The stars shine brightly, as celebrities and wrestling heroes attend Lehigh/Missouri match at the New York Athletic Club
1/12/2005
Al Bevilacqua/Metropolitan Wrestling Association
The New York Athletic played host to the University of Missouri and Lehigh University on January 11, an exciting college dual meet won by Lehigh. It was a thrilling come-from-behind 22-17 victory for the Mountain Hawks.
For the first time in the history of the New York Athletic Club, a nationally televised sporting event was broadcast from the world-famous facility. CSTV provided the coverage, which will be seen nationally on Direct TV and some of its other cable outlets on Wednesday, January 12 at 10:00PM
In typical New York City fashion of any magnitude, the “STARS” usually turn out and there were a bunch of them in the audience last evening. They were there to support the NYAC and enjoy college wrestling.
Arthur Mercante, the World Famous boxing official of Ali-Frazier battles, introduced the college stars who were being showcased in the dual mee. This included two NCAA runner-ups, several All-Americans and the No. 2 and No. 5 NCAA Division I ranked teams. The overflow crowd was treated to some very entertaining and exciting wrestling as every match was very competitive.
Lehigh University came with its loyal fan base and had the opportunity visiting the greatest city in the world.
The stars were in abundance. In attendance and introduced to the crowd between the matches were the following dignitaries:
* Leroy Neiman, World Famous artist noted for his Olympic paintings
* Jake “The Raging Bull” LaMotta, World Middleweight Boxing Champion
* Arthur Mercante, Mr. Boxing Official of the World
* Bobby Hilfiger, international fashion designer
* Billy Baldwin, award winning screen actor
* Renzo Gracie, World Mixed-Martial Arts Champion
* Kerry McCoy, a two time Olympian and NYAC member
* Matt Ruppel, NCAA champion wrestler for Lehigh
* Mike Frick, NCAA champion wrestler for Lehigh
* Andy Fitch, NCAA Champion from Yale
* John Morley, 5-time National Freestyle Champion for the NYAC
* Vince Zuaro, 5-time Olympic referee
* Tom Ryan, NCAA Runner-up and Hofstra University Coach
* Greg Strobel, Olympic Coach and Lehigh University Coach
* Jim Keen, President of Cliff Keen Products who donated the experimental uniforms for the meet
* Baruch Wrestling Club, the first USA Wrestling Club in Manhattan
* Larry Cantor, PSAL Wrestling Commissioner
Special thanks to Sonny Greenhalgh, NYAC Wrestling Chairman, for providing the logistical support for conducting an event with national television and an opportunity of opening the doors to the public of this very prestigious private club.
Sonny thanked the guests for adhering to the Club rules. It was quite impressive to see over 800 wrestling people all dressed up for a college wrestling match. We should do more of this”¦.
Results of the Match
New York, NY “No. 6 Lehigh continued its winning ways on Tuesday evening as the Mountain Hawks defeated No. 13 Missouri 22-17 at the historic New York Athletic Club and improved to 10-1 on the season, while sending the Tigers (8-1) to their first loss of the season.
The Mountain Hawks trailed 17-15 heading into the final two bouts, before Jon Trenge and Paul Weibel pulled out victories at 197 and heavyweight respectively to give the Brown and White yet another victory.
Andrew Rizzi, Matt Ciasulli and Cory Cooperman began the match with three consecutive wins for the Mountain Hawks. The Tigers came back winning five straight bouts, and looking as though they would come away with the win.
However Trenge and Weibel had something to say about that. Trenge scored a 4-0 decision over Jeff Foust giving the Mountain Hawks a slim 18-17 lead, while Weibel followed that up with a solid 12-2 major decision win against freshman Chase Wetenkamp in the heavyweight class to give Lehigh the 22-17 victory.
“This is a great event for all of the fans,” explained an excited head coach Greg Strobel on the post-match show. “We had tremendous support out there and Weibel really came up big for us down the stretch. It was an exciting match and I think we came out and wrestled well today.”
Wrestling Gear
