South Mountaineer Volume 36, Issue 18

              Volume 36, Number 18
February 15, 1994
Bethlehem, Pa.
LEHIGHLIGHTS
PL TOURNEY TIX - Tickets for thcl994
Patriot League Men's and Women's
basketball Tournament al Navy's Alumni
Hall arc available in book form, which allows
admission lo each of ihc three sessions and all
12 games of the tournament. An all-sessions
ticket book is priced al $40 for adults and $20
lor students, and all scaling at the tournament
will be general admission. Scat sclccion is on
a first-come!, first-served basis. All-sessions
ticket books and individual session tickets are
now available at the Lehigh lickct office by
calling (215) 7LU-GAME.
Here is a schedule ol" dates and times:
SESSION I - Women's Otiarteifmals (313)
Game 1-1:00 p.m. Game 2 - 3:00 p.m.
Game 3 - 6:00 p.m. Game 4 - 8:00 p.m.
SESSION-II - Men's Qiiarteifimtls (314)
Game 5 - 1:00 p.m. Game 7 - 3:00 p.m.
Game 6 - 6:00 p.m. Game 8 - 8:00 p.m.
SESSION HI - M/W Semifinals (3/5)
Game 9 - 1:00 p.m. Game 10 - 3:00 p.m.
Game 11 - 6:00 p.m. Game 12 - 8:00 p.m.
The finals will take place at the home court of
the highest remaining seeds, wilh ihc men" s
final set for Friday. March 11 and the women's
ihc following day.
EIWA TOURNEY TIX - Tickets arc also
available for the 1994 EIWA Wrestling
Championhsips at Cornell  University's
Albcrding Field House on March 4 & 5. The
preliminaries and quarterfinals will take place
on Friday wilh the semifinals and finals set
for Saturday. All-session passes arc $20 for
adults and $ 12 for students while single session
tickets arc $6 for adults and $4 for students
until the finals, when the prices arc $7 and $5.
There is also a pic-iouinamcni dinner on
Thursday. March 3 in the Stallcr Hotel at 6:30
p.m. for a $25 cost. For more information or
to order by phone, call (607) 255-7333.
CORRECTION - Last week, the
Mountaineer reported that Larry Sheridan is
retiring after 25 years as Lehigh wrestling
color commentator on Channel 39. Il was
incorrectly stated thai Sheridan was the brother
of former Lehigh grapplcr Billy Sheridan.
Larry is Billy"s son and the Mountaineer
apologizes for the misprint.
INSIDE the Mountaineer
PL swim preview 2
PL track preview 2
Ed Andres 3
Moira Deakin.  3
Winter sports slate 4
PL hoops standings  4
DID YOU KNOW?
The women's basketball
team's 77-74 victory over
defending Patriot League
champion Holy Cross last
Wednesday night at
Stabler Arena was the
program's first-ever win
over the Crusaders. Holy
Cross had previously won
all seven meetings.
IS]
Wonderful wrestling weekend!
Engineers rally to beat Drexel; down Lock Haven at Grace
By ROB SCHMIDT
Sports Information Assistant
Lehigh made the most of" its tri-meet
Saturday afternoon as it tripled its win total
with wins over Drexel University and Lock
Haven University.
In the opener, the Engineers came
back from an 18-13 deficit to drop Drexel
by a 19-18 count. Andy Fitz decisioned
Rich Evans 3-2 to set up Bill Closson tor
the clincher.
"I felt pretty confident that if I'd
win, Bill would, too," Fitz said.
Closson dominated Drexel's Jamie
Huntington on his way to a 7-2'decision.
and gave Lehigh its first victory since
December 8.
'Tve been in that position before this
season." Closson said. "It's good to come
out on top."
Jason Kutz started the day for the
Engineers with a win by fall over Brett
Kendall in 5:47. but Lehigh went into a
drought until Brian Cipollone decisioned
Scott Morgan 5-3 at 158 pounds.
Rick Hepp wrestled at 167 pounds
and won a major decision over Josh Stanley
16-6 to put Lehigh in the lead 13-12.
Cory Brechbill took a quick lead over
Drexel's Steve Bell, but Bell caught
Brechbill with a reversal, and pinned him
3:35 into the match. It wasn't enough, however, as Lehish would win its third in a row
over Drexel in as many years.
Lehigh's next opponent
would be a Lock Haven squad
that was on the verge of cracking the top 25. and was coming off of a 23-9 victory over
Drexel in the afternoon's
middle contest.
