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Update: No. 5 Lehigh edges Drexel, 21-20, winning on criteria with six wins; Lehigh also beats Penn

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by Molly Sweeney, Drexel

PHILADELPHIA - The Drexel wrestling team came from behind to tie No. 5 Lehigh, 20-20 in a home EIWA matchup on Sunday afternoon. The Dragons lost by technicality as the Mountain Hawks won six of the 10 matches, putting the second criteria in their favor and giving Lehigh the dual meet victory.


The dual started at 174 as Lehigh's No. 5 Jordan Kutler defeated Austin Rose, 5-1 to give the Mountain Hawks the first lead of the day. Owen Brooks retaliated, however, as he came out strong at 184 and pinned Paul Dunn off a reversal in the third period to give Drexel the advantage, 6-3.


Despite trading the first two matches, Lehigh started a three-match winning streak with a major decision from Chris Weiler at 197 over No. 20 Stephen Loiseau. In the heavyweight match No. 12 Jordan Wood overcame Vincenzo Pelusi with a 5-1 decision. Then despite a very close match at 125, No. 4 Darian Cruz came out ahead of Zack Fuentes by a score of 3-2.


No. 6 Austin DeSanto got the Dragons back on the board with a 22-6 technical fall over Lehigh's Nick Farro at 133. At 141, however, the Mountain Hawks' No. 16 Luke Karam came back with a 9-1 major decision over Chandler Olson to give Lehigh a 17-11 lead.


Trevor Elfvin brought Drexel within three points with a strong performance and 14-7 win over Cortlandt Schuyler at 149 pounds. Then in another tight match, Lehigh's Ian Brown edged his way past Evan Barczak by a 3-2 decision to give the Mountain Hawks a six-point advantage with one match to play.


The final match of the day proved exciting as Ebed Jarrell came from behind at 165. The bout was even at 13-13 with just over a minute to wrestle in the third period before Jarrell turned a takedown into a pin with 27 seconds remaining. The win-by-fall put the Dragons even with the fifth-ranked Mountain Hawks at 20-20 in the overall team score to end the dual. Lehigh, however, had the advantage after winning six matches to Drexel's four and therefore walked away with the win by criteria.


The Dragons move to 4-2 on the season and 0-2 in conference matchups, while the No. 5 Mountain Hawks improve to 6-1, 4-0 EIWA.


Drexel Wrestling will return to action on Jan. 1-2 as it rings in the New Year at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn. After that, the Dragons will return to the DAC on Jan. 11 to host Keystone and Franklin & Marshall in back-to-back duals at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

No. 5 Lehigh 20, Drexel 20 – Lehigh wins by criteria

174: No. 5 Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) DEC Austin Rose (DU), 5-1

184: Owen Brooks (DU) WBF Paul Dunn (Lehigh) @ 6:12

197: Chris Weiler (Lehigh) MAJ No. 20 Stephen Loiseau (DU), 8-0

285: No. 12 Jordan Wood (Lehigh) DEC Vincenzo Pelusi (DU), 5-1

125: No. 4 Darian Cruz (Lehigh) DEC Zack Fuentes (DU), 3-2

133: No. 6 Austin DeSanto (DU) TF Nick Farro (Lehigh), 22-6 @ 3:00

141: No. 16 Luke Karam MAJ Chandler Olson (DU), 9-1

149: Trevor Elfvin (DU) DED Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh), 14-7

157: Ian Brown (Lehigh) DEC Evan Barczak (DU), 3-2

165: Ebed Jarrell (DU) WBF Cole Walter (Lehigh) @ 6:33

LEHIGH PRESS RELEASE, by Steve Lomangino

No. 5 Lehigh rolls past Penn before edging Drexel on criteria


PHILADELPHIA – It was a tale of two duals for No. 5 Lehigh Sunday in a pair of EIWA duals in Philadelphia. The Mountain Hawks won both but after beginning the day with a dominant performance in a 41-6 win over Penn at the Palestra, but Drexel made things much tougher in match No. 2. The Dragons scored bonus points in three of their four wins, but six bout wins for Lehigh gave the Mountain Hawks the criteria in a 21-20 win at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.


Five Mountain Hawks went 2-0 on the day: senior Darian Cruz, junior Ian Brown, sophomore Jordan Kutler and freshmen Luke Karam and Jordan Wood, while Lehigh’s duo of freshman 197-pounders each beat a ranked opponent.


With the two victories, Lehigh closes out the fall semester at 6-1 overall and 4-0 against EIWA opponents.


“Two extremes for sure,” Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said, “In the Penn match everything flowed our way, but tonight we were in a dogfight. (Drexel) came out ready to wrestle and we knew they would. They put a lot of bonus points on us and we were fortunate that we got the bonus points that we did. We talked before the match about how bonus points would be huge, and they were.”


