After a few weeks off from dual competition, the Pitt wrestling team got back into action tonight in their first home meet of the year. The Panthers rebounded well from their first dual loss of the season to Lehigh a few weeks ago, defeating Edinboro tonight, 24-9. Thanks, as always, goes to the Pitt Wrestling Twitter account, which has all of the match details. Also, here's the official scoring from TrackWrestling.com.
Despite facing some solid competition, Pitt was able to pull out a win on Thursday - though they did run into some trouble in the middle bouts. Several of the matches were very close, but the Panthers won the majority of them. Pitt took the first three bouts (L.J. Bentley, Dom Forys, and Mikey Racciato) highlighted by a Forys pin to give the Panthers a 12-0 lead. Robert Lee, Ronnie Garbinsky, and Cody Wiercioch dropped consecutive bouts at 149, 157, and 165 pounds, respectively, to cut the lead to 12-9, but that's as close as it would get.
The middle of the lineup has been a trouble spot this year, particularly with Lee and Garbinsky. The pair is a combined 3-7 in duals this year and are the only starters with losing records. It's early, though, so hopefully they can turn things around. It's also worth noting that Garbinsky scored a third place finish this year at the Keystone Classic and Lee has a pair of dual wins on the season, so things haven't been all bad there.
Arguably the turning point in the meet was at 174 pounds with true freshman TeShan Campbell gutting out a comeback win. Campbell rebounded from a loss against Lehigh by winning 14-12 on Thursday, despite trailing 10-6 with under two minutes left in the third period against Patrick Jennings. After a stalling call on Jennings, Campbell scored a reversal and two takedowns to come from behind. That gave Pitt a 15-9 lead.
From there, the heavier classes dominated as Zach Bruce (184), Nick Bonaccorsi (197), and Ryan Solomon (Heavyweight) all scored victories to provide the final margin. That trio closed out the dual with a combined scoring win of 12-3.
Edinboro isn't ranked, but they did receive a Top 25 vote in the most recent poll and are considered a decent program. The win could even help the Panthers get back into the Top 25. Currently, they are 27th having received a total of nine points in this week's rankings. However, before they get too far ahead, Pitt will face No. 15 Wisconsin in a huge test on Saturday. They may not need to win that dual to get back into the rankings depending on what the teams ahead of them do. However, having lost to previous No. 10 (now No. 13) Lehigh already, the Panthers could use a big win this weekend.
Edinboro falls to 4-3 on the year while Pitt moves to 4-1.
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