Jason Kutz started
things off with a bang once
again for Lehigh, as he
decisioned Brad Silimperi. 3-
2. Marc Lombardy followed
with a 9-7 decision over
Shawn Husick. andthe Engineers found themselves in
front 6-0.
The Bald Eagles came
back to tie and the match
seesawed with Brian Strunck. Bill Closson's win
winning 7-5. over Pete
Ventresca to put Lehigh back on top 9-6 after
the 150-pound bout. Lock Haven's Scott Goodale
tied it up with a5-2 decision over Brian Cipollone
at 158 pounds..
Rick Hepp (167) gave Lehigh a four point
lead with a major decision overTiiso Vails, but
Lock Haven came back to tie at 13 behind Jason
Rocker's major over Cory Brechbill.
Andy Fitz got the best of Mike Geurin for
a 4-2 decision, and his second win of the day.
and the match was now in freshman Bill
Closson's hands.
lifted Lehigh over Drexel.      -Photo by Daryl smith
outscored Lock Haven's Joe Eaton 5-1 in the
second period, and that proved to be the
difference as Closson took the 5-3 decision,
giving Lehigh a 19-13 victory.
"Those .comparative scores can fool
you."' Hutchinson said. '"We seem to wrestle
up - or maybe I shou Id say almost up - to our
competition or down it."
The wins bring Lehigh's record to 3-7.
and coming off last week's near upset of
Penn State, some momentum heading into
next weekend's road clashes with   17th-
After a scoreless first period. Closson     ranked Army and #20 Syracuse.
Andres coming on strong for grapplers
By GLENN HOFMANN
Sports Information Director
The slogan for Lehigh wrestling this
season is "We're Into Falls."'Naturally you
would expect the likes of Rick Hepp and
Bill Clossen to be among the leaders in
such a category. But check your statistics
and you will find the team leader in falls- is
Ed Andres. Ed who you ask?
That was aquestion people were probably asking three weeks ago. But no longer.
Andres capped what has been a tremendous run by pinning Penn State's Greg
Fendler at 1:42 in the 134 lb. match 2/5 at
Grace Hall. For Andres it was the best
experience of his wrestling career.
"It was the biggest match I'd ever
been involved in.*' he said prior to practice
earlier this week. "I never wrestled in front
of so many people. It wasjust so exciting.
I wanted to go out and wrestle as hard as I
could. It was just fun."
Since moving to 134 lbs. against
Michigan, Andres is 2-2 having beaten the
Wolverines' Bryan Sosinski. Overall
Andres is 15-8 with most of his matches
coming in tournaments at 142 lbs.
"I'm as comfortable as I'll ever be at
134 lbs.," said Andres, who is probably
better suited to wrestle at 142 lbs. "The
guys are a little quicker at 134 but they're
usually not quite as strong."
A junior management major. Andres
is the youngest of four boys in his family,
two of which wrestled. He also has one
sister.
Andres' improvement this year is due in
large part to Lehigh's junior varsity program.
"'One of the toughest things for me to adjust
to after high school was not being in the lineup."
he said. "I learned a lot in J.V. matches and
experimented with moves I might not have
tried in a varsity match."
A native of Binghamton. New York, Andres
was not heavily recruited by Lehigh, probably
because of his failure to do well in the New York
State Tournament. While his brother went to
Ed Andres has been making huge strides.
SUNY Binghamton to wrestle. Andres chose
Lehigh even though he knew he could probably
make the starting lineup right away at some
other schools.
"I felt that if I came to Lehigh I would
maximize my ability." the soft spoken junior
said. "I've always wanted to be the best I possibly could in anything I did. I really feel I made
the correct decision. Since freshman year I
have made so many improvements and I'm
confident 1 can still get better."
Andres also appreciates the chance he's
been given at Lehigh to crack the lineup.
"When 1 came here the coaches made it
clear that whoever won wrestle-offs would be
in the lineup." he explained.
"I knew if I worked hard that
I'd get the chance. Now I
have to make the most of my
chances."
Off the mat Andres is an
outdoorsman at heart. He
enjoys camping, fishing,
hunting and just being outside.
He also is very active in the
Lehigh COACH program
which involves student-athletes working with area
youth.
"I like kids." Andres said.
"A lot of goals I set for myself prior tocoming to Lehigh
are coming true. If I can tell
or show these kids that
dreams can come true, the
time I spend with them is definitely worth it."
No doubt the time Andres has spent at
Lehigh both on and off the mat has been worth
it.
-Pholo by Daryl Smith