RU/LEHIGH PREVIEW for National Duals

[wngarbarini]

Lehigh Mountain Hawks invade the RAC Saturday evening at 8 with a 13-2 dual meet record and the # 6 ranking in the country. They will be favored over our Scarlet Knights as they beat Oklahoma and Minnesota in common opponents and lost to Nebraska who we defeated. They bring a bunch of highly ranked wrestlers and have a long history of defeating us in dual meets. Lehigh has a few wrestlers out with injury so it will be interesting as to whether any of them are back for the Saturday dual. Mitch Minnotti at 157, Ryan Preisch at 165 and Elliott Riddick at 174 all have been out of the lineup recently but Lehigh has strong back ups and a heavily laden junior and senior team of wrestlers. At 141 Ashnault defeated Randy Cruz at last years NCAA wrestlebacks 3-2 and Hrymack and Bolich split bouts with Bolich winning 7-5 and Hrymack winning 6-5. Darian Cruz defeated MCabe in 2014 in their only match up. We need to wrestle our best to upend the hawks. Gravina, if ready, wil meet top ranked Nate Brown at 184 who was second in the nation last year. Wessell is ranked above Billy Smith at 285 and is known for his throws. At 133 Mason Beckman has not had his best year but Anthony Giraldo has to show increased aggressiveness to prevail here. Tyson Dippery was pinned by Gardner in their only meeting.

Lineups:

125 Sean McCabe vs Darian Cruz
133 Anthony Giraldo vs Mason Beckman
141 Anthony Ashnault vs Randy Cruz
149 Tyson Dippery vs Laike Gardner
157 Rich Lewis vs Ian Brown or Mitch Minotti
165 Anthony Perrotti vs Drew Long or Ryan Preisch
174 Phil Bakuckas vs Gordon Wolf or Elliot Riddick
184 Nuck Gravina or Anthony Parfumi vs Nathaniel Brown
197 Hayden Hrymack vs John Bolich
Billy Smith vs Max Wessell

Lehigh's record:
w Bucknell 23-12
w Minnesota 22-12
L Nebraska 6-26
w Pitt 27-7
w Edinboro 36-6
w Rider 26-12
w Princeton 34-3
w Oklahoma 30-7
w Navy 34-3
w Penn 27-10
w F & M 40-6
w Cornell 25-13
w American 32-8
L Penn State
w Bloomsburg 54-0

 

[RUCreedo]

Bill,have you heard anything about Drexel being cancelled?

 

[wngarbarini]

Yes I believe it is cancelled and money is applied to next year's season ticket

 

[RU Husky]

That long record of Lehigh success vs RU will likely continue unless the injury bug bites them real hard.Lehigh comes in as favorites. Time to kick it up a notch and engineer the upset.

 

[Passe24]

If everyone was wrestling at there top of there game I see a 5-5 split. But I don't see that with Giraldo in a funk and Ash not 100percent.

 

[dollarbill]

That long record of Lehigh success vs RU will likely continue unless the injury bug bites them real hard.Lehigh comes in as favorites. Time to kick it up a notch and engineer the upset.

I was thinking more like upset the Engineers. Forget they changed their name twenty years ago. Showing my age here. $$$$

 

[Racpack]

Lehigh is stacked.It will be tough to win more than 3 bouts. Perrotti & Lewis should win. Not sure about Ashnault and Smith. Bakuckas has a chance. Others would really need to surprise.

 

[RU93]

Will this be on TV? BTN Plus?

 

[Passe24]

BTN Plus

 

[RU93]

BTN Plus

Thanks! I'm glad I signed up this year, for haven't missed a match b/w tracking up the turnpike and watching it on btn plus!

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

So they cancelled a season ticketholder match, and replaced it with a match to which we have to buy tickets? That's pretty annoying. I'm not one to grouse about that kind of thing, but it is bad business. Its not like the RAC was sold out out.... were they prevented from giving season ticket holders their seats to the Lehigh match and then just putting the balance on sale to the general public??

 

[Leonard23]

So they cancelled a season ticketholder match, and replaced it with a match to which we have to buy tickets? That's pretty annoying. I'm not one to grouse about that kind of thing, but it is bad business. Its not like the RAC was sold out out.... were they prevented from giving season ticket holders their seats to the Lehigh match and then just putting the balance on sale to the general public??

I am guessing that logistically, it may not have been possible to do with the ticket system (at least not without a ton of manual work & time) in such a short amount of time.

 

[Skull83]

This match should provide an interesting snapshot of where we're at right now. With all of the great positive publicity recently about us becoming a "national force" in the B1G, I'm looking forward to seeing how we stack up against our old neighbors from the EIWA.