Weekend Sports Recap: Cross-country sets program record, volleyball wins big and more

Pitt men’s basketball stumbled out of the gate with two straight losses. Women’s basketball has done the opposite, winning its first two games. Football somehow pulled out a win against UNC on Thursday, and now the Panthers can win the ACC Coastal division with a win on Saturday. But those weren’t the only Pitt teams in action over the weekend. Here’s how the rest of the athletic department fared.

Volleyball:

The No. 3 Panthers (24-2, 13-2 ACC) survived a comeback scare in their rematch with the Syracuse Orange (16-11, 5-10 ACC) on Friday. After Pitt won the first two sets 25-17 and 25-18, the Orange came back and won the next two sets 25-16 and 25-22. This ended Pitt’s streak of 17 straight set wins, dating back to its loss at Louisville on Oct. 24. Orange junior middle blocker Marina Markova led Syracuse with 20 kills, but led in errors as well with 10. 

The Panthers prevented catastrophe in the decisive fifth set, winning it 15-9. Senior outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh and graduate student outside hitter Kayla Lund had 23 and 14 kills respectively, but the set — and the match — ended with the last of Markova’s errors.

Pitt will travel to Atlanta to face off against Georgia Tech on Friday for its next match. It will be televised on the ACC Network at 4 p.m.

Cross-country:

The cross-country squads finished their seasons in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Friday, and the men’s side finished with their highest placement in program history in the 10k. They placed fifth out of 26 schools, despite no one finishing in the top 20. Redshirt sophomore Jack Miller posted a personal best 31:06.2 and finished 21st out of 174 runners, which helped Pitt score 159 total points. Princeton (40), Georgetown (49), Villanova (57) and Penn State (130) finished ahead of the Panthers.

On the other side, the women did not perform as well in the 6k. They finished 16th out of 27 schools, with their first finisher— first year Emily Jobes — coming in 64th out of 193 runners. The Panthers’ 404 points were not enough to jump 15th-place Maryland (391), but they beat out 17th-place Lehigh by 30 points. Georgetown won the event with a mere 43 points.

Neither the men or the women earned a spot in the national championships in Tallahassee, so the Pitt cross-country season is over. 

Wrestling:

The No. 15 Panthers traveled to Amherst, New York, and defeated the Buffalo Bulls by a total score of 21-12 on Friday. Pitt won six out of 10 matches in the contest, ending with junior heavyweight Jake Slinger pinning Buffalo redshirt senior Toby Cahill in four minutes and 32 seconds in the 10th and final match. Redshirt sophomore Colton Camacho, redshirt senior Micky Phillipi, redshirt senior Elijah Cleary, redshirt senior Jake Wentzel and redshirt junior Hunter Kernan also picked up wins in the match.

Pitt then traveled to Edinboro, Pennsylvania, on Saturday for its next match and defeated the Edinboro Fighting Scots 28-20. The Panthers again won six out of the 10 matches, and almost all of the wrestlers who won on Friday won again on Saturday. Camacho was the one exception, as he did not take part in this match. Redshirt senior Gage Curry won the 125-pound bout in his place.

National semifinalist and redshirt senior Nino Bonaccorsi didn’t play in either match. He recently returned from the U23 world championships in Serbia, where he defeated Erhan Yaylaci from Turkey. Whether he’ll return for the Panthers’ next match against Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 21 remains to be seen.