Lehighsports.com

St. Louis, MO – At this point in the NCAA Tournament, with only a few matches remaining, teams are jockeying to get as many points as possible in hopes of a top finish.  Saturday morning, Lehigh did their best to make a move, winning three matches to move closer and closer to a potential top three finish.  Going into Saturday night’s finals, the Mountain Hawks trail Iowa by 4.5 points for second and are tied with Ohio State for third with 73.5 points.

In the consolation semis, Mario Stuart and Brad Dillon each won close victories in overtime to move into the third place matches.  Stuart defeated Vic Moreno of Cal-Poly 4-2 in the first tie break, while Dillon rode out Ryan Lange of Purdue in the second tie-break to win 2-1.

However, both of them would come up against very tough opponents in the 3rd place bouts, with Sam Hazewinkel of Oklahoma beating Stuart for the second time at the NCAAs, this time by a 9-1 major decision.  Dillon faced Tyler Nixt of Iowa, and Nixt looked very sharp as he took third 9-3. Both Stuart and Dillon finished a career-best fourth as they cap off very successful Lehigh careers.

In the 7th place matches, Cory Cooperman dominated Coyte Cooper of Indiana, winning 7th place by a 7-1 final.  Travis Frick fought hard, but came up one takedown shy as he fell 4-3 to Kurt Backes of Iowa State to finish 8th.

The finals are still to come at 6:30 on Saturday night and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.  Audio coverage of the matches will also be provided by 91.3 FM WLVR and on Lehigh’s website at www.lehighsports.com, as Troy Letters shoots for his first NCAA title.

Consolations Semis

7th place matches

3rd place matches

Team Standings