Top performances at both of the end-of-the-year tournaments earned redshirt senior wrestler… Top performances at both of the end-of-the-year tournaments earned redshirt senior wrestler Carl Fronhofer Male Athlete of the Winter, as selected by The Pitt News sports staff.

“It sounds pretty good to me; I am honored [to receive this selection],” Fronhofer said.

The 174-pound wrestler placed second at the Eastern Wrestling League and NCAA championships. Fronhofer became the first Pitt wrestler to make it to the NCAA finals since Pat Santoro.

Making the NCAA finals as an unseeded wrestler and defeating two wrestlers whom he had previously lost to qualify for the finals highlighted his senior season.

Fronhofer defeated Oregon State’s Shane Webster 3-2 in order to advance to the finals. Ohio State’s Blake Kaplan had also beaten him earlier in the season, but Fronhofer, faced with a do-or-die-situation, was victorious.

Fronhofer pinned Kaplan in the second period of his first round pigtail match. If he had lost the match, he would have been eliminated from the tournament.

During his senior season, Fronhofer was 24-7 overall, 15-5 in tournaments and registered two pins.

Fronhofer finished with a career record of 123-39 and is currently third on Pitt’s all-time wins list. He was a four-time NCAA finals qualifier, one time Eastern Wrestling League champion and was twice a co-captain.

“I think that’s a good choice. He had a heck of a career,” head coach Rande Stottlemyer said. “He certainly is a coaches’ dream. He does everything he is supposed to do and he thinks about his team first.”

Fronhofer, a sociology major, has a 3.51 GPA and has been selected numerous times to the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s Academic All-American team.

He is also a standout Greco-Roman wrestler, which is the style of wrestling used in the Olympics.

Fronhofer has wrestled on three world teams and was twice a member of the Fila Junior World Team, which wrestled in France and Romania, and he was also a member of the University National team, which competed in Tokyo.

By finishing second in the NCAA finals, Fronhofer earned All-American honors for the first time in his career. Fronhofer is the first Panther to earn All-American honors since Rob Loper and Mike Ziska finished fourth and eighth in the NCAA championships, respectively.

“[My career] flew by, but it ended on a high note,” Fronhofer said. “This year was a special year.”