA tournament a couple of years ago, is dangerous, and is a threat to make the finals. Expect a high scoring bout every time he steps on the mat.     149  Pencil in Harvard's Jesse Jantzen, ranked first in the nation all year, as the probable champion. Dustin Manotti should earn the second see after defeating David Dies, 3-1 in a dual meet bout. A fun wrestler to watch is funky Lehigh freshman Matt Anderson, whose style reminds fans of Princeton's Greg Parker. He has one-point losses to both Manotti and Dies, and Lehigh fans will be thinking upset here. Navy freshman John Cox has been impressive, while Rutgers senior Greg Austin has been slowed somewhat by injury this season. He could move up if he can regain his form this weekend. Coaches might consider qualifying three wild cards here.     157  Army's Phillip Simpson does not appear to have been slowed at all by jumping up two weight classes this season. He has only two losses all season, both of them out of the conference, and beat Derek Zinck of Lehigh, the defending champion, 12-5. Scott Roth of Cornell has lost only to Simpson, but could be challenged by Rutgers senior Amir Khan. The No. 5 seed will likely go to Devin Mesanko of Columbia, 7-6 winner in the dual over Brett Vanderveer of Penn.     165  Lehigh's defending champion Troy Letters, who was ranked number one in the nation all season, appears to have a lock on the title here. The battle will be for second place among Sean Jenkins of Brown, Mike Barikian of Navy and Joe Mazzurco of Cornell. If the expected matchup between Jenkins and Mazzurco takes place, the winner will have a claim to the second seed.     174  Another defending champion from Lehigh, Brad Dillon, was undefeated as