South Mountaineer Volume 35, Issue 20

              Volume 35, Number 20
March 9, 1993
Bethlehem, Pa.
LEHIGHLIGHTS
'SPRINGING INTO ACTION - Lehigh's
spring sports teams are set for action and
many of them will be travelling south for
the beginning of the season. The baseball
team will play six games in Tampa, Florida
with the first game being against the
University of Tampa. The softball team
kicks off its season with five doubleheaders
in St. Petersburg, Fla. New Haven and
Boston University are the first two teams
on tap. The men's lacrosse team, the only
team to have played a game already, takes
off for Folly Beach, South Carolina with a
game against VMI scheduled. The women's
laxers, meanwhile, will be in Virginia
Beach, Virginia and wil I meet the University
of Virginia. The men's tennis team will be
in Florida for three matches, with the first
one being against the University of Central
Florida. Finally, the golfers and outdoor
track teams will be in North Carolina. The
golf team will compete in the Woodlake
Tournament in Pinehurst while the track
teams will run at the Wake Forest Relays.
EIWA RESULTS— Here are the results
from each of the final bouts in Saturday's
EIWA Championships at Stabler:
118 - John Bove (Cornell) dec. Gary Baker
(Pennsylvania), 5-2.
126 .- Davis Hirsch (Cornell) dec. Tom
Koch (LEHIGH). 3-2.
134 - Mark Fergeson (Cornell) dec. John
McCumber (LEHIGH), 5-4.
142 - Jim Pedro (Brown) dec. Nick Melfi
(Navy), 12-11.
150 - Frank Fronhofer (Harvard) dec. Steve
Cassidy (LEHIGH), 5-3.
158 - Jamie St. John (Syracuse) dec. Joe
Mocco (Brown). 4-1.
167 - Jamie Cummings (Navy) WBF over
Simon Reese (Army) 1:45.
177 - Kyle Rackley (Cornell) dec. Doug
Zembiec (Navy). 8-2.
190 - Tom Storey (Navy) WB Medical
Forfeit over Ted Casto (Brown)
Hwt - Bruce Morgan (Cornell) dec. Dan
Hicks (Navy). 11-6.
INSIDE the Mountaineer
Men nearly pull huge upset... 2
Final men's hoops stats 2
Women grow up fast 3
Final women's hoops stats.... 3
Football recruits announced . 4
^grinqsportssch^
EIWA TEAM STANDINGS
Cornell
127.25
'Brown
102
9{avy
99
LEHIGH
70.5
(Pennsylvania
56.75
Syracuse
53.5
Army
46
Rutgers
34.5
harvard
31.5
'Last Stroudsburg
30.25
Columbia
27.5
franklin & Marshall
25
(Princeton
21.5
Wilkes
17.25
Men's basketball: Engineers push Bison to the brink ... see page 2
Engineers send four wrestlers to nationals
Koch, McCumber, Cassidy, Hepp on their way to Iowa City
By GLENN HOFMANN
Sports Information Director
Lehigh will be well represented in
Iowa City at the NCAA Wrestling
Championships as four wrestlers, all of
whom are underclassmen, earned berths
after solid performances at the 89th
annual EIWA Championships held this
past weekend at Stabler Center.
Juniors Tom Koch (126), John
McCumber (134) and Steve Cassidy
(150) all received automatic bids after
reaching the finals and sophomore Rick
Hepp (167) was awarded a wild card
entry.
"Obviously all of the guys going to
nationals wrestled well," head coach
Tom Hutchinson said. "We teach our
kids that the
most important
thing in
tournaments is
champions and
to come away
with no
champions is
disappointing.
This year we did
better with our
young guys and
they're all
back."
The
Engineers
finished fourth
overall with Jonn McCumber: one of
70.50 points trailing Cornell which won
for the second straight year thanks to
five champions. Brown finished second
with 102 points and Navy third with 99
points.
"Finishing fourth this year is good,
but next year it won't be," Hutchinson
added. "Every year we are improving
and getting better."
No one showed more improvement
than Koch. Seeded seventh, he beat
second seeded Fred Fabbrini (Syracuse)
in sudden death 5-3 and third seed Willie
Carpenter (Brown) 9-4 to reach the finals.
Koch had lost to each of those wrestlers
earlier in the season but with the wins
became the lowest seeded wrestler to
advance into the finals.
In the finals Koch went up against a
very defensive-minded David Hirsh of
Cornell and the top seed and defending
champion ended Koch's run of upsets
with a 3-2 victory.
"Going into the tournament I would
have been satisfied with second place,
but once I got to the finals I wanted to
win." Koch said. "The EIWA is a great
tournament and to place in the top three
is a tremendous feeling. One of my goals
was to ao to Nationals and be an All
American."
One weight later at 134 McCumber was
following Koch's lead round by round. The
second seed breezed into the semifinals and
then rode an escape with 17 seconds remaining
to defeat Paul Collier of Brown. That set up
a meeting with two-time EIWA champion
and top seeded Mark Fergeson of Cornell.
