A Stabler Arena athletics record of 6,047 fans saw the 13th-ranked Mountain Hawks battle No. 3 Penn State Friday night, but the visiting Nittany Lions claimed seven bouts to defeat Lehigh 23-10. The Mountain Hawks won three bouts in the evening and gave strong efforts in many of the losses, but came up short against the four-time defending national champions.

“The atmosphere was great,” Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said of the crowd support. “I wish we could do this every single week. We’ve shown that the Lehigh Valley loves to come out and support wrestling. We just need to start winning some of these big matches.”

Junior Brandon Paetzell gave the home crowd an early spark, scoring six of Lehigh’s 12 takedowns on the evening in a 15-5 major decision over Brandon Meredith in the opening bout of the night at 125. Paetzell had three first period takedowns and added two more in the second and one in the third plus 2:45 of riding time advantage.

“Brandon has been awesome,” Santoro said. “He doesn’t care who he is wrestling. He’s just trying to score the next point. We want our whole team to do that. He’s been a great spark plug.”

Sophomore Jaret Lane made his first dual appearance of the season at 133 but dropped a 7-2 decision to Penn State All-American Roman Bravo-Young. Lane was 0-0 with Bravo-Young through two periods before the Nittany Lion secured three takedowns in the final frame to get Penn State on the scoreboard.

At 141, third-ranked Nick Lee gave Penn State the lead for good with a 22-7 technical fall win over junior Joe Lobeck, which put the Nittany Lions up 8-4 after three bouts.

Lehigh picked up its second win of the night at 149 as sophomore Jimmy Hoffman avenged a loss in last year’s dual in Rec Hall with a 3-1 sudden victory decision over Jarod Verkleeren. The bout was tied 1-1 after regulation with Hoffman securing the winning takedown on a failed throw attempt by Verkleeren.

Sixth-ranked Brady Berge made his season debut for Penn State at 157 and used takedowns in the first and third periods to edge sophomore Josh Humphreys 5-3 and put Penn State up 11-7 at intermission.

Berge’s win sparked a four-bout Penn State run, but Lehigh made the Nittany Lions earn every victory.

Freshman Brian Meyer brought the crowd to life with a late second period takedown against Vincenzo Joseph at 165, a score which tied the bout at 3-3 after five minutes. Joseph secured an escape and takedown in the third period and riding time advantage to win 7-4.

The featured bout of the night matched top-ranked Mark Hall against second-ranked senior Jordan Kutler at 174. An early takedown and strong ride staked Hall to a 2-0 lead after one period, but Kutler answered with his first takedown in four career bouts with Hall in the second period. Kutler nearly put Hall on his back during the exchange, but an escape, third period takedown and riding time gave Hall a 7-2 decision in a match that was closer than the final score indicated.

At 184 junior Chris Weiler dropped a 10-5 decision to Penn State freshman Aaron Brooks, who was pulled out of redshirt, but Weiler did score the only points of the third period with an escape and takedown to avoid the major decision.

Junior Jake Jakobsen delivered Lehigh’s third victory of the evening, scoring a third period takedown to break a 1-1 tie and defeat Kyle Conel 3-1 in a battle of top 20 men at 197.

The final bout of the evening matched No. 10 Jordan Wood against top-ranked and defending national champion Anthony Cassar at 285. Wood trailed 3-0 in the third when he escaped and scored a takedown of his own to tie the match at 3-3, but Cassar escaped and tacked on a few counter takedowns to win a 9-4 decision.

“We’re getting there,” Santoro said. “Each week has been a little bit better. The two Jordans learned something about themselves – that they can go out there and compete. Brian Meyer did a great job. He kept himself in the match. We have something to build off of. It has been a tough two weekends. We want to win these duals. We have a lot of work to do but we are getting better. We tend to get better in the second half. We have a lot of things to work on but I think we’re getting there.”

The loss drops Lehigh to 1-3 on the dual season with all three losses coming against ranked opponents. Penn State improves to 2-1. The Nittany Lions have now won 10 straight in the series, which celebrated its 108th meeting Friday night. Penn State now leads the series 71-34-3.

The previous Stabler Arena athletics attendance record was 5,909 from the Nittany Lions’ visit on Feb. 12, 2016.

The Mountain Hawks will now break for final exams and the holidays and will return to action at the South Beach Duals, Dec. 29-30 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lehigh is slated to face Duke, Minnesota and Missouri over the two day event.

The 2019-20 Lehigh Wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

No. 3 Penn State 23, No. 13 Lehigh 10

125 – Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh) major dec. Brandon Meredith (PSU) 15-5

133 – Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) dec. Jaret Lane (Lehigh) 7-2

141 – Nick Lee (PSU) tech fall Joe Lobeck (Lehigh) 22-7, 7:00

149 – Jimmy Hoffman (Lehigh) dec. Jarod Verkleeren (PSU) 3-1, sv

157 – Brady Berge (PSU) dec. Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) 5-3

165 – Vincenzo Joseph (PSU) dec. Brian Meyer (Lehigh) 7-4

174 – Mark Hall (PSU) dec. Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) 7-2

184 – Aaron Brooks (PSU) dec. Chris Weiler (Lehigh) 10-5

197 – Jake Jakobsen (Lehigh) dec. Kyle Conel (PSU) 3-1

285 – Anthony Cassar (PSU) dec. Jordan Wood (Lehigh) 9-4