Former Lehigh wrestler Ed Eichelberger ’56 was formally inducted as a distinguished member into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame on Saturday, as the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum hosted its 33rd annual Honors Weekend. Lehigh’s first two-time NCAA wrestling champion and one of just three Lehigh wrestlers to be named Outstanding Wrestler at the NCAA tournament, Eichelberger becomes the third Lehigh wrestler to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro has announced the addition of five student-athletes who will join the Mountain Hawks wrestling program in the fall. With the loss of just three seniors to graduation, Santoro’s first recruiting class at Lehigh is small, numbers-wise but big on talent, as the incoming group totaled five state championships and should bolster the depth of a Lehigh program that won a school-record 23 duals last season.

Lehigh freshman Zach Rey went 5-0 to win the 120kg/264 lb. weight class title at the University National Championships in Akron, Ohio last weekend. Rey’s victory led a Lehigh contingent of 13 wrestlers who competed in the freestyle event, including three others who placed in the top eight in their respective weight classes. The event capped a successful spring freestyle season for the Mountain Hawks, who also placed two wrestlers at the FILA Junior National Championships in Las Vegas and had nine grapplers compete in the Northeast Regional Freestyle Championships in Brockport, N.Y.

The Lehigh wrestling program held the 86th Lewis Wrestling Dinner on Saturday, March 28, at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem, to look back on the recently completed 100th season of Lehigh Wrestling. Over 150 wrestlers, parents, alumni, friends, coaches and support staff were on hand for the event hosted by Lehigh All-America Ryan Bernholz ‘01, which featured dinner, as well as comments from head coach Pat Santoro and graduating senior student-athletes Trevor Chinn, Jamie O’Dowd and Samir Soriano.

The 100th season of Lehigh wrestling came to an end on Friday night as Zach Rey lost his round of 12 match to Pittsburgh’s Zach Sheaffer 2-1 in the tiebreakers in session four of the NCAA Championships at Scottrade Center. Rey was vying to be Lehigh’s first freshman All-America in six years but could not escape in the second 30-second tiebreak period and with the loss became the last Lehigh wrestler eliminated from the tournament.