Lehigh's three All-Americans wrap-up competition in Cleveland
Final Team Scores/Brackets
CLEVELAND – Lehigh's three All-Americans capped their 2017-18 seasons Saturday morning in the medal round of the NCAA Championships at Quicken Loans Arena. Three-time All-American
Darian Cruz capped his Lehigh career with a victory to claim fifth place at 125, while junior
Scott Parker also ended on a high note, winning his final match to finish seventh at 133.
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The Mountain Hawks' third All-American, sophomore
Jordan Kutler, finished sixth at 174 after defaulting with an injury in his consolation semifinal match.
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Lehigh finishes the NCAA Tournament with 36.5 points, claiming 15th place in the team standings. With three All-Americans, Lehigh now has crowned at least three All-Americans in six of the last eight national tournaments.
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"It was a roller coaster," Lehigh head coach
Pat Santoro said. "It always is. We were hoping to have five or six All-Americans and we ended up with three. We could have done better, but I'm proud of how our guys fought throughout the whole weekend. Today was a good way to end because I think our guys wrestled free for the first time. It's hard to get them out of their own head sometimes, but today they let it fly."
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Session five began with Cruz taking on Ethan Lizak of Minnesota in the consolation semifinals in a rematch of last year's NCAA finals won by Cruz. Unlike last year's title bout, Lizak chose top in the second period and rode out Cruz while earning a penalty point for stalling. Cruz tightened things up with a third period takedown but gave up a late score while scrambling on the edge to fall 5-2.
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Cruz bounced back in the fifth place match with a 7-4 win over Northwestern freshman Sebastian Rivera. A first period takedown by Rivera had Cruz trailing 2-1 after the first period, but in the second Cruz, working from the top, locked up a cradle and turned Rivera for a four point near fall and then tilted him for two in the final seconds of the period. Leading 7-2, Cruz was ridden out in the third period, conceding a pair of stalling points along the way.
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A three-time All-American, Cruz finished his senior season at 30-2 and his Lehigh career at 120-20. He is a three-time EIWA Champion and finished seventh, first and fifth in his three All-America campaigns. The 2017 NCAA Champion finishes his career tied for second place along with Chris Ayres '99 on Lehigh's career wins list.
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"Darian has been an amazing leader and an amazing champion," Santoro said. "He's one of the most humble people I know. He has been pretty special for our program, to me and my family, and to this team. We're going to miss him in the lineup.
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"I'm proud of the way he finished," Santoro continued. "It's hard to come back. He had his goals set on being a national champion. He lost last night, had a tough one this morning. A lot of guys would throw in the towel but he didn't do that. He went out and competed really hard in that last match."
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Parker wrestled just one match on Saturday but impressed in a 5-2 decision over Wyoming's Montorie Bridges. Two first period takedowns gave Parker a 4-1 lead and he added a third period escape. Parker improved one spot from his eighth place finish last year and wraps up his junior season at 22-5.
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"Scotty probably has been our most consistent guy," Santoro said. "He wrestled hard the whole time. Maybe in the quarters he was a little tight but other than that he wrestled pretty open. What he normally does is what he did. He didn't think about last year at all. Everything is a learning experience and he took it and wanted to finish on a high note and he did."
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Kutler has been battling through a leg injury all weekend and he aggravated it early in his consolation semifinal with Daniel Lewis of Missouri. After a second first period takedown by Lewis, Kutler defaulted at 1:59 and medically forfeited his fifth place match. Kutler's sophomore season concludes with All-American honors and a 28-5 record.
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"Jordan showed amazing resilience," Santoro said. "He got hurt in the first minute of the first match and every match literally became one at a time. We didn't know if it would last to the next one. He just got through it. He was in more pain each match and just kept wrestling through it. With that mentality and his ability and his work ethic I really believe he's going to be a national champion before he's done."
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Penn State crowned four individual champions and won its seventh team title in the last eight seasons, passing Ohio State for the top spot. The Nittany Lions scored 141.5 pojnts compared to 133.5 for the Buckeyes.
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Saturday's morning session concluded a NCAA Championship in which Lehigh had 10 wrestlers compete at national for the first time since 1967 and the first time under the current qualification system. All 10 wrestlers won at least one match at the NCAA Tournament and three of the seven non-All-Americans finished just one win shy of a podium place.
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Lehigh finished the dual season at 12-3 and came in at No. 8 in the final dual meet poll. The Mountain Hawks won their 35th EIWA team championship and first since 2006. Lehigh loses just four seniors from its roster and just one postseason starter (Cruz) heading into the 2018-19 season.
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"We have some really good leadership coming back," Santoro said. "We have a lot of talent coming back. We just have to continue to get better. Next year the focus is going to be on being free at this tournament. We talked about it all year and they did a really good job. I'm not really sure what happened. They competed hard, but they weren't really trying to put stress on their opponents.
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125 – No. 1
Darian Cruz – Fifth place
Round of 32: dec. RayVon Foley (Michigan State) 7-4
Round of 16: dec. Drew Mattin (Michigan) 1-0
Quarterfinals: dec. No. 9 Ronnie Bresser (Oregon St.) 2-0
Semifinals: L by dec. No. 4 Nick Suriano (Rutgers) 2-0
Consolation semifinal: L by dec. No. 8 Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) 5-2
Fifth place match: dec. No. 10 Sebastian Rivera (Northwestern) 7-4
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133 – No. 6
Scott Parker – Seventh place
Round of 32: dec. Cam Sykora (NDSU) 2-1, tb
Round of 16: dec. No. 11 Dom Forys (Pitt) 7-5
Quarterfinals: L by dec. No. 3 Luke Pletcher (Ohio State) 3-1
Fourth round consolation: dec. No. 16 Mitch McKee (Minnesota) 3-1
Consolation quarterfinal: L by dec. Scott DelVecchio (Rutgers) 5-2
Seventh place match: dec. No. 8 Montorie Bridges (Wyoming) 5-2
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174 – No. 4
Jordan Kutler – Sixth place
Round of 32: dec. Josef Johnson (Harvard) 2-0
Round of 16: dec. No. 13 Jacobe Smith (Okla. St.) 4-2
Quarterfinals: L by dec. No. 5 Myles Amine (Michigan) 3-2
Fourth round consolation: dec. No. 15 Dylan Lydy (Purdue) 4-1
Consolation quarterfinal: major dec. No. 11 David Kocer (SDSU) 8-0
Consolation semifinal: L by injury default No. 3 Daniel Lewis (Missouri) 1:59
Fifth place match: medical forfeit to No. 6 Bo Jordan (Ohio State)
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