The No. 14 North Carolina wrestling team (4-2, 2-2 ACC) completed its weekend in Pennsylvania with a 26-6 win against No. 25 Lehigh (3-3, 2-1 EIWA) on Saturday night on the road, extending its top-25 winning streak to two straight meets.
What happened?
After a 23-12 Friday night win over No. 15 Pittsburgh, the Tar Heels looked to end their trip to the Keystone State on a high note against the Mountain Hawks.
Lehigh got off to a good start before facing North Carolina, as it had beaten the Army Black Knights earlier in the afternoon, and had maintained itself as a top-25 program throughout the year.
The first match of the day, a 125-pound bout between Lehigh’s Jaret Lane and UNC’s Will Guida, went in favor of the home team, putting the Mountain Hawks up 3-0. North Carolina got back even after UNC redshirt sophomore Joe Heilmann took down Lehigh's Mitchell Polito, 5-2, tying the match at 3-3.
UNC took its first lead of the night after No. 11 Zach Sherman won his 141-pound match, and the No. 1 149-pounderin the nation, Austin O’Connor, picked up even more points for the Tar Heels in a major victory to extend North Carolina’s lead to 10-3.
The Tar Heels continued their run throughout the night, running up a 26-3 lead entering the final bout between UNC’s Brandon Whitman and Lehigh’s Jordan Wood. Wood ended up getting the 8-2 win, but North Carolina had locked up the win much earlier in the contest after dominating almost every bout. UNC wrapped up its 26-6 victory over the Mountain Hawks with a disqualification win in the 174-pound bout.
Who stood out?
O’Connor further solidified his No. 1 ranking by logging the largest margin of victory for his team, as he won 16-4 over his opponent, Jimmy Hoffman.