Each wrestler had a takedown and escape in
the first round, but Fergeson rode most of the
second period to build a point for time which
came in handy. Each wrestler had an escape
in each of the next two periods and both were
warned for stalling before Fergeson held on
for a 5-4 win.
"Tom (Koch) and I both worked real
hard in the offseason," McCumber said. We
were both looking forward to doing something
four LU wrestlers to make  NCAA'S. -Photo by Joe Ryan
in this meet. Last year I didn't win a match at
Easterns and so that makes this weekend's
accomplishment a great feeling...I gained
some confidence by staying close to him
(Fergeson), but my goal was to beat him."
Another Lehigh wrestler who atoned for
a disappointing performance in last year's
EIWA's was Cassidy. Seeded second, Cassidy
lost tofifth seeded Frank Fronhoferof Harvard
in the finals.
"I am happy to make it to Nationals,"
Cassidy said. "I don't feel like I wrestled real
well in the last match. I have to work just that
much harder...After losing last year in the
first round it's good to come back like this. I
was really nervous in the semifinals since a
trip to nationals was on the line, but I'm glad
I made it."
Cassidy beat Jason Hawk of Rutgers in
the semifinals 8-6 to advance to the finals.
The one weight Lehigh figured to have
the best shot at winning was 167 with top-
seeded Rick Hepp. The sophomore pinned
Columbia's Tyler McMaster (3:31) in the
quarterfinals and then met fourth seeded
Simon Reese of Army in the semifinals.
Hepp was leading 4-3 in the third period
and had riding time on Army's Simon Reese.
Reese then exploded fora reversal, wiped out
the riding time and threw in the leas for a 5-
4 win.
"Obviously things didn't go as I
expected," Hepp said. "I made a mistake and
payed for it. Luckily I will still be able to
prove myself at Nationals."
Hepp earned a wild card berth and his
second appearance at Nationals with a 7-5
win over second seeded Vic Bernardino of
Franklin & Marshall.
Senior Sam Dollyhigh, seeded sixth,
was upset in the first round by Gonz Medina
of Penn in a fall at 2:24. But Dollyhigh, who
has been battling injuries all season, rallied
to come away with a fourth place finish.
"The hardest way to come back in any
tournament is through consolations,"
Dollyhigh explained. One thing that helped
me is that a lot of alumni and followers of the
program gave me encouragement. I feel I did
a pretty good job of coming back."
And the Engineers are coming back as a
team. The four wrestlers heading to Iowa
City are the most since 1989 when Lehigh
sent six and when you consider the youth on
this team, the 1993 Easterns may be just the
start of an excellent run of success.
LEHIGH AT THE EIWA's
118 —Jason Kutz
Mike Mulrooney (Brown) L 8-0
Ed Moore (F & M) L 10-9
126—Torn Koch (2nd)
Robert Weis (Navy) W 8-4
Fred Fabbrini (Syracuse) W 5-3 SD
Willie Carpenter (Brown) W 9-4
David Hirsch (Cornell) L 3-2
134 —John McCumber (2nd)
Sean O'Hara (Penn) W 7-4
Joe Piazza (Syracuse) W 10-2
Paul Collier (Brown) W 7-6
Mark Fergeson (Cornell) L 5-4
142 — Sam Dollyhigh (4th)
Gonz Medina (Penn) L 2:24 Fall
Jeff Root (F&M) W 10-1
Joel Torretti (Cornell) W 13-2
Alex Lombardo ('Rutgers-) W 7-3
Dave Warnick (Army) W 16-3
Jamie Kyriazis (Syracuse ) L 4-2 SD
150 — Steve Cassidy (2nd)
Kurt Kyle (Navy) W 5-3
Glenn Walter (Cornell) W 7-4
Jason Hawk (Rutgers) W 8-6
Frank Fronhofer (Harvard) L 5-3
158 — Brian Cipollone
Jesse Hull (ESU) W 7-2
Mike Kwapniewski (Rutgers) L 10-4
Steve DeRafelo (F & M) L 7-4
*   167 — Rick Hepp (3rd)
Tyler McMaster (Columbia) W 3:31 Fall
Simon Reese (Army) L 5-4
Kevin Sheridan (Rutgers) W 8-2
Vic Bernardino (F & M) W 7-5
177 — Brian Strunck
Kyle Rackley (Cornell) L 16-2
Mike Kotin (Princeton) W 9-3
Steve Cumbia (Columbia) W 8-3
Chris Tokarski (Brown) L 8-1
190 — Ryan Hammersmith
Brian Marcinck (Cornell) L 8-3
Dave Walton (Princeton) L 9-2
HWT—Jon Rose
Heilh Reisher (Wilkes) L 17-2
John Hanson (Rutgers) L 1:14 Fall