Headlee wins Body Bar title

On Saturday, the No. 25-ranked Panthers took part in the Cornell Body Bar tournament. With… On Saturday, the No. 25-ranked Panthers took part in the Cornell Body Bar tournament. With 98.5 points, Pitt earned a third-place finish, improving upon last year’s showing, when it finished in fifth.

Hosting the tournament, No. 9 Cornell finished first with 115 points, narrowly edging out No. 7 Michigan, which finished with 114 points.

Next up for the Panthers, Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) conference play begins when they welcome Bloomsburg to the Fitzgerald Field House on Wednesday, Nov. 22nd at 7 p.m., which will also be Pitt’s home opener. The Panthers then head to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Invitational.

For the Panthers (1-0, 0-0 EWL), Drew Headlee continued his fast start to the season by capturing the 133-pound title. Pitt also had seven other placewinners on the day.

“We had some really good performances,” Pitt head coach Rande Stottlemyer said. “It was a very good tournament.”

At 125 pounds, the Panthers had two placewinners in sophomore Brad Gentzle and freshman Jimmy Conroy.

“You like to get started on the right foot, and they created some pretty good momentum for us by the way that they wrestled and with the wins they assembled,” Stottlemyer said of his two 125-pound wrestlers.

On his way to finishing fourth, Gentzle went 3-2 with three victories all via decision, including a 9-4 win over Conroy. The freshman Conroy would finish in fifth, also with a 3-2 record.

Headlee went 4-0 during the tournament, with one fall on the way to winning the title. Headlee pinned Drexel’s Morgan Remillard at the 1:25 mark, and would then record three straight decision victories. With a 2-1 defeat of Army’s Matt Kyler, Headlee ended his day with the 133-pound championship.

Also wrestling at 133 pounds for the Panthers was Zach Bowman, who finished 2-2, with both wins coming from decisions.

Other placewinners for Pitt included redshirt sophomore Joe Ciampoli, who finished fifth at 141 pounds with a 4-2 record, and redshirt junior Matt Kocher, who finished third with a 4-1 record in the 157-pound division.

Ciampoli won on a 12-6 decision in his first match and earned a pin at the 1:45 mark in his fourth matchup, and in the fifth-place match, he defeated Kent State’s Clint Sponsellor with an 8-6 decision.

Kocher amassed three falls on his way to the third-place contest, where he beat Old Dominion’s Chris Brown 4-2.

Sean Richmond finished 3-3 at 165 pounds, earning sixth place. All three of his wins came by way of major decision, one of which was against teammate Tim Allen, who ended the day at 0-2.

Richmond would eventually drop a 3-1 decision in the fifth-place match against Cornell’s Mike Mackie.

With a record of 3-1, Keith Gavin finished second at 174 pounds. In his first bout, Gavin won 22-7 on a technical fall in six minutes against Nate Holley of Cornell. He won his second match thanks to a major decision, but would end his day with defeat in the championship match against Steve Luke from Michigan.

Pitt faltered in the 184 and 197 weight classes. Redshirt sophomore Matt Darnell went 0-2 at 184 pounds, losing to opponents from Old Dominion and Cornell. At 197 pounds, redshirt junior Eric Cassidy was injured four minutes into his first match.

“We have to think ahead,” Stottlemyer said. “We have a dual match on Wednesday, and a result of that we really couldn’t afford to get anybody put on the injured reserves. If somebody got hurt [Saturday], we erred on the side of caution.”

Two heavyweights helped the Panthers finish strong at the Body Bar tournament. Zach Sheaffer, a redshirt sophomore, went 4-1 for a third-place finish, while freshman Ryan Tomei finished 2-2.

Sheaffer fended off a pair of Maryland wrestlers after scoring a 14-1 decision over Jerry Afari and pinning John Price at the 0:52 mark. He would win the third-place match on a major 8-0 decision over Cornell’s Jason Manross.

In his Panther debut, Tomei pinned Ithaca’s Bryan Dine at the 2:19 mark, and he won against Cornell’s Doug Weidner on a 12-0 major decision.

“We competed very hard,” Stottlemyer said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win and certainly won our fair share of matches.”