No. 17 Pitt Annihilates Illinois, 30-6

Saturday, December 3

Urbana-Champaign, IL

4 PM

Pitt

Illinois

No. 17 Pitt Annihilates Illinois, 30-6

12/3/2022 7:00:00 PM | Wrestling

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—The No. 17 Pitt wrestling team followed up a big win over No. 13 Lehigh last time out by heading to Big Ten territory and annihilating Illinois on Saturday at the State Farm Center, 30-6.

The Panthers stormed out to a 21-0 lead, largely thanks to pins by Colton Camacho at 125 pounds and Dazjon Casto at 157 pounds and a top-10 win by Micky Phillippi at 133 pounds.

Top-ranked Cole Matthews remained undefeated at 141 pounds and Tyler Badgett came from behind to ensure that Pitt's lightweights went perfect – two weeks after Pitt's upperweights ran the table to lead a comeback win against Lehigh at Fitzgerald Field House.

"We wrestled really well today," Pitt head coach Keith Gavin said. "I'm really happy with our performance. We know we can do even better though; we lost two close matches that could have been wins to make it a perfect dual. That early loss to Maryland seems like it was a wake-up call and the guys are competing with the right mindset right now. We need to build on that."

"The start was definitely a key today," Gavin added. "Colton's preparation has been really good and he's been wrestling well to start the season. Micky had a big win too against a guy who he was 0-2 against before, so the entire team was excited for those guys and felt confident after those results."

Sudden-victory decisions went against the Panthers at 165 and 174 pounds, but Illinois native Reece Heller got Pitt back in the win column at 184 before Nino Bonaccorsi and Jake Slinger closed the dual with triumphs in close, low-scoring bouts.

Phillippi's win over No. 6 Lucas Byrd, a match that avenged a previous loss at the NCAA Championships for Pitt's 133-pounder, and Bonaccorsi victory over No. 15 Zac Braunagel were the two individual ranked wins posted by the Panthers during the rout.

Results from Saturday's dual in Champaign are available below.

Pitt will look to continue their momentum next weekend when they travel east for a pair of Ivy League tests at Brown on Friday, Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m. before colliding with Columbia on Sunday, Dec. 11 at noon.

No. 17 Pitt 30, Illinois 6
125 | Colton Camacho (Pitt) pins Maximo Renteria (Pitt), 5:15 (Pitt leads, 6-0)
133 | #11 Micky Phillippi (Pitt) dec. #6 Lucas Byrd (Illinois), 4-3 (Pitt leads, 9-0)
141 | #1 Cole Matthews (Pitt) dec. Danny Pucino (Illinois), 4-2 (Pitt leads, 12-0)
149 | Tyler Badgett (Pitt) dec. Kevon Davenport (Illinois), 4-2 (Pitt leads, 15-0)
157 | #21 Dazjon Casto (Pitt) pins Luke Odom (Illinois), 4:58 (Pitt leads, 21-0)
165 | #19 Danny Braunagel (Illinois) dec. #14 Holden Heller (Pitt), 9-7 SV (Pitt leads, 21-3)
174 | #10 Edmond Ruth (Illinois) dec. #33 Luca Augustine (Pitt), 3-1 SV (Pitt leads, 21-6)
184 | #21 Reece Heller (Pitt) dec. Dylan Connell (Illinois), 8-1 (Pitt leads, 24-6)
197 | #8 Nino Bonaccorsi (Pitt) dec. #15 Zac Braunagel (Illinois), 3-1 SV (Pitt leads, 27-6)
HWT | Jake Slinger (Pitt) dec. Matt Wroblewski (Illinois), 2-0 (Pitt wins, 30-6)

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