Panthers drop three of four meets

Despite four consecutive victories by freshman Matt Kocher, the Pitt wrestling team managed… Despite four consecutive victories by freshman Matt Kocher, the Pitt wrestling team managed to garner only one win in four dual matches over the weekend. The Panthers shut out Gardner-Webb, yet lost to Penn State, Central Michigan, and Indiana.

“We’re pretty young,” head coach Rande Stottlemyer said. “We start a lot of freshmen and red-shirt sophomores. The big thing is that we all point to the end of the year and we just want to get better, and some guys did, but we still have a ways to go.”

Penn State 28, Pitt 15

Three early victories by the Nittany Lions, including pins by Pat Cummins and Josh Moore at heavyweight and 133 pounds, respectively, spurred the team to a 28-15 win over Pitt.

Despite victories by Kocher, sophomore Ronald Tarquinio, junior Zachariah Doll and sophomore Francis Iorfido, the Panthers lost a very competitive match before 2,172 at the Petersen Events Center on Friday night.

“It was a great atmosphere and it was great to see all the crowd here,” Stottlemyer said. “We would have liked to see a better outcome, but we wrestled hard and that was about all we could do.”

After Penn State’s three early wins, Pitt found itself down 15-0. However, Tarquinio’s 5-3 victory at 141 pounds over DeWitt Driscoll swung momentum for the home team as the Panthers attempted to mount a comeback by winning three of the next four bouts.

“That hurt big-time. We really needed to win one of those first few [bouts],” Stottlemyer said. “Tarquinio did a great job getting his match at the end and Kocher winning in overtime gave us a chance and put us back in the [match].”

Penn State closed the match with major decision wins by Eric Bradley and Joel Edwards at 184 and 197 pounds, respectively. While losing to the Nittany Lions certainly wasn’t what Pitt was hoping for, Iorfido spoke positively about the feisty nature of this year’s team.

“We have a resilient bunch of guys, and we fought hard,” Iorfido said. “[But] things just didn’t turn out quite as well as we would have liked.”

Pitt 52, Gardner-Webb 0

In its first match of the 15th Annual Wendy’s Big Classic Duals at Ashland University on Sunday, the Panthers scored 52 points in shutting out Gardner-Webb, the most a Pitt team has scored since scoring 53 against Franklin and Marshall during the 1996-1997 season.

“[Gardner-Webb] just turned Division I a few years back,” Stottlemyer said. “So that was a pretty easy match because they have a long way to go.”

For Pitt, freshmen Drew Headlee, Kocher, Eric Cassidy and sophomore Justin Nestor recorded pins while Tarquinio and senior Travis Shirley were awarded forfeit wins at 141 pounds and heavyweight, respectively.

Also scoring for the Panthers were Iorfido at 174 pounds, freshman Keith Gavin at 165 pounds, senior Josh Birt at 197 pounds and junior Tyshawn Scarlett at 133 pounds.

Central Michigan 31, Pitt 3

In what was a striking role reversal, Pitt was nearly shut out by the Chippewas of Central Michigan in the second match of the day. The lone Panther victory came from Kocher, a 6-4 decision at 149 pounds.

“I’d have to look at the books, but we must have lost probably five one-point matches,” Stottlemyer said. “So we were just banging the door so close and so hard, but we just couldn’t get it done.

“Matt [Kocher] wrestles real hard. We love the kid. He goes hard all the time. It doesn’t matter [whether he’s] up by five or down by five,” Stottlemyer added.

Indiana 19, Pitt 13

In the final match of the day, Pitt lost a by a narrow margin to Indiana, as the Hoosiers used victories in the final two weight classes to collect the win.

“We didn’t wrestle particularly well,” Stottlemyer said.

For the Panthers, Scarlett, Kocher, Nestor and junior Mike Croyle recorded wins at 133 pounds, 149 pounds, 157 pounds, and 184 pounds, respectively. After eight bouts, the match was tied at 13 apiece, yet Pitt failed to capitalize during the final two matches and dropped to 3-4 for the 2003-2004 campaign.

The Panthers’ next match is at Fitzgerald Field House on Saturday, January 17th at 7 p.m. against cross-town rival Duquesne.