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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Winner of four straight duels to open the New Year, No. 15 Lehigh takes to the streets for the first time in 2022 when the Mountain Hawks travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma to face No. 4 Oklahoma State Sunday afternoon in the Gallagher Iba Arena. Lehigh enjoyed a 4-0 home run against EIWA opponents with victories over Binghamton, Cornell, Columbia and Navy. Last weekend, the Mountain Hawks rallied late for a 20-16 win over Columbia and then won six of their first seven fights in a 24-9 triumph over Navy. Senior heavyweight Jordan Wood picked up his first two falls of the season last weekend, including the match-winner against Columbia. Oklahoma State has won its first nine duels this season and had a convincing home win against Columbia last Sunday. The Cowboys have a top 33 wrestler in all 10 weight classes.
Lehigh Probable Starters
125 No. 20 Jaret Lane (Jr., Catawissa, Pa.)
OR Sheldon Seymour (Fy., Troy, Pa.)
133 No. 18 Malyke Hines (Fy., Kissimmee, Fla.)
141 Connor McGonagle (Fy., Danville, NH)
149 Manzona Bryant IV (Fy., Columbus, Ohio)
OR Paul Watkins (Fy., Cumming, Georgia)
OR Steven Storm (Fy., Stroudsburg, Pa.)
157 No. 8 Josh Humphreys (Jr., Parkersburg, W.Virginia)
165 #25 Brian Meyer (Sun., Phillipsburg, NJ)
174 Jake Logan (Fy., New Rochelle, NY)
184 AJ Burkhart (Sun., Athens, Pa.)
197 JT Davis (Fy., Middletown, Delaware)
285 #7 Jordan Wood (Sr., Gilbertsville, Pa.)
Lehigh completed a perfect 4-0 home record to open 2022 with EIWA victories over Columbia and Navy. The Mountain Hawks trailed Columbia 8-16 after seven fights but won the last three to earn a 20-16 win Friday night. The following day, the Mountain Hawks won six of their first seven fights in a 24–9 victory over the Midshipmen in the 102nd meeting of longtime rivals. Senior Jordan Wood led with his first two falls of the year, including the match-clinching pin against Columbia. Freshman Malyke Hines and junior Josh Humphreys also went 2-0 over the weekend, with Humphreys adding two more bonus wins to his ledger. Second-years AJ Burkhart and first-years JT Davis paved the way for Wood’s double win over Columbia with two-point decisions at 184 and 197, respectively.
Heavyweight Jordan Wood returns in brown and white for his sixth season. Wood came out of a scheduled Olympic redshirt in January and went 9-3 last season. He won his fourth consecutive singles EIWA Championship with 285, becoming Lehigh’s fifth four-time EIWA champion (and first since 1983) and the first heavyweight to win four EIWA titles. Wood is a two-time All-American who finished fourth in 2019 and earned second team honors in 2020. With a 13-1 start into his sophomore year, Wood now owns a career record of 86-21. This year, Wood has the chance to become the first five-time EIWA champion in conference history.
Eight Lehigh wrestlers appear in the latest FloWrestling rankings, while five appear in the latest InterMat and Amateur Wrestling News rankings. The Mountain Hawks also have four wrestlers ranked by The Open Mat. Senior Jordan Wood leads the way as he is ranked in the top seven by all four outlets. Juniors Josh Humphreys and Jaret Lane are also ranked by all four outlets, with Humphreys being ranked in the top 10 by three of the four. First-grader Malyke Hines is ranked 133rd by three outlets, while Connor McGonagle (141), Manzona Bryant IV (149) and Brian Meyer (165) appear in two of the four polls. Jake Logan is only ranked by FloWrestling.
The Mountain Hawks continued to do well in the classroom during the recently concluded Fall 2021 semester. Seventeen Lehigh wrestlers achieved a GPA of 3.2 or better in the fall semester, led by Satoshi Abe and Paul Watkins, who both achieved 3.93 GPAs. Both wrestlers are mechanical engineering majors. Another mechanical engineer, Brian Meyer, was next at 3.90. Six of the 13 wrestlers listed on page one of these notes as likely starters surpassed the 3.2 mark in the fall: Watkins, Meyer, Jordan Wood, Jake Logan, Josh Humphreys, and AJ Burkhart.
Oklahoma State owns a 9-0 dual meet record and has wrestlers InterMat ranked in all 10 weight classes. Last weekend, the Cowboys were scheduled to attend a tri-meet in West Virginia, but the Mountaineers couldn’t compete, so Oklahoma State hosted Columbia and defeated the Lions 35-6 on Sunday. Individually, the Cowboys are led by NCAA champion AJ Ferrari, who takes first place with 197, and two-time finalist Daton Fix, who takes second place with 133. Six Cowboys are ranked in the top 10 in their respective weight classes. Oklahoma State has won an NCAA-best 34-team national championship in wrestling and has a Division I-best 143 national singles champions and 481 All-Americans. American wrestling legend John Smith is in his 31st season as head coach at his alma mater.
This is the 13th all-time meeting between Lehigh and Oklahoma State in which the Cowboys lead 11-2. Lehigh won the last meeting by the third criteria in November 2019. The Mountain Hawks’ other win came at the 2008 Northeast Duals in Pat Santoro’s freshman season. Lehigh is 2-2 against Oklahoma State under Santoro.
Sunday’s clash begins at 3pm ET/2pm at the Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla. The match will be streamed on ESPN+. There will be no Lehigh audio broadcast for the game.
Lehigh will be out of competition next weekend and will return to action in February with two EIWA duals. The Mountain Hawks will host Penn at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall on Friday, February 4 before traveling to West Point, NY, to face the Army two days later. Lehigh will contest five duals in February to complete the dual-meet season. Three of the five Duals will be at home.
The 2021-22 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
| Date: | January 23, 2022 |
| Opponent: | No. 4 Oklahoma State Cowboys |
| First game: | 3:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. CT |
| Arena: | Gallagher Iba Arena |
| Location: | Stillwater, Okla. |
| Lehigh’s record: | 8-4 overall, 4-0 EIWA |
| Balance sheet of the state of Oklahoma: | 9-0 on aggregate, 4-0 Big XII |
| Series: | Oklahoma State leads 11-2 |
| strand: | Lehigh won the last meeting in November 2019 |
| TV/Video: | ESPN+ |
| Radio: | No Lehigh broadcast |
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