Pitt picks up first EWL victory

Going in to Tuesday night’s match with Clarion University, the Pitt Panther wrestling squad… Going in to Tuesday night’s match with Clarion University, the Pitt Panther wrestling squad had yet to record an Eastern Wrestling League win.

Going out, however, that was not the case.

Head Coach Rande Stottlemyer’s Panthers, now 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the EWL, shot out to an early lead against the Golden Eagles of Clarion and never relinquished it for a handy 31-9 victory.

The Panthers started off with a six-point lead because of a Clarion forfeit to Pitt’s Brad Gentzle at the 125-pound class.

But Head Coach Ken Nellis’ Golden Eagles battled back to cut the early deficit to three when Clarion’s Matt Myers won a 5-2 decision over Pitt’s Brandon Skonieczky, who normally wrestles at 125 pounds, but filled in for senior Mike Ciotti.

“[Skonieczky] did a good job,” Stottlemyer said. “His effort was really good, he just doesn’t have enough experience.”

The Panthers reopened the gap with wins in the next four matches.

Senior Ron Tarquinio started things off at 141 pounds with a tough but good enough 3-2-decision victory over Clarion’s Greg Lewis. Despite the victory, the senior leader wasn’t in true form.

“This was not vintage Ron Tarquinio,” Stottlemyer said. “He won, but he won ugly.”

The top 10 nationally ranked senior’s gritty win also reminded Stottlemyer of all the hard work Tarquinio has put into his performances.

“He’s put a lot of hours in, so you want to see him reap the rewards of all the time and effort he’s put into it,” Stottlemyer said.

Freshman Joey Ecklof continued his winning ways and extended the Panther victory to 12-3 with an 8-7 multiple-overtime decision over Clarion’s Derrick Smith. The two battled back and forth during the course of six overtime periods, but Ecklof sealed the deal with seven-seconds riding time in the ninth.

At 157 pounds, Pitt’s Sean Richmond won a 12-4 major decision over Clarion’s Lucas Christopher to extend Pitt’s lead to 16-3.

It was Justin Nestor’s turn next for the Panthers, shutting out Clarion’s Logan Downes and taking a 7-0 decision to increase the Pitt advantage to 16 points.

Clarion’s Dave Garnder, however, stopped the Pitt momentum, scoring first and earning a tough-fought 4-2-decision over Pitt’s Nick Padezan at 174.

One of, if not the most, exciting matches of the night came next, when Pitt’s Kyle Deliere took the mat against Clarion’s Dominic Ross. At the 1:26 mark in the first period, the redshirt freshman pinned Ross for the Panthers’ only fall of the night and put Pitt back up big, 25-6.

“Deliere did a nice job,” Stottlemyer said. “He took his guy like he’s supposed to and put him away.”

After Pitt’s Mike Heist won at 197 by default in Clarion’s second forfeit of the night, Panther sophomore Lou Thomas looked to finish things up for the Panthers in the heavyweight division against Clarion’s A.J. Brooks.

Despite taking an early 1-0 lead, Thomas eventually lost a tough one to Brooks, 3-2, to make the final score of the match 31-9 Panthers.

“Lou’s effort was good but he just made a mistake on the edge of the mat,” Stottlemyer said afterwards.

The seemingly lopsided match score may have been misleading, though. “We didn’t wrestle as well as we have been, but a win is a win,” Stottlemyer said. “We’ll take a win.”

The Panthers are in action again tonight against their second-to-last EWL home match against Lock Haven at 7:30 at the Fitzgerald Field House.