Lehigh Wrestlers And American's Upset Dreams

There's so much going NCAA championship action on right now that it's almost impossible to cover it all right now. But sure as heck I'm going to try.

The NCAA Championships in St. Louis, MO started this morning, with the seven Mountain Hawk qualifiers all wrestling in the first session of competition. And already it's looking very, very promising for Lehigh as unseeded junior 141 lb Seth Ciasulli had a surprise fall against No. 11-seeded Cody Cleveland out of UT-Chattanooga in the morning session and then disposed of Anthony D'Alie out of Eastern Michigan. Junior 184 lb David Craig, seeded No. 8, also took care of business against Virginia's Rocco Caponi.

No. 12 seeded senior 149 lb Trevor Chinn advanced after a forfeit by Virginia Tech's Peter Yates, while three qualifiers will try to earn all-American status through the losers' bracket: sophomore 174 lb Alex Caruso, junior 133 lb Matt Fisk, and junior 165 lb Matt Galante. Freshman heavyweight Zach Rey wrestles later this afternoon.

I'll post a quick update either late tonight or early tomorrow morning with the latest. After having no wrestling all-Americans last year, there is a real shot this year for all-Americans and a wrestler or two may very well make a run at the medals.

You can get a link to the results as they happen here. Filter "Lehigh" as the school and you'll see the results as they roll in.

******

The Patriot League will be playing in prime time tonight on CBS, thanks to their first-round matchup against Villanova (7:20 p.m.). But nobody around the country is giving them much of a shot versus the Wildcats.

Predictably, there's plenty of bulletin-board material out there: like how nobody cares about our graduation rates, and that Patriot League teams are "desperate and untalented". But I always submit a pool or two with the Patriot League team advancing, and the Eagles actually, if they play their best, match up well with their ferocious defense against the Wildcats' unbalanced scoring from F Dante Cunningham and G Scottie Reynolds. G Garrison Carr and G Derrick Mercer, with F Brian Gilmore doing his best Kurt Rambis impression underneath could give Villanova issues.

I'll be there tonight, seeing if the Eagles can pull off another Patriot League upset. Hey, American, win one for the "desperate and untalented", huh?

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