Two Panther wrestlers land seventh-place finishes

The Pitt wrestling team traveled to Las Vegas to take part in the 24th Annual Cliff Keen Las… The Pitt wrestling team traveled to Las Vegas to take part in the 24th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational held at the Cashman Center over the weekend.

Nine nationally ranked teams took part in the event, but the Panthers’ hottest wrestlers – Ron Tarquinio and Justin Nestor – both came home with a seventh-place finish.

And for the second time in two weeks, a Pitt wrestler reached his 100th career win, as Nestor accomplished the feat in his final match.

Nestor finished 5-2 in the tournament, winning his first three matches before Mike Poeta of Illinois shut him out 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

He picked up two more wins in the consolations round, including his 7-0 win over the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Beau Tresemer that notched him seventh place and 100 wins.

Tarquinio’s 100th win came a couple of weeks ago at the Cornell Body Bar Invitational, and he continued to tack on the wins this past weekend.

While he didn’t quite match his performance of last year when he took home the 141-pound championship at the Las Vegas Invitational, he still had a successful tournament, winning four of his six matches.

Tarquinio came out fast, securing a technical fall, 17-2, in the first round and a 3-1 decision over West Virginia’s Brandon Rader.

A loss to Derek Moore of UC-Davis sent Tarquinio into the consolations round, where he picked up two more wins, including a forfeit over Old Dominion’s Shannon Slack for seventh place.

Head coach Rande Stottlemyer sent seven other wresters to compete, but only one of them finished with a winning record – freshman 149-pounder Joey Ecklof.

Ecklof won his first three matches by decision, 10-9, 3-1 and 3-1.

But a 13-5 loss to Michigan’s Eric Tannenbaum sent him to the consolations, where a 6-4 loss to Camille DuPont there knocked him completely out of the tournament with a 3-2 record.

From then on, redshirt freshman 157-pounder Sean Richmond was the only other Panther to win at least two matches after notching a 7-3 decision in the first round and a forfeit victory in the consolations before falling to Jacob Friedman of North Idaho.

Mike Ciotti, Nick Padezan and Kyle Deliere each recorded one win in the tournament at 133, 174 and 184 pounds respectively, but were all knocked out before they could register another.

Sophomore Lou Thomas and freshman Brad Gentzle failed to win, finishing 0-2 in the tournament at 125 and 197 pounds, respectively.

No Pitt wrestlers competed in the heavyweight class, as the Panthers still wait for sophomore heavyweight and returning Eastern Wrestling League champion Zach Sheaffer to recover from an off-season injury.

Overall, as a team, the Panthers finished 24th in the tournament with a total score of 32 points, while Michigan finished first with 145 points. Two EWL teams finished in the top 10, with Edinboro at fourth and West Virginia at eighth.

The Panthers return to action Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Petersen Events Center against the Missouri Tigers – who finished third in the Las Vegas Invitational – for the Pittsburgh Panther Wrestling Alumni Day.