"Our guys went out after bonus points and wrestled the whole time," said Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. "That's what we were looking for today."
Lehigh started the dual with back-to-back bonus wins at 125 and 133 as freshman Darian Cruz picked up a 23-6 technical fall over Max Mejia at 125 and sophomore Mason Beckman won by major decision 16-4 over Jeffrey Ott at 133. Both Mountain Hawk wrestlers scored two point near falls in the final seconds to clinch the bonus victories.
Harvard (4-8, 3-8 EIWA) picked up its first win at 141 as Todd Preston scored a late takedown and three point near fall on the edge of the mat to defeat sophomore Laike Gardner 9-4/
Freshman Mitch Minotti returned to the lineup at 149 after missing Saturday's dual at Brown and squashed any momentum with a first period pin over Nicholas Stager. Minotti used a cement mixer to work Stager to his back and earned the fall at 1:04 to give Lehigh a 15-3 advantage.
"Mitch picked up where the other guys left off," Santoro said. "We lost a tough match at 141 but Mitch got us right back on track. We needed that from him."
Junior Mike Stepien followed Minotti's pin with his first career dual meet win, 10-7 over Tyler Grimaldi at 157. Stepien scored a quick takedown and two point near fall in the first and then thwarted Grimaldi's comeback attempt with a strong finish including a late takedown to go up by two plus 2:48 of riding time advantage.
In the first bout after intermission, sophomore Ben Haas provided another bonus point with a dominant 14-0 major decision over Brennan Smith at 165. Haas scored an early takedown and then tilted Smith three times to lead 10-0 after one. He added a three point near fall in the third to close out the win as he narrowly missed a technical fall.
Freshman Elliot Riddick delivered Lehigh's fifth and final bonus win as he totaled five takedowns in a 12-4 major decision over Ian Roy at 174.
With freshman Zach Diekel nursing an injury, Lehigh elected to forfeit 184. The Crimson posted their second win at 197 as James Fox gave up a late reversal to John Bolich but escaped and held riding time advantage to win 3-2.
"We talked about the importance of winning the early bouts because we didn't want to use Zach if we didn't have to," Santoro said. "The guys stepped up and wrestled hard."
Lehigh claimed the final bout of the dual as Doug Vollaro scored a second period escape and then rode out David Ng to win 2-0.
The Mountain Hawks will now shift focus to the 110th EIWA Championships, March 8-9 at the Palestra in Philadelphia.
Results:
125 – Darian Cruz (Lehigh) tech fall Max Mejia (Harvard) 23-6, 7:00
133 – Mason Beckman (Lehigh) major dec. Jeffrey Ott (Harvard) 16-4
141 – Todd Preston (Harvard) dec. Laike Gardner (Lehigh) 9-4
149 – Mitch Minotti (Lehigh) Fall Nicholas Stager (Harvard) 1:04
157 – Mike Stepien (Lehigh) dec. Tyler Grimaldi (Harvard) 10-7
165 – Ben Haas (Lehigh) major dec. Brennan Smith (Harvard) 14-0
174 – Elliot Riddick (Lehigh) major dec. Ian Roy (Harvard) 12-2
184 – Samuel Ekanem (Harvard) won by forfeit
197 – James Fox (Harvard) dec. John Bolich (Lehigh) 3-2
285 – Doug Vollaro (Lehigh) dec. David Ng (Harvard) 2-0
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