Honestly if PSU had a their full lineup, I would favor lehigh in one match, with that being Rey over Wade, with 133 and 165 probably being tossups. And even at heavy PSU could win.

I just dont get it. Lehigh has a GREAT tradition as KR has pointed out, and Santoro did awesome things over at Maryland. Why are they not stepping up? Is it a recruiting issue? Is Santoro not a good fit for the program?

They were a perennial top ten powerhouse just 5 years ago, and in the last four years they have had ONE All-American.

I know programs go through rebuilding cycles, but I cant think of another top 10 program that has had such an incredible dry streak. Well ok, Oklahoma, but other then them... Lehigh has a solid dual meet lineup, but only one guy who I would pick to AA at this point.

Originally Posted by LoSt

Honestly if PSU had a their full lineup, I would favor lehigh in one match, with that being Rey over Wade, with 133 and 165 probably being tossups. And even at heavy PSU could win.

I just dont get it. Lehigh has a GREAT tradition as KR has pointed out, and Santoro did awesome things over at Maryland. Why are they not stepping up? Is it a recruiting issue? Is Santoro not a good fit for the program?

They were a perennial top ten powerhouse just 5 years ago, and in the last four years they have had ONE All-American.

I know programs go through rebuilding cycles, but I cant think of another top 10 program that has had such an incredible dry streak. Well ok, Oklahoma, but other then them... Lehigh has a solid dual meet lineup, but only one guy who I would pick to AA at this point.

I don't see how you could favor any of PSU's 197's over Kennedy. Kennedy beat Steadman twice last year, including a 15-3 major. That's two matches where Lehigh is obviously a favorite. Also, Hatchett is a favorite over Kemerer and any other Penn State 165. Maybe not a huge favorite, but a favorite nonetheless. Kemerer hasn't exactly been a dominator in college thusfar. Also, Cagnina was a #1 ranked kid in his weight, whereas Pearsall is pretty unheralded and a kid who hasn't exactly found a bunch of success, so I'd say Lehigh is a clear favorite over anybody PSU currently has at that weight except the redshirting Sherlock, and if it is Sherlock, at that point we could call it a toss up. So, as a closer, I'd say Lehigh is pretty obvious favorites at 133, 197, and HWT, and a slight favorite at 165.

You are right about 197, I forgot about that. And I was referring to Sherlock as part of their best lineup, I didn't think they were planning on redshirting him. My understanding is that Pearsel is starting because he won the most recent wrestleoff, but that Sherlock will probably win the spot at some point.

Dont get me wrong, I fully expect that Lehigh will win several matches this weekend given the lineup PSU is putting out, and if they score an upset somewhere its possible they could even win the dual. They have done quite well in duals under Santoro.

But they are still going to need a breakout year from someone if they want to have even two people on the podium in march, and this is a program that used to have multiple AAs on a yearly basis.

Lehigh - They have tradition, 9.9 scholarships, booster cash out the butt and are located in a "hotbed" - PA and close to NJ. If they don't finish top 10 in any given year, they are underachieving.

Originally Posted by kr1963

PSU's current 197 is Justin Ortega. Steadman is injured. Ortega was PSU's 174 last year & had a 6-20 record. However from what I have been told, he has put on a lot of weight & muscle & has improved as he has been practicing with the NLWC, (Varner is a member). And of course Cael. I still favored LU by Dec.

Cool story, bro. I'm not sure what the point of this paragraph was...to convince me that your sub .500 174 last year is going to light it up at 197, or that this makes me favor Joe Kennedy any less. Ortega had Cael with him last year, too, and he still wasn't that great.

Kemerer's record as a RS last year was 11-4. That's a winning percentage of .733. He placed 3rd @ the W&J Open & the ESU Open as well. Beat NCAA runner-up Dan Valimont in the intra-squad last year. David Taylor was 21-2, (.913). He won W&J Open, second at ESU Open, won Mat-Town, second at NLO (losing to Lion All-American Cyler Sanderson 9-7 in finals after getting TFed by him in the intra-squad) & won National Collegiate Open. While DTs' stats are clearly better, they are but not by a lot. Yet he is ranked as high as 6th while JK had one ranking last week as #20. Would you say that DT "hasn't exactly been a dominator in college thus far" as well? Btw, I also give Hatchett the slight edge there as well.

Well, David Taylor lost to Cyler Sanderson and Bubba Jenkins, Jake Kemerer lost to Donnie Jones and the immortal Justin Barowski, and two other losses I couldn't find. So there's a slight difference. Don't just go handing out records as if they're the same. Not to mention Taylro has been tearing up the Freestyle circuit this summer, whereas Kemerer...has not.

Pearsall beat Sherlock in the intra-squad so that won him the starting job but Cael said the other day, "nothing is set in stone" with regards to 33 & 97. Sherlock torn his ACL his senior year of HS.

Alright, then I take back what I said, Cagnina would be favored over both the injury-recovering Sam Sherlock and the possessor of the 3-23 record Bryan Pearsall.

The last match this summer between Wade & Rey, Wade won. I don't think "obvious favorite" applies anymore. If Rey kicks Wade's butt then I would tend to agree. But Wade has been working out with Sigman, Anspach & the rest of the NLWC so i expect to see some improvement & we did this summer.

One guy placed third at NCAA's. One guy went 2-2. Wade had a win over him in Freestyle, which is nice, but yes, Zach Rey, #1 ranked wrestler in the country at HWT, is an obvious favorite over #9/#10 Cameron Wade, whom he beat three times last year in Folkstyle.