Lehighsports.com

Hampton, VA – Nebraska gained revenge for their Virginia Duals finals loss to Lehigh last year, defeating the Mountain Hawks 25-13 Saturday night to take home the crown.  The Cornhuskers, ranked No. 6 in the nation, won six of the ten weight classes, including the last three straight to hand Lehigh their third dual loss on the season (12-3, 1-0).

At 125, Nebraska showed they meant business as top-ranked Jason Powell pinned Mario Stuart in 3:37 to give the Cornhuskers the early 6-0 lead. Lehigh would come back to tie it though, thanks to decisions at 133 by Matt Ciasulli over Matt Keller 9-7 and by Cory Cooperman over Matt Murray 6-4 at 141.

At 149, Travis Shufelt finally stopped Matt Anderson’s recent surge, besting the freshman 9-5. Anderson had achieved bonus wins in all three of his previous matches at the Duals. In a key match at 157, B.J. Wright defeated Derek Zinck 7-2 to make the match score 12-6.

As they’ve done all season, Lehigh’s top two wrestlers came through at 165 and 174 to put the Mountain Hawks back in the lead for the final time on the night.  Troy Letters decisioned Jacob Klein 10-3, and then Brad Dillon followed him up with a major decision, taking out James Tummel 14-5, making it 13-12 Lehigh.

That would be it for the Mountain Hawks, as Nebraska took the last three weights with two bonus wins and decision. In a battle of Travis’s at 184, Travis Pascoe handed Travis Frick his worst loss of the season in a 12-4 major decision. Then, in the penultimate match, B.J. Padden pinned Matt Cassidy in 1:21 at 197 to clinch the title for the Cornhuskers.  Nate McClain finished off the night with an 8-3 decision over Paul Weibel at heavyweight.

Lehigh will return to the mat on Friday as they travel to West Point to take on Army in an EIWA matchup.  The dual is set to begin at 8:00, with radio coverage by 1230/1160 WEEX beginning at 7:45.  Earlier in the day, the Mountain Hawks defeated No. 19 Wisconsin by a 20-15 final to make the finals for the second straight year.