University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Wrestling Drops 25-21 Decision to Rider
1/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Wrestling Drops 25-21 Decision to Rider
1/29/2005
PITTSBURGH ? The Pittsburgh wrestling team dropped a close 25-21 decision to visiting Rider on Saturday at the first annual ?Beauty and the Beast? Meet at Fitzgerald Field House. The Panthers? wrestling and gymnastics team competed simultaneously.
The Panthers (6-5, 2-0 EWL) dropped the first four bouts of the match to fall behind 16-0, a deficit that proved to be too much at the end. At 125 pounds, Rider?s Ryan Smith scored a first-period fall over freshman Zach Bowman (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) at the 2:12 mark to score the first six points for the Broncs (8-5).
In a close battle at 133 pounds, Rider?s Tim Harner picked up his 20th win of the year with a 4-3 decision thanks to a riding-time point over Pitt junior Mike Ciotti (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe). The Broncs? lead was pushed to 12-0 with an upset victory at 141 pounds for Don Fisch over No. 5 Ronald Tarquinio (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny). Fisch was able to hold Tarquinio down for the entire second period to earn the decisive riding-time point. In the third period, Fisch scored an escape point and Tarquinio was an awarded a point for stalling by Fisch.
Rider extended the lead to 16-0 in the 149-pound match with a 10-2 major decision by Mike Palma over Pitt freshman Julian Warshaw (New York, N.Y./Poly Prep). The score was just 2-0 after two periods but Palma was able to score a few takedowns in the final frame. At 157 pounds, Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) improved to 27-4 with a forfeit victory to cut the team score to 16-6.
The Panthers were able to get on a minor run with wins in the next two bouts as well. At 165 pounds, junior Justin Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) dominated Ryan Cunningham by a final count of 14-2 to earn four points for a major decision and senior Zachariah Doll (Quakertown, Pa./The Hill School) ended his bout at the 5:15 mark with an 18-3 technical fall to cut the Rider lead to one point at 16-15.
In a closely-contested battle at 184 pounds, T.J. Morrison of the Broncs was able to defeat sophomore Michael Heist (Orefield, Pa./Parkland) by a 3-1 count to push the lead back up to four points and at 197 pounds, Rider sealed the victory with a pin at the 2:19 mark by Jeff Black over Lou Thomas (Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg).
Pittsburgh got six points back in the heavyweight bout with a pin by Zach Sheaffer (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) at the 6:15 mark over Nick Cuifo. The Panthers return to action next Saturday with their final home meet of the year against No. 22 West Virginia at 7:30 p.m.
