Posted: January 3, 2004
Columbus, OH – In a back and forth affair, the Mountain Hawks used a pair of three-match winning streaks to defeat the home team Ohio State Buckeyes 22-17 in the team’s second match of the Buckeye Duals. Lehigh sandwiched a pair of three-match winning streaks around three straight Buckeye wins to improve to 8-1 on the dual season. Ohio State falls to 4-1.
Derek Zinck continued to impress at 157 with his second straight pin on the day, taking down James King in an amazing 22 seconds. The pin was the quickest by a Lehigh wrestler this season by nearly 50 seconds. At 165, Troy Letters took home another big win, defeating James King by major decision 21-7. At 174, Brad Dillon took the third straight match for Lehigh, nearly gaining the major but falling short 11-4 to give the Mountain Hawks a 13-0 lead out of the gate.
Ohio State would rally though, taking three straight to take a 14-13 lead. A thriller at 184 featured a match-up of top-ten wrestlers, No. 6 Travis Frick and No. 8 Blake Kaplan. After being tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, Kaplan needed a takedown in double overtime to upset Frick 3-1. Then the Buckeyes really turned it on, as J.D. Bergman pinned Matt Cassidy at 197 in 1:56. Then at heavyweight, top-ranked Tommy Rowlands of Ohio State beat Paul Weibel with a tech fall, 20-5.
Undaunted, the Mountain Hawks would then take the next three weight classes to put the dual out of reach. At 125, Mario Stuart defeated Jermaine Jones 8-2, and Matt Ciasulli followed that with a 9-2 victory over Jesse Leng at 133, riding for an impressive 4:15. At 141, Taylor Graham recorded his first dual victory of his Lehigh career, holding off Theo Dotson 11-8 to clinch the dual victory. At 149, Jeff Ratliff finished the match with a 9-6 decision over Matt Anderson.
The Mountain Hawks are now 2-0 on the day at the Duals, with a 32-6 pasting of Buffalo earlier in the day. In the last dual of the afternoon, Lehigh will take on Eastern Illinois at 3:00.
Weight matchup result score
157 Derek Zinck (LU) over James King (OS) WBF, 0:22
165 Troy Letters (LU) over John Clark (OS) MD, 21-7
174 Brad Dillon (LU) over Anthony Magistrelli (OS) 11-4
184 Blake Kaplan (OS) over Travis Frick (LU) 3-1 (2OT)
197 J.D. Bergman (OS) over Matt Cassidy (LU) WBF, 1:56
HWT Tommy Rowlands (OS) over Paul Weibel (LU) WTF, 20-5
125 Mario Stuart (LU) over Jermaine Jones (OS) 8-2
133 Matt Ciasulli (LU) over Jesse Leng (OS) 9-2
141 Taylor Graham (LU) over Theo Dotson (OS) 11-8
149 Jeff Ratliff (OS) over Matt Anderson (LU) 9-6