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    Lehigh set to kick off season with wrestle-offs

    Greg Strobel
    BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Lehigh wrestling fans will catch their first public glimpse of the 2005-06 Mountain Hawks on Tuesday night as Lehigh will hold its annual season-opening wrestle-offs at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. More than just a showcase for the fans, many of Tuesday night's bouts will be used to determine Lehigh's starting line-up when the Mountain Hawks, ranked eighth in the preseason by Intermat, open their regular season on Thursday, November 10 against Rider.

    "I'm really looking forward to them (the wrestle-offs)," said eleventh year Lehigh head coach Greg Strobel, Monday on the Lehigh Sports Magazine television show. "It's always a lot of fun because we know we are going to win. I get to visit with a lot of the fans at Grace Hall and take notes on how the team is wrestling."

    Tuesday night's event will feature 12 bouts, including three exhibition bouts. Several intriguing battles will be at least temporarily settled on Tuesday night, including a three-way race for the starting job at 149 pounds. In Tuesday's opening bout, sophomore Dave Nakasone will wrestle-off against deferred freshman Trevor Chinn, with the winner coming back later in the evening to wrestle junior Matt Ciasulli who has moved up two weight classes from last season.

    Another highly contested battle is at 125, where sophomore Patrick Berger will square off against true freshman Matt Fisk, who comes to Lehigh as Pennsylvania's career leader in wins at the high school level.

    A pair of juniors will collide at 197 for the right to replace former All-American Jon Trenge. Matt Cassidy was the starter in 2003-04, when Trenge took his Olympic deferral year. He will take on Paul Weibel, who competed as a heavyweight his first two seasons but will move down to his more natural weight.

    "The wrestle-offs provide a good chance for some of the kids to wrestle in front of our large home crowd," Strobel said. "We will have some very good matches."

    Here's a weight by weight breakdown of Tuesday night's probable match-ups:

    125 Matt Fisk (Fr.) vs. Patrick Berger (So.)
    141 Cory Cooperman (Sr.) vs. Frankie Gayeski (Fr.)
    141 Matt Ennis (Jr.) vs. Phil Koehler (So.) Exhibition
    149 Trevor Chinn (Fr.) vs. Dave Nakasone (So.)
    149 Matt Ciasulli (Jr.) vs. Chinn-Nakasone winner
    157 Derek Zinck (Sr.) vs. Matt Anderson (Jr.)
    165 Troy Letters (Sr.) vs. Mike Galante (Fr.)
    174 Manuel Schubert (Fr.) vs. Samir Soriano (Fr.) Exhibition
    184 Dave Helfrich (Jr.) vs. Brian LaMay (Sr.)
    184 Jon Bruno (Jr.) vs. Bryan Bernal (Jr.) Exhibition
    197 Matt Cassidy (Jr.) vs. Paul Weibel (Jr.)
    285 Tom Curl (Jr.) vs. Dan Murrer (So.)

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