Welcome, to the first edition of the Pitt Wrestling Blog.
That will be its name until I can think of a better one, or perhaps that is the
better one, and I just don’t know it yet. Anyway, the purpose of this blog is
to be different than the typical ‘newspaper’ style coverage that just
interviews one athlete and finds one storyline and runs with it. I want to get
more into the actual wrestling, and try to bring you the most inside and up to
date info on the Panthers. Sometimes I may do a match-by-match recap, and
sometimes I might focus on more specific details. Either way, my hope is for it
to be unique, informative and stimulating. If it can grow to the point where there
are discussions and arguments happening in the comment section, great. But
until then please email or retweet the links to all wrestling, and especially Pitt
wrestling fans you know. Thanks, Steve.
Photo: Pitt Athletics
No. 23 Pitt downs West Virginia in 62nd
Backyard Brawl 23-15
Injuries not a problem for Panthers vs
rival
By Stephen Patrick
With both teams suffering injuries to some of their best
wrestlers, fans got to see some new faces Sunday. One of them was Pitt redshirt
sophomore Taleb Rahmani. In his
first home match in the varsity lineup, he didn’t wait long to impress the
crowd. “It’s called an eye-tooth. It seems like the only thing I can do on top”
he said with a wide grin. The “eye-tooth” (iTooth?) is of course referring to the
insane move he hit in the first 50 seconds, bringing the crowd to its feet, and
heavily shifting the momentum in Pitt’s favor. Local legend has it the
eye-tooth is a move invented by Pitt Assistant Coach Matt Kocher, although
those rumors have not been confirmed.
Line-up decisions
Rahmani is wrestling in place of Jake Wentzel, a true freshman having a solid campaign. It appeared
during the Keystone Classic that Wentzel suffered some sort of injury, and has
yet to be in the line-up since. Running with this assumption, it may be the
prudent choice to red-shirt Wentzel this season, especially if the injury is
bad (Wentzel defeated
Rahmani 13-6 in the Blue vs Gold match).
Austin Bell was
supposed to red-shirt this season and compete at 165 in open tournaments. That plan has
changed. With Cody Wiercioch no
longer being listed on Pitt’s roster and Bell starting the last few matches at
174, it appears he will be there for the long haul. “No they pulled it,” he
said referring to his red-shirt status at the beginning of the year. Wrestling
at the higher weight class has allowed Bell to focus on getting stronger and work
on his conditioning, according to the Iron Man and PowerAde champ. He was known in high-school for hitting big,
unconventional moves. He has shown glimpses of excitement thus far in college
and is having a decent season, although he has yet to recreate this!
Photo:
TribLive. Austin Bell defeats Bethel Park's Nino Bonaccorsi in the PowerAde finals in 2015
(yes, this photo is ironic)
The biggest line-up question mark is at 184 however. There
is no clear starter right now. At the beginning of the season, Bloomsburg
transfer Mat Carr had been wrestling
but has been incognito the last few matches. True freshman Christian Dietrich competed there more recently, however was not
dressed against the Mountaineers. Both Alex
Delp and Donovan McAfee weighed
in at 184 but Cam Jacobson ended up
bumping from 174 to fill the slot. Hey, Nino Bonaccorsi will be there next
year, right?
Coaching consistency
Another thing Bell talked about in our post-match interview
was the continuous streak of having Tyler
Nauman as one of his coaches. Nauman coached Bell at Belle Vernon and also
at Team Nauman, his personal club. “He’s
been a great coach and he’s got me to where I am today”. Of course he was also
a great wrestler for Pitt. Twice an NCAA semifinalist (2010 and 2012), he is
one of Pitt’s most recent multiple time All-Americans.
Photo: PennLive
Opinions (Everyone
has them)
- What on earth happened to Devin Brown? That was the third time I’ve seen him wrestle in person (PowerAde and Dapper Dan) and he did not look like himself. Perhaps it’s a size issue (WVU’s roster lists him at 5’2”); let’s hope it’s nothing worse.
- Mikey Racciato showed some aggressiveness on Sunday. That was refreshing.
- TeShan Campbell’s 6 minutes and some odd seconds of riding time, with only 4 points, did a great job showing why freestyle is the superior one: ten seconds on the mat.. back on the feet.
- Great to see John Rizzo pull out the OT win. Nice guy.
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