South Mountaineer Volume 34, Issue 21

              A Championship Weekend on the Horizon
A special six-page edition of the South Mountaineer previewing the 1992
Patriot League championship basketball & EIWA championship tournaments
Men's Basketball, Page 2; Wrestling, Page 3; Women's Basketball, Page 4
ICHAMPIONSHIP
ftVSKE I ftU.L TOURNAMENT
EIWA1
Volume 34, Number 21
March 3, 1992
Bethlehem, Pa.
LEHIGHLIGHTS
TOURNAMENT TICKET UPDATE
Tickcis for the 1992 Patriot League men's
and women's basketball championship
tournament at Stabler Arena are selling
quickly. The availability of tickets as of
Friday. February 28:
VIP Full Series - $50
Full Series Adult Reserved -$35
Full Scries Student Reserved -$15
-approximately 200 remain
Individual Session
Mar. 6.7.X Reserved Adult -$10
Mar. 10 Reserved adult-$12
Mar. 6.7.8 Reserved Student -$4
Mar. 10 Reserved Student -$5
-approximately 200 remain
All dales, bleacher seals: -■
-approximately 2.500 remain
CASTEEL NEW VOLLEYBALL COACH
— Eric "Jack" Casteel has been named
Lehigh women's volleyball head coach.
Casteel was coach of Bethlehem Catholic
High School the past seven seasons, leading
the Golden Hawks to a 237-26 record and
seven East Penn Conference lilies. Bethlehem
Catholic was also second in the state
tournament twice and third twice. Casteel
is a 1965 graduate of the University of
Maryland. He also is a U.S. Volleyball
Association international official. "I'm
looking forward to coaching at Lehigh
because it's a new challenge."Casteel said.
"I hope lo make Lehigh competitive in the
Patriot League immediately."
#1 — Lehigh's wrestling media guide for
the 1990-91 season was awarded title of
best in the nation by the National Wrestling
Media Association. The book was written,
edited and designed by the Lehigh Office of
Sports Information under the guidance of
Director Glenn Hofmann.
INSIDE the Mountaineer
Men's Hoop tourney preview 2
EIWA tourney preview  3
Women's tourney preview .... 4
Morris' pin ties Bloomsburg.. 5
Final winter sports results .... 6
EIWA DOMINANCE
The top seven schools in terms of
number of EIWA titles won since the
league's establishment in 1905.:
LEHIGH
26
Penn State
15
Cornell
12
Navy
12
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Princeton
H
Stabler table set for breakfast and basketball
Loss at Holy Cross
keeps Lehigh in
fourth place heading
into tournament
Lehigh head track coach John Covert is carried around the Rauch Fieldhouse track on the
shoulders of his team Saturday. The Lehigh men finished in second place and Covert was
named Coach of the Year. -Photo by joe ryan
Young pens another chapter
with a happy ending
By GLENN HOFMANN
Sports Information Director
Sometimes a story ends with a happy
ending. This is one of those stories.
The Patriot League decided to hold
its indoor track championships at Rauch
Field House this season in honor of Lehigh
head coach John Covert, who had
announced his retirement at the end of
the season. The league felt it would be a
nice gesture.
It turned out to be a nice party.
Covert saw his men's track team
put the explanation point on a fantastic
season as the Engineers finished in second
place with 129.25 points. Bucknell
finished first with a 164.25 total. On the
women's side, Lehigh finished in fifth
place with 53 points.
In addition to the solid second place
performance. Covert was also honored
after the meet as the league's Coach of
the Year. Covert coached Lehigh to an
impressive 5-0 league record this season
in dual meets. Factor in a regular rate of
school records and you have credentials
that warrant such an award.
"I think it's a reward for the team's
improvement going from fourth to
second," Covert said after the meet. "It's
kind of a good feeling. This building
(Rauch Field House) wasn't even here
when I arrived and in my last league
meet I'm recognized by my peers and
the kids run well."
Among the "kids" who ran well
was junior co-captain Hassan Young.
