NICEVILLE, Fla. – In it's final match at the Collegiate Wrestling Duals, No. 17 Lehigh fell to No. 10 Missouri 26-9 Tuesday at Northwest Florida State College. Junior
Josh Humphreys delivered a bonus point win against a ranked opponent for the third time in three bouts in Florida, but the Tigers claimed eight bouts on the day, winning a majority of the close ones.
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Lehigh wraps up the 2021 portion of its schedule at 4-4.
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"Our fight was really good," Lehigh head coach
Pat Santoro said. "Effort is the number one thing we're looking for with such a young team. Today, we came up short. We lost three really tight matches and a lot of that had to do with riding time. We have to improve on bottom. We've been working on it, but today it got away from us a little bit. We gave up a six point reversal in one match, we gave up three and a half minutes of riding time in a close loss, we lose in overtime. We win those three, it's a whole different game."
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Humphreys delivered the brightest moment of the day for the Mountain Hawks. With Lehigh trailing 12-0 after four bouts, Humphreys put the Mountain Hawks on the board with a second period pin of Jarrett Jacques. After a scoreless first period, Jacques began the second on bottom and Humphreys was able to lock up a cradle, putting the Tiger to his back and securing the fall at 3:31.
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The win came one day after earning major decision victories over No. 19 Johnny Lovett of Central Michigan and No. 8 Kaleb Young of Iowa.
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"He did a great job," Santoro said of Humphreys. "Coming off that knee injury he just needed to get back on the mat and get competition. Every week he seems to get a little better and better. He had a great two days and now needs to feed off that momentum."
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Lehigh's other victory came from senior
Jordan Wood, who edged Zach Elam 2-1 at 285 with a 1:02 riding time advantage the deciding factor.
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In the other eight bouts, four saw a Lehigh wrestler score the first takedown only to have a Missouri wrestler rally to win.
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Gallery: (12-21-2021) Wrestling vs. Missouri, 12/21/21
In a battle of top 15 foes at 125, junior
Jaret Lane scored the first takedown and led 4-3 after two periods following a reversal, but Noah Surtin scored a reversal on the edge in the third and added a four point near fall to win 10-4 in the dual's opening bout.
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First year
Sheldon Seymour tried to erase a 4-0 deficit with two third period takedowns but fell 7-4 to Connor Brown at 133.
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At 141, first year
Connor McGonagle scored first against Allan Hart, but Hart scored takedowns in each of the first two periods and used a strong ride in the third to win 8-3.
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A wild bout at 149 saw first year
Manzona Bryant IV and Missouri's Josh Edmond exchange takedowns, awarded off video review challenges after upper body throws. An action-packed first period ended 3-3. The match eventually went to sudden victory where Edmond took Bryant down to his back on a re-shot and picked up the decision to put Missouri up 12-0.
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First year
Jake Logan scored the first takedown against Peyton Mocco at 174, but ultimately fell 6-4. Jeremiah Kent followed with a 6-2 decision over sophomore
AJ Burkhart at 184.
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Missouri (6-2) picked up a pair of bonus point wins as third-ranked Keegan O'Toole posted a 13-5 major decision over sophomore
Brian Meyer at 165 and No. 4 Rocky Elam won a 12-3 major over first year
JT Davis at 197.
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"Missouri came off a really tough loss yesterday where they lost a lot of tight ones," Santoro said. "They were just a little more ready. We had that tough loss today. If we had another match, I think we'd wrestle a lot better, but we have to wait a few weeks. You have to be ready any time you walk out there. We ran into a team that was really hungry and bitter from yesterday and they came out and wrestled that way."
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Lehigh finishes fourth in the red pool at the Collegiate Wrestling Duals, going 1-2. Individually, seven of Lehigh's 12 victories over the three duals came against nationally-ranked opponents, including four wins over top 10-ranked foes.
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"The ability to beat highly-ranked people is really important because you have to do that at the end," Santoro explained. "If you're losing to guys that aren't in the top 10 it's a little easier to fix, but if you show you can beat top 10 guys, that goes a long way for a guy's confidence. It shows they can go with anyone in the country.
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Santoro concluded, "We came out here and wrestled two top 10 teams, including the No. 1 team in the country. It's about getting better each week and getting ready for March."
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The Mountain Hawks will return to action with a pair of home EIWA duals on Jan. 7-8. Lehigh will host Binghamton on Friday Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. and then will host Cornell Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. on Pinning Cancer Day Presented by Red Robin in Partnership with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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Lehigh has seven home duals in 2022 and tickets for all of those duals can be purchased at LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during business hours.
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The 2021-22 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
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No. 10 Missouri 26, No. 17 Lehigh 9
125 – Noah Surtin (Missouri) dec.
Jaret Lane (Lehigh) 10-4
133 – Connor Brown (Missouri) dec.
Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh) 7-4
141 – Allan Hart (Missouri) dec.
Connor McGonagle (Lehigh) 8-3
149 – Josh Edmond (Missouri) dec
Manzona Bryant IV (Lehigh) 6-4, sv
157 –
Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) Fall Jarrett Jacques (Missouri) 3:31
165 – Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) major dec.
Brian Meyer (Lehigh) 13-5
174 – Peyton Mocco (Missouri) dec.
Jake Logan (Lehigh) 6-4
184 – Jeremiah Kent (Missouri) dec.
AJ Burkhart (Lehigh) 6-2
197 – Rocky Elam (Missouri) major dec.
JT Davis (Lehigh) 12-3
285 –
Jordan Wood (Lehigh) dec. Zach Elam (Missouri) 2-1
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Extra matches
133 –
Satoshi Abe (Lehigh) dec. Ja'Kerion Merritt (CMU) 6-4
141 –
Drew Munch (Lehigh) dec. Drew Marten (CMU) 11-5
157 – Derek Holschlag (UNI) dec.
Luca Frinzi (Lehigh) 7-5
285 – Seth Nitzel (Missouri) dec.
TJ Moore (Lehigh) 2-0
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