Lehigh Wrestling

This past Saturday, November 13, I decided to go to the wrestling meet between #17 Lehigh and #15 Penn State. I wanted to go to this meet because I knew that the teams were closely ranked, so it was bound to be a competitive match. Having never been to a wrestling meet before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, after my experience at this match, it is now safe to say that I am a fan of the sport.

When I first arrived at Stabler Arena, the place was mobbed. Despite this, my friends and I were able to sit matside for the meet. The seats were amazing, as we were literally only feet away from the outside of the boundary line of the wrestling circle. Adding to the atmosphere was the fact that most of the Lehigh fans in attendance were wearing white. This “white-out” was a mockery of Penn State’s tradition of “whiting-out” sporting events in support of their team. I have to admit I thought it was awesome to see the Lehigh fans unite in that way. The total crowd in attendance numbered approximately 5,250 people, the second largest attendance in the arena’s history. With that many people in crowd, you can imagine how loud it was in the place. I was extremely impressed by how knowledgeable the fans were about the sport of wrestling. I heard fans talking in great detail about the matches as they were in progress, mentioning words that would soon become familiar to me such as shoot and sprawl. Going into the first match I had no idea of how the scoring system in wrestling worked, but based on the crowd cheering it was very easy to catch on. I soon learned that a wrestler scored two points for a takedown, one point for an escape, and so on. A final thing that impressed me at the wrestling match was the respect that the athletes showed each other. Before and after every match, the two combatants shook hands. It was obvious that the respect went far beyond the symbolism of the handshake. For example, when one wrestler was losing his headgear or was accidentally poked in the eye, the other wrestler would allow him to recover instead of taking advantage of the situation, without even being prompted to do so by the referee. To me this spoke volumes about the sport of wrestling and what it is all about.

Prior to Saturday I had no real knowledge about the sport of wrestling. However, after attending this one meet, I have now become a fan of the sport, and I look forward to attending many more matches in the future.