Lehigh concludes the regular season at the Duals at Bucknell, Princeton

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After closing the home opener with a win over Army West Point, the Mountain Hawks close out the dual meet season with an EIWA dual meet. Lehigh visits Bucknell on Friday night before making the trek to Princeton on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks rode a fast start to a 26-9 victory over Army on Feb. 4, winning the first three games, scoring bonus points in all three and taking a total of seven of the first eight games. Second year student Michael Beard recorded his sixth technical fall of the season as a graduate student Tate Samuelsonthe first year Nathan Taylor and a sophomore Connor McGonagall all won major decisions. Senior Josh Humphreys returned to the lineup with a victory by decision at 157.

Lehigh Probable Starters

125 Carter Bailey (Fy., Livermore, Calif.)
133 No. 5 Connor McGonagall (So, Danville, NH)
141 No. 23 Malyke Hines (So, Kissimmee, Fla.)
149 No. 32 Max Brignola (Sun., Rumson, NJ)
Manzona Bryant IV (So, Columbus, Ohio)
157 No. 4 Josh Humphreys (Sr., Parkersburg, W.Va.)
165 Luca Frinzi (So, Quakertown, Pa.)
174 Jake Logan (So, New Rochelle, NY)
184 No. 19 Tate Samuelson (Gr., Castle Rock, Colo.)
197 No. 2 Michael Beard (So, Reading, Pa.)
285 No. 29 Nathan Taylor (Vy.. Brookville, Pa.)

Senior Josh Humphreys is the most accomplished of all returning Mountain Hawks. In his first three seasons, Humphreys won a pair of EIWA titles at 157, qualified for the NCAA Championships three times, and in 2020 was recognized as a first-team All-American by the NWCA. Humphreys went 20-5 with four falls and 12 bonus wins last season. He won the 2020 Coaches Trophy as the best wrestler at the EIWA Championships. The Parkersburg, W.Va., native returned to the lineup against Army after nearly six weeks out. He improved to 10-0 on the season and owns a career record of 70-18.

Lehigh has a wrestler ranked in seven of 10 weight classes in InterMat’s latest rankings. Both FloWrestling and WrestleStat ranked six Mountain Hawks, while Amateur Wrestling News ranked four. Senior Josh Humphreys (157) and second-year students Connor McGonagall (133) and Michael Beard (197) are all in the top five of InterMat, FloWrestling and AWN. Graduate student Tate Samuelson is the fourth Mountain Hawk to appear in all four polls. Beard is ranked No. 2 at 197 in the latest InterMat rankings. InterMat and WrestleStat rank wrestlers 1-33, FloWrestling 1-24 plus honorable mentions, and AWN 1-20.

When Lehigh meets Princeton, the Mountain Hawks will be reacquainted with Tiger head coach Chris Ayres ’99, a former EIWA champion, All-American and assistant coach at Lehigh. Ayres wrestled for the Brown and White from 1995-1999 and coached on Greg Strobel’s staff for five seasons before transferring to Princeton. He won the EIWA title at 150 in 1998 and earned All-America honors at sixth at 157 in 1999. Ayres wrestled under and then coached alongside Pat Santoro and followed him as Lehigh’s Harmon-Rauch Assistant Coach in 2003.

Bucknell carries a 6-7 dual mark into Friday night’s dual. The Bison are 4-4 in EIWA duals and have lost three straight duals with losses to Army West Point (Jan. 29), Columbia (Feb. 3) and Navy (Feb. 4). Three Bucknell wrestlers appear in the latest InterMat rankings. Junior Kurt Phipps is ranked No. 25 (133), senior Darren Miller is No. 32 at 141 and junior heavyweight Dorian Crosby has moved up the rankings to No. 31. Dan Wirnsberger is in his 18th season as Bucknell’s head coach.

Lehigh and Bucknell will meet for the 17th time. The Mountain Hawks won the first nine singles matches of the series and the last six. Bucknell’s only win in the series came in the 2013-14 season opener. Lehigh will visit Lewisburg for the sixth time since the Bison program returned in the mid-2000s.

Princeton hosts Lehigh in its final home dual on Saturday after the Tigers visit Penn in Ivy League action on Friday night. The Tigers are just 3-9 over two seasons, but have a win over then-No. 8 Arizona State Jan. 15. Last weekend, Princeton split two Duals in New York, falling at Cornell before winning at Binghamton. InterMat ranks the Four Tigers and returning NCAA finalists Patrick Glory (125) and Quincy Monday (165) in the top five. Lehigh Valley native Travis Stefanik is 32nd at 285. Former Lehigh All-American and assistant coach Chris Ayres ’99 is in his 16th season as Princeton’s head coach.

Princeton is Lehigh’s seventh-most-wrestled opponent, with Saturday’s singles match being the 64th in a streak that dates back to 1911. The Tigers have won the last three duals in the series after Lehigh won 14 straight from 1969-2017. The Mountain Hawks are 6-3 under Princeton Pat Santoro.

Friday’s Dual at Bucknell begins at 7 p.m. from Davis Gym in Lewisburg, Pa., while Saturday’s match at Princeton begins at 6 p.m. from Jadwin Gym in New Jersey. Both duals will be streamed on ESPN+, while the Bucknell dual will also have audio on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM and LVFoxSports.com starting at 6:45 p.m.

This year, Lehigh will have an extra weekend to prepare for the postseason, which begins with the 119th EIWA Championships on March 4-5. March at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The Mountain Hawks won four consecutive EIWA titles from 2018-2021 and will look to improve on their fourth-place finish last season.

The 2022-23 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

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