Pitt Wrestling
Pitt Wrestling Shuts Out Drexel
The Panthers Slayed the Dragons.
Concluding their week with two dominating road wins, Pitt blanked Drexel 33-0 after beating West Virginia 29-6. They are now 4-1 in dual meets.
“We saw a lot of good wrestling out of our guys today,” praised head coach Keith Gavin. “I think in some weight classes we needed to do a better job of building our lead and finishing the match strong. But, overall, we continue to make progress and that was nice to see.”
The dual with Drexel started at 184, and Nino Bonaccorsi set the tone. The redshirt sophomore came out flying (as usual), and punished Owen Brooks with a controlling 17-5 win. Pitt never looked back.
Kellan Stout got back on track with a second period rideout and two takedowns in the third for a 6-1 victory. Then, after sitting out against WVU with a minor injury, Demetrius Thomas returned to the lineup and posted a major decision over Sean O’Malley. Meech certainly didn’t look hurt, as his re-attacks were as crisp as ever.
Not to be outdone, Louis Newell hit several overpowering snap downs, accompanied by quick go-behinds to rack up a 10-5 victory. Micky Phillippi earned his second bonus point victory in a row, this time with a 12-3 major decision.
141 and 149 were the two closest scores of the dual, with Cole Matthews and Luke Kemerer both winning by two points. Matthews notched his second straight shutout, and Kemerer was never out of position or in serious risk of losing.
At 157, Anthony Colello, a redshirt freshman from Hempfield, made his dual meet debut. After falling behind 3-1, Colello amassed two takedowns and a riding time point to win 8-4.
That brought up the only match of the day between two ranked wrestlers: No. 11 Jake Wentzel vs No. 16 Ebed Jarrell. Jake got the first takedown, but a sloppy leg ride allowed Jarrell to use a peterson to get a reversal and two nearfall. Continuing the crazy sequence, Jake then scored a reversal with four nearfall, to go out in front 8-4. Each one escaped in the period of his choice, and the final was 9-5. Wentzel now has wins over the 25th, 18th, 15th, and 12th ranked guys this year. With his 8-0 record, he is cementing himself as a legitimate All American contender.
Wrapping up the matinee match featured another close bout on paper between Gregg Harvey and Michael O’Malley. The Drexel redshirt freshman is 27-8 in his career, which includes all the open tournaments from his redshirt campaign.
Harvey used a takedown in the second and third periods, combined with an escape and riding time point to win 6-2.
Overall Pitt went 18-2 vs Drexel and WVU. They outscored them 62-6 in team points and 177-74 in individual points. Next up for the No. 10 Panthers is another away match on Friday, December 20th at Maryland.
