Ten Mountain Hawks place, leading to team’s 4th straight EIWA title.
By Gary R. Blockus
Of The Morning Call
ANNAPOLIS, Md. | Jon Trenge said he needed to be concerned about himself first at the 101st EIWA Championships. The Lehigh team had to come second.
Trenge, a two-time runner-up at nationals, did what he needed to do against Cornell’s Jerry Rinaldi in the 197-pound finals. By taking care of his business, he took care of Lehigh’s as well. Trenge’s 4-1 decision clinched the team title over Cornell by a mere 2.5 points.
Trenge and junior Troy Letters (165) both captured their third EIWA titles and led the Mountain Hawks to their fourth straight championship and their fifth in the past six years.
”Each of us put out everything we had today,” said Lehigh’s Cory Cooperman (141), who picked up his second EIWA title as Lehigh crowned three individual champions and qualified seven for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Savvis Center in St. Louis March 17-19.
”You can’t ask for anything more,” Cooperman said. ”We placed all 10 guys. It’s unbelievable.”
”It’s great to have that kind of power on our team,” Lehigh coach Greg Strobel said of his multiple champions, the first time in his 10-year tenure that he’s had a three-time EIWA champion.
In addition to the three repeating champs, Lehigh placed five in the finals and earned a pair of third-place finishes. In addition to the five finalists ” including runners-up Matt Ciasulli (133) and Derek Zinck (157) ” Lehigh is also sending Matt Anderson (third at 149) and Travis Frick (third at 174) to nationals.
”I am pleased,” said a smiling Strobe. ”We overcame a three-point-underdog status at the beginning. We did it because of bonus points and placing all 10 guys. Placing every guy has only been done six times in the 101-year history of the EIWA and we’ve done it the last two years and three times since I’ve been here.”
Letters didn’t want to dwell on winning his third EIWA title.
”Ask me that next year,” he said when asked about becoming the 15th three-time EIWA champion in Lehigh history, the first since Tom Toggas won at 158 in 1985, ’87 and ’88. Pete Yozzo (1985-86) was the last Lehigh wrestler to win three straight.
Columbia’s Matt Palmer obviously went into the 165-pound finals against the 22-0 Letters trying to slow down the returning national champ. It worked on the scoreboard, but Letter was in control the whole way.
”Once again, it’s frustrating,” said Letters, who wrestles in a wild and spectacular fashion most of the time. ”It will make me a better wrestler if I learn how to deal with it and turn it around to my benefit.”
Trenge (25-3) became the 16th Lehigh wrestler to win three Eastern titles. He scored an early takedown, earned riding time, rode out Rinaldi in the second period, added an escape in the final period and refused to lose his temper when Rinaldi repeatedly tried to use the Lehigh wrestler’s protective eye goggles as a battering target.
Cooperman, who majored his way through the tournament, beat up Navy’s Nate Gulosh 14-1 in the 141-pound finals. He missed getting two backpoints on his initial takedown, which would have made it a technical fall against his former Blair Academy teammate and good friend.
Travis Lee, the top-ranked 133-pounder in the country, became the first Cornell wrestler to win four EIWA titles when he scored a 13-4 major decision over Ciasulli. The win cut Lehigh’s team lead on Cornell to one point.
Ciasulli engaged Lee, the 2003 national champion at 125, in two lengthy, good, first-period scrambles and led 1-0 until Lee scored a takedown for the lead with 3 seconds left in the second period. Ciasulli, who has been struggling with his weight, lost energy in the final period and Lee scored three takedowns and added near-fall points en route to the major.
Zinck also had a great battle in the finals. He showed no fear of American’s Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov. The two traded takedowns with the Uzbekistan native starting it off and Zinck scoring the final takedown with one second left in a 14-13 loss.
”He was quicker than I thought he’d be,” said Zinck, a junior out of Upper Perkiomen High School who had four takedowns to five for the Uzbek national. ”I’d blink and he’d be on me.”
The EIWA is sending 42 wrestlers to the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. In addition to the top three finishers in each weight class, 12 ”Wild Card” wrestlers as selected by the coaches earned a trip to St. Louis for the nationals.
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