PHILADELPHIA — Owen Trephan has a fun month of May coming up.
The Lehigh 285-pounder is in the wedding party of North Carolina State’s Isaac Trumble, who beat Trephan 4-3 in Trephan’s final college match in Saturday’s consolation semifinals at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Wells Fargo Center.
Trephan finished fifth after receiving a forfeit from Penn State’s injured Greg Kerkvliet. Trumble took fourth after losing 5-3 to Arizona State’s Cohlton Schultz in the third-place match.
Trephan and Trumble were teammates at North Carolina State for 4 1/2 years before Trephan transferred for this semester to Lehigh.
“How that match went was a typical match in the [North Carolina State] room,” Trephan said. “I’ll get a takedown, and he’ll ride.
“It’s disappointing, but that’s how it’s been. It will be something later down the line to look back at. We’re best friends. Losing sucks, but he and I are boys. He’s a great competitor. For both of us to reach our goals, me leaving and reaching my goal and him accomplishing his back at N.C. State is awesome.”
After Trumble’s wedding, Trephan is headed to Fort Benning, Ga., as a second lieutenant in the United States Army for officer training courses in infantry.
The Summerville, S.C. native and Blair Academy (N.J.) product has no regrets about his brief experience at Lehigh.
“I’m happy with Lehigh taking me in and giving me this opportunity,” Trephan said. “It’s been fun. Coming to Lehigh was awesome. The training situation, the support, it was exactly what I needed.”
Lehigh coach Pat Santoro agreed that it was a positive situation for both sides.
“Things happen for a reason,” Santoro said. “He fits perfectly with our team. He’ll have memories for a lifetime just because of teammates, new friends he made. It was an awesome experience.”
Lehigh teammate Sheldon Seymour also leaves Philadelphia feeling good about what he accomplished and took from his first national tournament experience.
The junior finished sixth after losing twice Saturday, 9-2 to Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the consolation semifinals and 11-4 to Virginia Tech’s Eddie Ventresca in the fifth-place match.
“Obviously, I wanted to finish my tournament a little bit better and on a win,” Seymour said, “but still top-6 in the country so I’m super happy about that. I still have some growth to do. I still got a lot of work to do to become a national champion next year. I’m looking forward to that.
“I need to open up my offense a little bit more. I was too hesitant. I’m dealing with some knee injuries, but that’s no excuse. I have to get to my offense better. That’s what I’m going to work on once I get fully healed.”
Seymour did not get a takedown in either match Saturday or in Friday night’s semifinal against North Carolina State’s Vincent Robinson.
“He’s a really good wrestler,” Santoro said. “[Luke] Stanich was here last year, but [Seymour] has been in big matches before. The bigger the moment, he loves those opportunities. We’re excited about him moving forward. He wants to wrestle some freestyle, try to make some world teams. He always has the right focus.
“I’m really happy he’s on the podium. I know it stings when you lose your last match, but he wrestled his tail off. He competes really hard every time he goes out. I never have to worry about that.”
Seymour got himself a cheesesteak Saturday afternoon. He hopes to land a Mountain Dew in the near future before rehabbing his knee and getting back to competing.
The Troy product also will take an added level of confidence he took from a reading book earlier this year by Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
“We had the same problems,” Seymour said. “She had trouble with confidence. It was having that freedom from fear, that freedom to fly. That quote really stuck with me.”
Seymour improved from 12-6 last year to 22-6 this year. He now talks of national titles with confidence instead of hopefulness.
Seymour was one of only six Pennsylvanians to secure All-American status, the fewest in more than a decade. Others were: Penn State’s Carter Starocci, Levi Haines and Tyler Kasak; Pitt’s Mac Stout and Nebraska’s Jacob Van Dee.
Santoro is excited about the prospects of next year’s team after finishing 15th in this year’s team race without returning All-American Ryan Crookham because of an injured elbow and the decision to redshirt a couple stellar competitors.
“We can’t focus on what we don’t have,” the 17th-year coach said. “We redshirted those two guys [Luke Stanich and Max Brignola] for a reason developmentally. We promised them five years when we recruited them. It just made sense to redshirt them this year. It’s a shame with Ryan’s elbow, but life happens. There’s no guaranteed tomorrow.
“The last two years, we felt positive about the program. Coming out of COVID, we were in a really bad spot. For redshirting some key guys and losing a key guy and still placing the same as last year, that’s a real positive. That means some guys stepped up. The future of the program is in good hands. We’re excited where we’re going.”
Nathan Taylor should slide back into 285 after missing this year with an injury. Kelvin Griffin, who is receiving the Division I pinner award ahead of Saturday night’s finals with a school-record 17, also is being counted on to join the group of returning starters.
Morning Call senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com
