TOM Finds Several Pleasant Surprises at Grace Hall Wrestle-Offs

Youngsters Impressive as Lehigh Rounds Out Line-Up

Lehigh University had quite a turn-out as their intimate wrestling arena, Grace Hall, hosted their annual wrestle-offs. Eight bouts were wrestled in all. Some predictable. Others, not so much.

At 149, unheralded So. Brian Tanen pushed blue-chip freshman, Joey Napoli, a PA state champion and Dapper Dan winner, to the limit. What many thought may be a formality turned into a wildly entertaining bout.

After a scoreless first period, Napoli chose bottom and promptly scored a reversal. After cutting Tanen, the second ended 2-1.

Tanen chose bottom and escaped tying the bout at 2. At the end of the period, Tanen nearly converted a scramble situation but ran out of time.

Napoli faced a similar predicament at the end of the first overtime when the buzzer sounded just before he could be awarded two. After riding Tanen out, Napoli took bottom and quickly scored a reversal for the deciding points.

The was a noticeable difference in styles. Whereas Tanen did a great job at the ‘college style’; controlling ties, working the head, Napoli struggled with setting up shots. Several times he got stuck underneath when his shots were stalled, and ultimately, not converted.

Two other youngsters impressed as well. Jon Fitch, a redshirt freshman and former National Prep champ upended redshirt sophomore Sean Bilodeau, who started for Lehigh last year. Fitch looked composed, winning scrambles and riding tough. His lone mistake came when Bilodeau caught his ankle as he was trying to throw in legs. Bilodeau converted the reversal, but Fitch had accumulated riding time by that point and walked away with a 5-4 decision.

The most impressive performance of the night, however, was turned in by R-Fr. Rob Hamlin at 174lbs. as he dispatched R-Jr. and the incumbent started, Alex Caruso, 4-3.

Despite having a 168-3 record as a prep in Vermont and a 30-5 redshirt campaign last season, Hamlin was relatively unknown. But he wrestled loose, showed a spectacular low-single for his first points, and displayed great movement in evading the several solid attempts Caruso threw at him.

To put it in perspective, Caruso holds a career record of 31-17, twice qualified for nationals, and won the Kaufman-Brand Open, one of the best preseason events, in 2007.

Also of note is Fr. Austin Meys’ decision on veteran Mike Galante. The match was wrestled as an exhibition as the two are at different weights. Meys looked impressive though, as Galante had him dead-to-rights after an otherwise beautiful fireman’s. Meys somehow avoided being scored on and they went out of bounds.

On the restart, Meys converted a beautiful, if safe, single leg attempt. Without changing levels, Meys grabbed Galante’s leg, and, showing particularly good technique, kept his head in Galante’s chest. The takedown proved to be the decisive points.

2009 Lehigh Wrestle-Off Results
125: So. John McDonald dec. Jr. Mitch Berger 7-6
133: Sr. Matt Fisk tf. Mike Margherita 19-4 3:00
141: No Bout
149: Fr. Joey Napoli dec. So. Brian Tanen 4-2 OT
157: Fr. John Fitch dec. So. Sean Bilodeau 5-4 (RT)
165/174 *Exhibition*
Fr. Austin Meys dec. Sr. Mike Galante 4-3
174: Fr. Robert Hamlin dec. Alex Caruso 4-3
184: Sr. David Craig dec Jr. Kadeem Samuels 2-1 (RT)
197: So. Joe Kennedy md. Fr. Robert Prigmore
Hwt: No Bout

By Willie Saylor, Editor