I am exhausted. Early (very early) this morning our bus pulled into Lehigh, after what was perhaps on of the most exhausting days of wrestling I have ever experienced--> and I didn't even wrestle in the Clarion Open! For all members of the Lehigh Wrestling team, coaches and athletes alike, this past weekend was a full on sprint toward the finish line. We had 2 members of our team represent us at the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) All-Star Classic, FloWreslting held a first class event with the best high school wrestlers in the country in Grace Hall, and the entire team made the trek to Clarion.
Mason and Joey had the extraordinary opportunity to compete in the NWCA All Star Classic. They both made all of us proud as they won their respective matches. Mason was honored after the match by being named an Outstanding Wrestler of the event. He is the first Lehigh Wrestler to ever receive the award at the Classic. As Joey and Mason competed the rest of our team crammed into a hotel room in Clarion and surrounded the TV to cheer on our fellow Mountain Hawks.
The next morning came all too early as the alarm clock rang at 5am (like some twisted joke) and the team huddled into the hotel lobby at 530am. We, along with 300+ wrestlers, filed into the Clarion student rec center in preparation for weigh ins. And so it began..... we were in the that gym for over 12 hours! I would like to thank all of our family and fans that spent the long day standing in order to support us.
We wrestled fairly well overall. The team was full of excitement as the first whistle of the season rang, and that excitement carried us through the long day of competition. Personally I was very impressed with Zach Diekel and Laike Gardner who both kept battling throughout the day. They demonstrated what our coaches have been preaching all year so far.. SCORE AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE.
We are underway... Lets keep the ball rolling. We host Bucknell Saturday and we have plenty of work to do before then.
One Team. One Heartbeat. Go Hawks!
Really enjoy your blog and tweets Eric. Keep up the great work. I sure hope you can come back and wrestle with the Brown and White
ReplyDeletebefore too long. I am still proud to wear your "Let the battle begin" shirt. Like you, I'm very excited about prospects for the Lehigh squad this year.
Dick Straub '62