Broncs Host #21 Lehigh Friday
November 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Wrestling
Broncs Host #21 Lehigh Friday
LAWRENCEVILLE—The Rider University wrestling team opens the 2006-07 season Friday night at 7pm, hosting 21st ranked Lehigh University.
“The schedule is possibly our toughest ever,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor, who has compiled 319 wins in his 28 seasons at Rider, the second most career wins in Division I among active coaches, “with dual meets against four top 25 teams (Lehigh, Pittsburgh, Hofstra, Iowa State).
Fortunately, this is a good time to have such a schedule. “This is the strongest team we’ve had in five years,” said Taylor. Rider won its fifth consecutive conference championship in 2000 before finishing runner-up to Hofstra in 2001. “From top to bottom there is balance. There are kids with experience and our horses are separated from each other. In other years it wasn’t that way.”
Rider will be led by five Broncs who begin the season nationally ranked, including sixth-year senior 157 Dave Miller and fourth-year junior 141 Don Fisch. Miller, the Most Outstanding Wrestler at the 2004 CAA Championships, missed last year for hip surgery and is currently ranked 15th in the nation. Fisch, who came within one win of All-America honors at the 2005 Nationals, red-shirted last season and begins this season ranked seventh in the nation.
Rider is making its first trip to the Vegas Open to take on Michigan, Illinois, Arizona State, Nebraska, Missouri and Ohio State just to name a few. “At the Virginia Duals we’ll see Arizona State, Penn State and Edinboro,” said Taylor. “It’s a schedule that is really going to push these kids, but we felt like we had the team with the balance that could compete. Our kids have a chance to do something, to beat the right people, to get seeded at the end of the year. The kids are excited about the schedule. They feel it is where we need to be.”
-RU-
