South Mountaineer Volume 40, Issue 20

              Lehigh Athletics
Brett Eppehimer is second in the nation
in scoring with 24.7 points per game
BASKETBALL:   Sat. Women at Army 1:00 p.m., Men at Army 3:15 p.m.
WRESTLING:       Sat. at Army 7:00 p.m., Sun. at Pennsylvania/Drexel 3:00/6:00 p.m.
SWIMMING & DIVING: Patriot League Championships @ Colgate Thur.-Sat.
South Mountaineer
Volume 11, Issue 20
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
February 11, 1998
Wrestling
Lehigh racks up impressive weekend
Grapplers defeat two nationally ranked teams, Cornell and Rider
by Frank Thompson
Sports Communications Office
Coming off a 21 -17 loss to Harvard
on Jan. 31, things weren't looking their
brightest for the 21 st-ranked Lehigh
grapplers.
Shawn Mulrooney, the starting 126-
pounder, was out with a concussion and
a pinched nerve. Starting 190-pounder
Glauco Lolli-Ghetti was questionable
with a concussion. The flu had struck
most of the team.
That things weren't looking good
might be an understatement with top-25
Cornell and Rider on deck.
With the question marks surrounding the weekend, Lehigh pulled out two
cf its more solid performances of the
1997-98 season with a 24-15 win over #25
Cornell and a 23-12 win over #20 Rider on
Mark Dufresne has won two of three bouts with former
teammate Todd Palmisano.
the road.
From top to bottom, the team pulled
together and posted victories in meets in
which they were probably considered
underdogs by some. When one went
through a bout-by-bout look at both
Cornell and Rider before hand, there were
quite a few toss-ups, enough to make one
worry.
Against Cornell, Lehigh fell behind 11-0
but stormed back by ripping off six straight
wins from 134 through 177.
Ryan Bernholz picked up one of the
"toss-ups" as he defeated Shawn Bradley by
a 9-4 count. Bradley had been 21 -8 and was
ranked third to Bernholz's sixth in the EIWA.
Another potential toss-up went to Mark
Dufresne, who beat Joe Tucceri 5-2, avenging Tucceri's pin in last year's EIWA tournament.
With question marks still looming,
increased by the absence of Travis Doto,
who suffered a sprained knee against he
following day, Lehigh traveled to Rider
College for the first time in school history
and posted only its second
win against the Broncs, 23-
12.
Lehigh had been 1-4
against Rider entering the
meet.
Head Coach Greg
Strobel juggled the lineup a
bit by moving 118-pounder
Mike Sferra
to 126 and
dropping
James
Hamfeldt to
118.
Hamfeldt
was pinned
by #4 John Carvalheira at the
5:55 mark, but Sferra pulled
through with the 5-2 victory
at 126.
Another big bout for
Lehigh was at 158. With
Doto out, Troy Laudenslager
subbed in.
Laudenslager, in only
his second dual (his
other was at 177 vs.
Navy's #7 Greg
Gingeleskie), posted
the 4-2 win.
m
A couple of side
stories were involved
in the Rider meet, one
of which was the 167-
pound bout between
Mark Dufresne and
Todd Palmisano.
Both were starters for
Lehigh last year
before Palmisano
transferred to Rider.
Each had won a 4-2 decision over the
other in the Mat Town and Sheridan Tournaments. In the rubber match, Dufresne stayed
off the mat, cutting Palmisano after each
takedown, and picked up the 7-4 win.
One of the other side stories pitted #3
John Van Doren against #14 Leo Giel. Giel
had beaten Van Doren, 3-1, in the Sheridan
Finals and pulled the same trick again as he
Dave Esposito has moved into the top ranking in the EIWA at
134 pounds.
posted the 5-2 win. On the year now,
Van Doren is 20-4 with losses to #1
Mitch Clark of Ohio State, #2 Aaron
Simpson of Arizona State and two
losses to Giel. Van Doren is 0-4 against
Giel and 0-6 in his career against Rider.
Lehigh has another big weekend
ahead at Army on Saturday at 7:30, at
Penn on Sunday at 3:00 and at Drexel at
6:00.
Lehi
118:
126:
134:
142:
150:
158:
167:
177:
190:
hwt:
gh 24, Cornell 15
Aaron Taylor (CU) wbf. Mike Sferra, 3:00
Nate Rupp (CU) tf. James Hamfeldt, 17-1; 4:48
#9 Dave Esposito (LU) md. George Bell, 18-10
#20 Ryan Bernholz (LU) dec. Shawn Bradley, 9-4
#6 Chris Ayres (LU) dec. Leo Urbinelli, 10-7
Travis Doto (LU) md. Chris Gafner, 13-5
Mark Dufresne (LU) dec. Joe Tucceri, 5-2
#3 John Van Doren (LU) md. Ottie Pendleton, 12-4
#10 Joel Holman (LU) md. Glauco Lolli-Ghetti, 9-0
#4 Bill Closson (LU) dec. Seth Charles, 11-6
Lehigh 23, Rider 12
118: John Carvalheira (R) wbf. James Hamfeldt, 5;55
126: Mike Sferra (LU) dec. Rich Delgado, 5-2
134: Dave Esposito (LU) dec. Greg Kessler, 14-10
142: Ryan Bernholz (LU) md. Shannon Sofield, 12-3
150: Chris Ayres (LU) dec. George Florence, 7-5
158: Troy Laudenslager (LU) dec. RJ Haynes, 4-2
167: Mark Dufresne (LU) dec. Todd Palmisano, 7-4
177: Leo Giel (R) dec. John Van Doren, 5-2
190: Shawn Scannell (R) dec. Glauco Lolli-Ghetti, 8-2
hwt: Bill Closson (LU) md. Marc DeFrancesco, 12-3
Swimming
Teams gear up for Patriot League Championships
Both the men's and women's
swimming teams hope to end their
Patriot League season strong at the
League
Championships,
February 12, at
Colgate.
The
Mountain Hawks
took the past week
to work on the
Chris Scheier
basics and "taper" their training to be in the
best physical and mental shape for the meet.
"Most teams have an off week scheduled
during this time to use
as a fine-tune period."
Head Coach Chris
Marshall said the team
is full of energy and
ready to contest for the
league title.
Tanya Barone "I'm pretty confident
that we will perform well." Marshall said.
On the men's side Marshall predicts a
two-team race between Lehigh and Army.
The Black Knights defeated the
Mountain Hawks in the first meet of the
season 149-92.
However, that loss seems like an eternity
to Lehigh who have never looked back
since winning eight consecutive meets and
taking first place at the Kutztwon
Invitational.
Marshall expects the women to be a
four team race between Lehigh, Army,
Bucknell and Navy.
After opening the season with a loss
to Army, the women have also been
undefeated.
The women defeated Bucknell at
Jacobs Pool 140-101 and six-time
defending league champion Navy 185-
115.