Lehigh pounds Penn in finale
Banged-up Trenge wins his match as Hawks set sights on EIWA’s.
By Gary R. Blockus
Of The Morning Call
Jon Trenge survived cuts to his eyes.
Troy Letters finished the regular season undefeated.
Cory Cooperman reversed his result from last year’s EIWA Championship finals.
But those were only three of the highlight as No. 4 Lehigh pounded Penn 37-6 to close out the dual-meet wrestling season on Sunday.
The Mountain Hawks (21-4, 7-0 EIWA) now look forward to the EIWA Championships March 4-5 in Annapolis, Md., and, for those who qualify, the NCAA Division I Championships March 17-19 in St. Louis.
”I’m kind of happy to be done wrestling dual meets,” said Trenge, a 197-pound senior out of Parkland High and a two-time NCAA runner-up who took last season off in an attempt to make the U.S. Olympic Team.
”Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my career at Lehigh,” said Trenge, ranked No. 1 in the country and the winningest wrestler in Lehigh history.
He chalked up career victory No. 125 when he edged Penn senior Marcus Schontube 8-5.
He said that once dual meets are over and tournament time rolls around, most wrestlers are more willing to wrestle than stall in an attempt to keep matches close.
Trenge had to persevere through several difficulties against Schontube.
For the first time all season, Trenge was cut around an eye from his goggles, and ended up getting cut around both eyes. Despite special padding on his goggles to protect against such cutting, he said the cuts opened up after receiving some tough head butting.
Adding more fuel to the flames, Trenge thinks he may have dislocated his jaw during the second period.
And he had to fight through an injury to his right arm.
Trenge looked in complete control through the first four minutes of wrestling with three takedowns for a 6-3 lead. He ended up giving five escapes in the victory.
”It was a good match, I guess,” said the surprisingly quiet Trenge, who is usually verbose. ”I had to fight through some pain “¦ I was totally distracted.”
One of the better moments for Trenge came in the pre-match ceremony that honored the few seniors on the squad. Trenge, who wrestles with the risk of blindness every time he sets foot on the mat “hence the need for the special protective goggles ” received a standing ovation from his final Grace Hall crowd, numbered at 1,974.
”That was cool, that was cool,” Trenge said. ”I appreciate all the support here. They’re really great fans. I just wish I could be a little better athlete for them”
Letters, 18-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country at 165, finished his regular season unbeaten. The defending national champ at 165, Letters went the full seven minutes to pick up a technical fall (21-4) on Penn senior Rich Ferguson.
Cooperman, a 141-pound junior, avenged his loss to Penn’s Doug McGraw from the EIWA finals last season with an impressive 14-5 major decision that included six takedowns.
”No matter how many times I beat him, I’ll never forget that one loss,” said Cooperman, who pointed out that the loss in the finals prevented him from being a four-time EIWA champion, which was one of his goals after winning the league title as a freshman. ”That one loss got to me, got to my family. Everyone knew how important this match was to me.”
Lehigh won nine of the 10 bouts, and Penn’s only victory came at 125 pounds, where the Mountain Hawks had to forfeit after senior Andrew Rizzi failed to make weight.
In fact, Penn (9-4, 5-2) didn’t get a takedown until the fifth bout of the afternoon, and even then, it came when 184-pound Dan Gallagher trailed Lehigh’s Dave Helfrich 4-0. Gallagher actually scored two takedowns, but he gave up two escapes and a stalling point as Lehigh swept the first five bouts for a 19-0 lead.
The match started at 149 and signaled the return of Matt Anderson to the Lehigh lineup. Anderson, who had missed a few matches due to weight and illness, went up against Penn’s Kyle Bernholz, a senior who is the brother of former Lehigh All-American Ryan Bernholz.
It was the second straight week in which a Lehigh 149-pounder went up against the brother of a former Lehigh All-American. Last week, Lehigh’s Dave Nakasone wrestled Oklahoma State’s Zach Esposito, the brother of Dave Esposito.
After two scoreless periods, Anderson got on the board with an escape, then scored a takedown at the edge of the mat by countering a Bernholz throw en route to a 3-0 decision and 3-0 Mountain Hawk lead.
Derek Zinck gave Penn sophomore Brock Wittmeyer a clinic on cradles. Zinck, the Upper Perkiomen High graduate, locked up a pair of cradles en route to a 20-4 technical fall just 13 seconds into the final period.
Frick found himself in a dogfight with Penn junior Dustin Wiles. Frick scored a pair of takedowns in the opening period for a 4-1 lead, but Wiles showed him no respect from the neutral position in the second period as he tried to outmuscle the Nazareth High graduate. Frick, ranked No. 6 in the country at 174, added a third-period, football-style tackle on a double leg takedown for a 7-3 decision.
Lehigh picked up a break when Penn’s Matt Feast, No. 5 in the country at 275, couldn’t wrestle because of a skin infection. Paul Weibel, Lehigh’s sophomore from Quakertown, scored at will against Feast’s backup, Matt Smith. Weibel scored three sets of nearfall points in the first period before chalking up the technical fall in 3:49.
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