Wrestling starts strong in first meet

The Pitt wrestling team opened up its season last weekend at the Michigan State Open, where… The Pitt wrestling team opened up its season last weekend at the Michigan State Open, where seven wrestlers placed despite having just four returning starters on the squad.

Four made it to the finals, but the Panthers did not have anybody who placed first. Overall, the Panthers had a record of 44-28.

“The guys did as really good job particularly in one area,” head coach Rande Stottlemyer said. “We wrestle hard and when you wrestle hard you always give yourself a chance to win. I think that that’s the best thing that we did this weekend.”

Sophomore Mike May, redshirt freshman Ronald Tarquinio, senior Justin Giovinco and redshirt senior Carl Fronhofer all placed second in the tournament.

May went 4-1 during the tournament at 133 pounds. One of May’s wins was over Michigan State’s Ryan L’Amoreaux, who is ranked 13th in the country by InterMat and was seeded second in the tournament. May came up short in the finals as he lost 9-4 to fourth-ranked Kevin Black of Wisconsin. Black was seeded No. 1 in the tournament.

“It’s the first time he competed since last January,” Stottlemyer said. “I thought he was a little tentative, but I think he gained confidence, mat experience and got his feet wet again.”

Tarquinio, who was the fifth seed at 141 pounds, won his first four matches before being pinned in the finals by No. 19-ranked Scott Moore of Penn State. One of Tarquinio’s victories included a 5-4 win over No. 17-ranked John Giacche of Northwestern.

“He was ahead with about 20 seconds left and was trying to finish it up and got caught, but those things happen,” Stottlemyer said.

At 149 pounds, Giovinco was the second seed and is ranked No. 16 in the country. Giovinco defeated the seventh-seeded wrestler 6-1, but ran into top seed Karl Nadolsky in the finals and lost 3-1. Nadolsky is the ninth-ranked wrestler in the NCAA.

Fronhofer made his first appearance at 174 pounds since moving up from 165 pounds. He was ranked 10th in the preseason by InterMat and was the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Fronhofer also won his first four matches, which included defeating the fourth seed before losing to Blake Kaplan of Ohio State 4-3. Kaplan was the second seed and prior to the tournament, Kaplan was ranked above Fronhofer at No. 9 in the national rankings.

“They [Kaplan and Fronhofer] were both ranked ninth and 10th. He hurt his shoulder and I don’t think that helped. He’s doing well and he will be in the hunt,” Stottlemyer said.

Freshman Jordan Sianni placed third in the tournament at 125 pounds with a 6-5 win over Matt Valenti of Penn. Sianni won seven of his eight matches with three of the seven wins coming over nationally ranked wrestlers.

In the second round, Sianni beat No. 18-ranked Jared Opfer 4-2 and then came back and won by an 8-0 major decision over Opfer in the consolation rounds. After his second victory over Opfer, Sianni defeated No. 15-ranked Tony Black of Wisconsin 8-5.

“I think he opened a lot of eyes,” Stottlemyer said. “He did pretty well for a young kid. He is a competitor and if you want to wrestle Sianni, you better show up.”

Justin Nestor, a redshirt freshman, finished the tournament with a 6-2 record at 157 pounds and a fifth place finish. In his match for fifth place, Nestor defeated

Brett Vanderveer of Penn 3-0 after losing to him in Nestor’s first match of the tournament in overtime. Nestor was able to defeat both the sixth and seventh seeded wrestlers in his weight class.

Redshirt junior Matt Catullo finished eighth in the tournament at 165 pounds and defeated the seventh-seeded wrestler.

Pitt is next in action Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at Slippery Rock.

“They showed that they have some talent. At this point we are pleased with their approach to the game,” Stottlemyer said. “We showed that we will wrestle you hard and I think their youthfulness was made up for by hard work and talent.”