Young won the 500 meters, 200 meters
and and anchored the winning Lehigh 4
X 440 relay team. Once again Young
broke the school record in the 200 meters
(22.3) and he also qualified for the IC4A
meet. His 500 meter time (1:04.28) also
qualified him for IC4A's. For his
performance. Young was named the
"Athlete of the Meet".
"I didn't expect that coming in," he
said. "My main goal was to win the 500
because I was seeded first...I was hoping
the relay would come down to me and
Hector (Vecchioly of Fordham) since I
had never beaten him before."
Young started the final leg of the
relay behind his Fordham opponent, but
quickly took the lead and then sprinted to
victory around the final turn.
Other Lehigh men's winners included
George Schmidt in the high jump (6'6"),
Cleveland McCray in the 55 IM hurdles
(7.57, a new league record) and Horace
Hamm in the 55 meter dash (6.40). Hamm's
time was good for a new Lehigh and
league record.
Jenny Lee Was the only Lehigh
woman to finish first as she won the long
jump with a leap of 17'8".
"All in all, it was just a good solid
performance by the kids," Covert said.
"We just need a few more bodies and
we'll be right there."
On this day, the happy ending for
John Covert's indoor track coaching career
was there.
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
Men Women
1. Bucknell-164.25       1. Bucknell -178
2. LEHIGH -129.25      2. Lafayette - 134
3. Fordham -110.5       3. Fordham - 80
4. Lafayette - 72 4. Holy Cross - 70
5. Colgate - 64 5. LEHIGH - 53
6. Holy Cross - 48 6. Colgate - 42
WORCESTER, Mass. - Holy Cross demonstrated
the term "home court advantage" to the letter
Saturday. Luckily for Lehigh, it gets to show off
its version starting this Saturday as the Engineers
host the 1992 Patriot League tournament at
Stabler Arena.
Holy Cross claimed a 116-92 win in the
final regular season game for both teams. The
loss kept Lehigh in fourth place in the Patriot
League at 8-6. Thus, Lehigh will face Colgate,
the league's fifth seed, Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
at Stabler in the tournament's first round. Lehigh
ended its regular season 13-14 overall.
Lehigh had hopes of vindicating itself after
consecutive losses to Bucknell and Lafayette
and gain some momentum heading into the
tournament. But Holy Cross, which ended its
season 10-4 in the league and 17-10 overall, shot
a blistering 53 percent from the field for the
game, including 58 percent in the second half.
It was senior day at the Hart Center and a
fired-up Crusader squad roared out to a 13-4
lead just 4:40 into the game. The Crusaders took
a 55-40 lead into the lockerroom.
The Engineers pulled to within 64-54 at
15:50 of the second half on a Chuck Penn layup,
but watched Holy Cross go on a furious 26-6 run
and take an unsurmountable 90-60 lead with
9:23 still left.
Holy Cross coach George Blaney, obviously
still bitter at Lehigh's 88-78 win over his team a
month ago in Bethlehem, never pulled his starters
from the game until the final two minutes.
Krizansky led Lehigh with 23 points, while
Chuck Penn added 16 and Jay Hipps 14. Mbonu
grabbed nine rebounds.
All in all, it was not the way Lehigh wanted
to end its season. But Duke remembered a similar
situation facing Lehigh in 1988.
"Back that year we lost two of the last three
games and wound up in fourth place going into
the ECC tournament at Towson State," Duke
recalled. "But we won three straight and made it
to the (NCAA) tournament."
Lehigh gets that same
chance starting
Saturday.
LU Cage Notes:
Wednesday at
Lafayette, Lehigh fell
to the Leopards 82-76
in overtime. Lehigh
took a 32-26 halftime
lead and was in control
throughout the
majority of the game.
In fact, Lafayette never
led in the second half,
but reserve forward Jon Norton sent the game
into overtime with a three-pointer with :42 left
to tie the game at 70. In OT, Lafayette took a 73-
70 lead on Keith Van Auken's layup. Lafayette
then made seven of eight free throws to cinch the
win. Mbonu led Lehigh with 21 points and nine
rebounds. Penn added 16.
Dozie Mbonu: team-high
21 points vs .Lafayette