In the first dual of the day against Penn, Lehigh won eight of the nine contested bouts and benefitted from a forfeit to Cruz at 125. Kutler opened things up with a 14-point first period against Khamari Whimper and closed out the technical fall with a second period escape. Lehigh added three first period pins, with Wood decking Tyler Hall at 285, junior Cortlandt Schuyler using a headlock for a 31-second fall over Joe Oliva at 149, and sophomore Cole Walter closing the dual by pinning Ryan Farber in 1:11 at 165.


One of the most impressive wins of the day came from freshman Jake Jakobsen, who knocked off 10th-ranked Frank Mattiace 3-0 at 197. Jakobsen used a strong effort on top to ride out the second period, while earning a penalty point for stalling and added a third period escape plus riding time advantage.


The Mountain Hawks were without second-ranked junior Scott Parker at 133 but freshman Nick Farro used a late takedown to the back for two-and-two to defeat Gianni Ghione 5-1 in his dual meet debut.


The only downside to the Penn dual was an injury default by junior Ryan Preisch in the third period of his match with Joe Heyob at 184. Preisch was leading 5-1 and was injured after Heyob reversed to cut the deficit to 5-3.


Penn falls to 3-2 in duals with the loss.


The absence of Parker and Preisch against Drexel created opportunities for the Dragons to post bonus points.


Kutler opened the dual with a 5-1 win over Austin Rose but sophomore Paul Dunn, making his dual debut at 184 in place of Preisch was pinned in the third period by Owen Brooks, giving the Dragons an early 6-3 lead.


Lehigh got a big win from another freshman 197-pounder to re-take the lead as Chris Weiler knocked off 20th-ranked Stephen Loiseau in an 8-0 major decision. Weiler scored a late first period takedown and added a late second period reversal after being ridden for most of the period. In the third, Weiler rode out and scored a late four point near fall to secure the major.


Wins by Wood and Cruz put Lehigh up 13-6 at intermission, but Drexel climbed back within 13-11 after sixth-ranked freshman Austin DeSanto posted a first period technical fall over Farro.


Karam delivered a big win and bonus point, using a late third period takedown and 4:28 of riding time advantage to earn a 9-1 win over Chandler Olson.


“Our freshmen are the ones that got us some bonus points,” Santoro said. “This has been a great class. They came in last year really hungry and motivated and pushed each other. We had two 197-pounders come out with two huge wins today over two ranked wrestlers. Those guys are going to be battling at the Scuffle and hopefully we’ll have some things figured out. Two pretty special people and we’d love to find a spot for both of them, but I don’t know if we can. The message is, for our freshmen class, age is just a number and they’re just trying to get better. Going out there to win matches and scoring points and going for bonus points when necessary.”


Drexel’s Trevor Elfvin knocked off Schuyler in a high-scoring 14-7 match at 149, but Brown used a third period takedown to defeat Evan Barczak 3-2 at 157 earning Lehigh’s sixth win.


Leading 20-14 heading into the final bout, Walter was unable to hold what was a 10-5 lead. Drexel’s Ebed Jarrell came back and pinned Walter at the 6:33 mark to tie the dual at 20-20, but Lehigh claimed the win on criteria after winning six of the 10 bouts. The Dragons fell to 4-2 with the loss.


“The effort has been good all fall, but we saw some areas we really got exposed in,” Santoro said. “Six of our guys wrestled well, but we have to control our minds deep in those matches. We’re usually strong, but for some reason today we lost a little bit of focus. It’s something we can fix. We need to build off of this and off the whole fall. We have the Southern Scuffle. We have finals coming up in a couple of days. We have to regroup and we have a lot of guys banged up so we have to get as healthy as we can for the Southern Scuffle.”


The Mountain Hawks will now be off until the Southern Scuffle, Jan. 1-2 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Lehigh’s next dual action will be against EIWA rivals American (Jan. 12) and Navy (Jan. 14) inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.

No. 5 Lehigh 41, Penn 6

174 – Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) tech fall Khamari Whimper (Penn) 15-0, 3:08

184 – Joe Heyob (Penn) injury default Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) 5:28

197 – Jake Jakobsen (Lehigh) dec. Frank Mattiace (Penn) 3-0

285 – Jordan Wood (Lehigh) Fall Tyler Hall (Penn) 2:45

125 – Darian Cruz (Lehigh) won by forfeit

133 – Nick Farro (Lehigh) dec. Gianni Ghione (Penn) 5-1

141 – Luke Karam (Lehigh) dec. Jacob Lizak (Penn) 8-2

149 – Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh) Fall Joe Oliva (Penn) 0:31

157 – Ian Brown (Lehigh) dec. Jon Errico (Penn) 6-2

165 – Cole Walter (Lehigh) Fall Ryan Farber (Penn) 1:11

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