Three Lehigh freshmen enjoyed strong varsity debuts in the Mountain Hawks’ win over Drexel. True freshmen Frank Cagnina (133) and Stephen Dutton (141) each posted impressive bonus-point wins as Cagnina earned a 16-4 major decision over Frank Cimato and Dutton won by technical fall over Josh Yurasits. Cagnina and Dutton became the first true freshman duo to start a season opening dual for Lehigh since Aaron Patterson and Bruce Kelly in 1998-99. Deferred freshman Austin Meys also enjoyed a dominant debut, using a quarter nelson to pin Justin Wieller in the second period of their bout at 174.
Pittsburgh opens its dual season on Friday night against Lehigh at Fitzgerald Field House. The Panthers return five NCAA qualifiers from last season and are coming off a 17-1-1 dual season in which the only loss came against the Mountain Hawks. Pittsburgh enters Friday’s dual with an 11-match winning streak and a 16-dual unbeaten streak dating back to last year. The Panthers are led by junior All-American Tyler Nauman, who comes in ranked fourth at 141, and senior heavyweight Ryan Tomei, who is ranked fifth. Pittsburgh sent a large contingent to last weekend’s Clarion Open with impressive results. Fourteen Panthers placed at the tournament, and six Pittsburgh grapplers won titles. All six are in Pittsburgh’s projected lineup: Nauman, Adam Counterman, Ethan Headlee, brothers Max and Zac Thomusseit and Tomei.
Penn State opens its home schedule against Lehigh on Sunday after the Nittany Lions open their dual season Friday night at Bloomsburg. American wrestling legend Cael Sanderson enters his second season at Penn State with a younger team that features a number of talented freshmen and sophomores. Penn State was 13-6-1 in duals last year, but finished ninth at the NCAA Championships. The Nittany Lions had three All-Americans, with two-time All-America Frank Molinaro returning for his junior season at 149. Just two Nittany Lions are ranked in the latest Amateur Wrestling News rankings, 2009 All-American Quentin Wright at 184 and heavyweight Cameron Wade. Penn State also features a number of highly-touted true freshmen and redshirt freshmen who will make their varsity Rec Hall debuts on Sunday.
This weekend, Lehigh will face its two most-often wrestled in-state rivals in Penn State and Pittsburgh. Lehigh has wrestled Penn State more often than any other school in history, with Sunday’s dual marking the 99th meeting in the series. The Mountain Hawks have won two straight duals against the Nittany Lions. Lehigh and Pittsburgh meet for the 56th time on Friday, with the Mountain Hawks winning 12 of the last 13 duals in the series.
Action begins Friday night when Lehigh visits Fitzgerald Field House to face Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Sunday, the Mountain Hawks will face Penn State at Rec Hall at 2 p.m. The Penn State match will be broadcast on WLVR-FM as well as Lehighsports.com with pre-match coverage beginning at 1:45.
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