Lehigh Valley Live Article

[JAD77]

Copied here - nice article:

By Brad Wilson | For lehighvalleylive.com

Lehigh wrestling used a secret weapon when the Mountain Hawks were recruiting Jack Wilt.

“My mother, Jessie Wilt, went to Lehigh, and she encouraged me to look at Lehigh,” said the Mountain Hawks’ sophomore 184-pounder. “The thing she emphasized was the value of a Lehigh degree. And then when I was deciding between a few schools, my mom’s brother, my Uncle Mike, told me Lehigh was a no-brainer. He said, ‘Just look at how your mother turned out going there’.”

Dr. Jessie Wilt is one of the leading pulmonologists in New Jersey with enough awards and honors to fill several paragraphs.

Wilt accepted his uncle’s argument – “that was kind of the final word,” he said – and Lehigh wrestling fans are glad he did.

Lehigh's Jack Wilt
Lehigh's Jack Wilt has emerged as the starter at 184 pounds.Lehigh Athletics | Hannahally Photography.

Wilt has stepped into a gap in the Mountain Hawks lineup at 184 pounds and has become the starter there. He made a breakthrough last week with his first dual-meet win, 8-5 in sudden victory over Army’s Dillon Sheehy, and he’ll hope to add to that total when Bucknell (7-6, 3-3 EIWA) visits Grace Hall Friday night (7) to take on the No. 15-ranked Mountain Hawks (5-3, 5-0) in an EIWA dual.

“I can’t say we really emphasize a first dual-meet win, but it felt great to get that first win,” said Wilt, a Seton Hall Prep graduate and resident of Madison, N.J. “I think I have wrestled pretty well, though there’s a lot to clean up and things to work on to keep winning. You can never stop.”

Wilt’s first dual meet as a Mountain Hawk was certainly memorable.

“When Penn State is your first dual meet, you know you’re in the big leagues,” said Wilt, who was tech-falled by PSU’s three-time returning All-American Bernie Truax, formerly of Cal Poly. “It was really awesome in the moment to wrestle in front of 6,000 people; I don’t think I’d ever wrestled in front of so many people. I’d hoped the outcome would be different, but when you wrestle teams like Penn State and Oklahoma State, you get all the exposure – it’s a pretty cool moment.”

Foes like Truax also show Wilt what he must do to try and reach their level.

“Since November, my main point of emphasis has been wrestling on bottom,” Wilt said. “I had some matches I did not wrestle on the bottom, especially in the Navy match (in a 4-3 loss to David Key). I go a lot with (assistant coach) Brad Dillon in practice, and I think I have gotten better. Brad works with me to seal off one side of my body effectively – to keep working on coming up without exposing my body too much. Brad is good everywhere, not just working on bottom – he’s one of the best technicians I have ever worked with.”

[D3 for LU]

Excellent... tanxs for posting that, JAD!
D3