Lehigh opponent Zach Rey pushed Columbia sophomore Ryan Flores to overtime in the final bout of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships on Sunday, but the Columbia heavyweight would not be denied, using a takedown and three back-points to earn a 6-1 victory. With the win, Flores, who had the No. 1 seed in the heavyweight class coming into the 14-team tournament, became Columbia’s only EIWA champion of 2009 and the school’s first in 14 years.
The Lions finished the tournament with a team score of 43 points, landing them in tenth place. Cornell ran away in the team standings with 138 points, 35 more than second-place Lehigh.
Ten Lions entered competition on Saturday morning, but only Flores survived the day in the championship bracket. Five of his teammates were eliminated altogether, while Lou Miller, Eren Civan, Derek Sickles, and Shane Strumwasser remained alive in the consolation bracket.
Miller came up big for the Lions, finishing third in the 197-pound class after entering the tournament with the eighth seed. He went 4-0 on Sunday, defeating Brown’s Branden Stearns 5-3 in the final battle for third place.
At 157 pounds, Sickles finished the weekend in fifth place for the Lions after losing to Matt Dragon of Penn in the consolation semi-finals.
Flores (31-3 on the season) came into the tournament ranked No. 9 in the country and first in the EIWA. En route to his thrilling victory, he knocked off Princeton’s Stephen Turner, D. J. Russo of Rutgers, ESU’s Chris Birchler, and Rey. Turner and Birchler both succumbed to Flores’ pins.
In the final round, Flores and Rey wrestled scoreless until the second period, when Rey took a 1-0 lead with an escape. With his back to the wall in the third, Flores also earned a point with an escape to force overtime. Flores’ overtime takedown came with under 25 seconds remaining in the extra period. The Lions have next weekend off as they prepare for the NCAA championships, which will be held March 19 to 21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
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