Put it in the record books

Keith Gavin defeated the University of Michigan’s Steve Luke on Saturday to become the first… Keith Gavin defeated the University of Michigan’s Steve Luke on Saturday to become the first Pitt wrestler to win a national championship since 1989.

With the 4-2 win, the senior completed his final season as a Panther with a 27-0 record.

He spent the entire season as the nation’s top-ranked wrestler in the 174-pound division.

The last Pitt wrestler to win a national title was Pat Santoro, who won in 1988 and 1989. In 1988, Santoro went a perfect 48-0.

That was Pitt’s last undefeated season before Gavin won on Saturday.

Gavin is the 16th national champion in Panther wrestling history.

Gavin was the only Panther to place, but his win allowed Pitt to finish 16th out of the 70-plus teams competing.

Heading into the second period, neither Gavin nor Luke had scored.

Early in the second period, Gavin was the first on the board with an escape for one point.

Shortly after, he took a 3-0 lead with a takedown.

With Gavin holding onto the Michigan junior’s right foot, Luke tried to escape. Gavin didn’t let go and pulled Luke back toward him to secure the takedown.

Luke managed one point from an escape later in the second period to cut Gavin’s lead to 3-1.

Gavin spent most of the final period holding Luke to the mat, while also accumulating riding time.

A couple of times Luke was able to stand up despite Gavin holding onto him, but nearly each time the Pitt senior brought Luke back to the mat en route to his first national title.

Luke once again was able to score a point for escaping Gavin’s grasp, but it wasn’t enough to deny Gavin the win.

With more than a minute of riding time, Gavin was awarded another point to give him the 4-2 victory.

It was the second meeting between the two.

Both were closely fought matches ending with a Gavin win.

In the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, Gavin defeated Luke, 3-2, to win the 174-pound crown in two overtime periods.

Last season, Gavin lost in the championship bout to Ben Askren, Missouri’s two-time national champion.

Besides Gavin, the Panthers had five other wrestlers competing at nationals.

After the evening session of the first day, Gavin was the only one who could still capture a national title, but most of the Panthers spent the next few days competing in the consolation brackets of their respective weight classes.

In the 133-pound weight class, sophomore Jimmy Conroy made his first trip to the NCAAs.

He lost his first two matches and was eliminated from the tournament.

Drew Headlee won his opening bout, 3-1, over No. 11 Keith Sultzer of Northwestern, but lost, 7-2 to No.6-seed Jeff Jaggers of Ohio State in his next match.

Headlee won his first two matches in the consolation bracket over Wyoming’s Carter Downing and Northern Illinois’ Patrick McLemore.

He was eliminated in his next match after suffering a 9-3 loss to Nick Gallick of Iowa State.

After scoring a takedown in the second overtime, Matt Kocher defeated Iowa’s Ryan Morningstar.

Kocher then lost his next match, also in overtime, to Tyler Sherfey of Boise State.

Two fellow EWL wrestlers, West Virginia’s Zac Fyling and Edinboro’s Gregor Gillespie, both beat Kocher to knock him out of the tournament.

Freshman Ethan Headlee had a difficult start in his first year at nationals.

His first-round bout was against No. 1 Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan.

Headlee lost, 5-3, but was able to bounce back and defeat Boise State’s Kurt Swatz, 10-3, in his next match.

He then pinned Air Force’s Stephen Crozier in his next bout before losing to Penn’s Zack Shanaman.

The final Panther competing was heavyweight Zach Sheaffer.

He pinned Boise State’s Nick Smith in his first match, then he lost to No. 7 David Zabriskie of Iowa State.