South Mountaineer Volume 40, Issue 22

              THIS WEEKEND
Website: http://www.lehigh.edu
Hotline: (610) 758-LULU
BASKETBALL:   Teams finish season at league tourney
10/11
P.L.TOURNAMENT: Lehigh students play big role at Navy
10
STATISTICS:       The complete week's scores and statistics
9
South Mountaineer
Volume    11,     Issue    22
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
March
Wrestling
Lehigh gears up for shootout at Stabler
Grapplers    set    to    host    94th    EIWA    Championship
by John J. Harmon
Editor, EIWA Newsletter
Forget the dual meets. Forget the
early season tournaments. Forget
the rankings. Wrestling's second
season is upon us, in the form of
the 94th annual EIWA Championships. This is where everyone is
expected to step it up a notch, as
the stakes are high.
Of the 130 wrestlers in the
competition, only 26 will advance to
the next step two weeks later at
Cleveland State. The other 104
wrestlers will end their season
after this weekend.
The team race promises to be
one of the most exciting in years as
two teams have emerged as co-
favorites. Penn is the defending
champion, returning after winning
two consecutive team titles and
demolishing the opposition a year
ago with a record breaking performance at the Penn Palestra. But
it's Lehigh's turn to compete on
home mats, at Stabler Arena, and
the Engineers are given an equal
chance with the Quakers to win
the team title.
Penn can claim two returning
champions, with NCAA runnerup
Brandon Slay returning to the mats
at 167 for his final season, and
Andrei Rodzianko back to defend
his championship at 190.
Freshman Ryan Bernholz is the #1 seed in the 142 pound
class.
Credit: Joe Ryan
The Quakers also return 1996
runnerup Mark Piotrowsky at 134.
They'll be missing defending champions
Ben Hatta, 118, who can no longer make
that weight, and Brett Matter, who is
sitting out this season with an injury. But
Steven Walker will get the #1 seed at
126, and freshman Justin Bravo could
get a high place at 118, as could Yoshi
Nakamura at 142 and Rick Springman at
158. Bandele Adeniyi-Bada is a talented
sophomore who will be trying to crack
the top 3 at heavyweight.
Lehigh will probably get four#l seeds.
The Engineers are led by Chris Ayres at
150 and John Van Doren at 177. Van
Doren was runnerup a year ago, and
went on to finish third in the nation.
Ayres is a two-time NCAA qualifier
who moved up from 142 this season, and
has thrived at his new weight.
Senior Bill Closson will vie for the top
seed at heavyweight, while freshman
sensation Ryan Bernholz seems likely to
be seeded first at 142 with Dave
Esposito, who has stepped it up a notch
this season at 134.
One of the most exciting wrestlers on
the Lehigh team is Mark Dufresne at
167, who shows no respect for anyone
and will be looking for a big upset.
Two other teams are rated as dark
horse candidates to win, but an incredible
number of things would have to go right
for that to happen.
Cornell came
into the season with a
well balanced team,
although with only one
wrestler who had ever
been to the final round.
Unfortunately, the Big
Red have been hit hard
with injuries and academic problems, and
only a heroic effort can
propel them to the top.
They are led by
190 pounder Joel
Holman, runnerup at
177 in 1996, and Nate
Rupp, 126, who both
expect to receive the #2
John Van Doren's looks to continue the success that has made him the #3
ranked wrestler in the nation, this weekend at the EIWA Championships
Credit: Sonja Stanbro
seed.
Never before have the words
"Harvard" and "EIWA team title" been
used in the same sentence. But the
Crimson have made a big splash this
year, and could place as many as six
wrestlers in the finals.
Dustin Denunzio is the team leader,
and seems likely to be seeded first at
134. Ed Mosley is a former champion
who has moved up to 167, and Joey
Killar returns at 158. Francis Volpe, 177,
James Butera, 118, and freshman Matt
Picarsic could make the finals with an
upset win at the right time.
With only four defending champions
(Slay, Rodzianko, Tivon Abel of Brown,
Jason Gleasman of Syracuse), and one
former champion (Mosley) returning,
the final round will have a much different look this year. Here is a brief look at
the 1998 EIWA Tournament by weight
class:
118 POUNDS
This should have been a showdown
between 1997 runnerup Jeremy Sluyter
East Stroudsburg and Pete Poretta of
Brown. But Poretta was injured late in
the season and may not make it to the
tournament. The rest of the field is
wide open, with Aaron Taylor of Cornell
and James Butera of Harvard given the
best chance of making it to the finals.
126 POUNDS
Walker and Rupp should be in the finals
(Walker won the dual meet 5-2)
Lehigh's Shawn Mulrooney would
have put on a challenge, but he
aggravated a back injury late in the
season. Matt Picarsic and Justin
Hoff of East Stroudsburg have been
improving rapidly all season and will
be looking for an upset.
134 POUNDS
The battle here starts in the seeding
meeting. DeNunzio has beaten
Piotrowski three times, Piotrowski
drubbed Esposito 7-1, and Esposito
edged DeNunzio 4-3. Regardless of
how they're seeded, anything can
happen. Army's Ryan Seagreaves
will try to play the spoiler against the
top seed in the semis.
142 POUNDS
This is a very deep weight, where
the selection committee seems
almost certain to take at least one
wild card to Nationals. Bernholz
had a convincing late season 7-4
win over Army's Jarret Mathews,
who had been ranked first most of
the season.
Nakamura has been impressive
since dropping from 150 and placing
5th at the prestigious Midlands
tournament, but has missed considerable mat time (including a scheduled confrontation with Bernholz)
with an injury. Mathews, Shawn
Bradley of Cornell and Arkee Allen
of Columbia have all been nationally
ranked this year. And Justin Hurst
of Rutgers, who placed eighth at
See "EIWA"