The wrestling team handed No. 8 Lehigh its first loss of the season and captured the team’s first Virginia Duals championship.

“We had a lot of guys focus and win some really big matches for us,” said coach Tom Borrelli. “A lot of the matches were very close but, we were able to win almost all of them.”

Freshman 125-pounder Scotti Sentes lifted Central to an early lead with a pin against Lehigh sophomore Mitch Berger in the first round.

Juniors 141-pounder Tony D’Alie and 149-pounder Steve Brown earned consecutive 5-3 decisions which gave CMU a 12-3 lead.

“The team did a really good job at getting takedowns on the edge of the map,” Borrelli said. “Its one of the situations that we work on in practice.”

Senior 165-pounder Trevor Stewart put three more points on the board for Central with a dominating 9-2 decision against his second straight top-20 opponent.

Junior 197-pounder Eric Simaz put the match out of reach with a 5-2 decision over Lehigh freshman Joe Kennedy.

The No. 12-ranked Chippewas improved to 9-1 on the season with the victory. The team is also 4-1 against ranked teams.

“It was a good competition for our team,” Borrelli said. “At this time of the year it is important to gain confidence and I think that is what we did.”

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E-mail the author: D.J. Palomares