"It was a competitive dual, but when you go into a tough place to wrestle against a good team and a noisy crowd, you have to be at the top of your game, and we weren't today. We made mistakes that get magnified against good teams and Lehigh took advantage," said Navy head coach Bruce Burnett. "We had to go in today and take it away from them and we couldn't do it."
Navy jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after two weight classes, thanks to the two heaviest weights. Senior Chris Pogue (Chesapeake, Va.), who has made the transition from 184 pounds to 197 pounds, rather seemlessly, scored an impressive 5-3 triumph over 16th-ranked Matt Cassidy in the meet's first match of the day. Following at heavyweight, Tanner Garrett (Tulsa, Okla.) was equally as impressive, tallying an 11-5 victory over Paul Weibel, who has been in and out of the national rankings this year. The win, which improved Garrett's record to 32-2 overall and was his 32nd straight dual-meet victory, gave Navy a 6-0 cushion.
Lehigh rallied by winning the next three matches. At 125 pounds, Matt Fisk blanked Alex Usztics (Dauphin, Pa.), 4-0, to trim the team margin to 6-3. Lehigh's John Stout spoiled freshman Joe Baker's (Poway, Calif.) return to the lineup after missing over a year with a shoulder injury, 9-3. And at 141, No. 3-ranked Cory Cooperman was too strong, defeating Spencer Manley by major decision, 15-5. The three victories gave Lehigh a 10-6 lead after five matches.
Burnett was happy to see Baker in the lineup, but the freshman ran out of gas late in the match.
"He wanted to wrestle today, which was earlier than we thought he'd be able to," said Burnett. "He looked good the first period, but just ran out of gas late in the match.His conditioning will get better with time."
John Cox (Grand Haven, Mich.), ranked 19th in the country, scored a big 5-4 decision over 16th-ranked Matt Ciasulli to keep Navy in the match, but at 157 pounds, 11th-ranked Derek Zinck returned the favor with a 14-6 major-decision victory over John Jarred for a 14-9 Lehigh lead.
At 165 pounds, Craig Dziewiatkowski (Aurora, Ill.) gave Navy some hope with an 11-6 decision over Dave Nakasone. However, at 174 pounds, 18th-ranked Travis Frick edged Matt Stolpinski, 9-6, and at 184 pounds, David Helfrich defeated Matt Parsons, 7-1, to complete the match. Parsons was wrestling for Jonny Kane (Portland, Maine), who "broke out" the night before and failed the skin check before the match. Kane had defeated Helfrich is last year's dual, 13-4.
"We fought hard, but just didn't get it done today. We were expecting to win, so that is disappointing," said Burnett. "We have things to fix and we'll improve and be ready for North Carolina and North Carolina State in two weeks."
The win was Lehigh's sixth in a row in the series, dating back to the 1999-2000 season.Under Burnett, the Mids are 0-6 against Lehigh, but 23-1 against the other teams in the league.
Navy will be off next week, before hosting North Carolina and North Carolina State at Halsey Field House on Saturday, Jan. 28, beginning at 1:00 p.m. For ticket information, call 1-800-US4-NAVY.
#11 Lehigh 20, #21 Navy 12 TEAM SCORE
197: Chris Pogue (N) dec. #16 Matt Cassidy, 5-3 N, 3-0
HWT: #7 Tanner Garrett (N) dec. Paul Weibel, 11-5 N, 6-0
125: Matt Fisk (L) dec. Alex Usztics, 4-0 N, 6-3
133: John Stout (L) dec. Joe Baker, 9-3 T, 6-6
141: #3 Cory Cooperman (L) mdec. Spencer Manley, 15-5 L, 10-6
149: #19 John Cox (N) dec. #16 Matt Ciasulli, 5-4 L, 10-9
157: #11 Derek Zinck (L) mdec. John Jarred, 14-6 L, 14-9
165: Craig Dziewiatkowski (N) dec. Dave Nakasone, 11-6 L, 14-12
174: #18 Travis Frick (L) dec. Matt Solpinski, 9-6 L, 17-12
184: Dave Helfrich (L) dec. Matt Parsons, 7-1 L, 20-12
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now