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.
 
Lehigh wraps up the 2021 portion of its schedule at 4-4.
 
"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."
 
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.
 
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.
 
"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."
 
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.
 
In the other eight bouts, four saw a Lehigh wrestler score the first takedown only to have a Missouri wrestler rally to win.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
"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."
 
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.
 
"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.
 
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."
 
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.
 
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.
 
The 2021-22 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
 
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
 
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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