After solid start at Clarion Open, Panthers ready for dual season
Pitt will open the dual meet season with a trip to Cleveland State on Friday night. The Vikings shouldn’t present too much of a challenge for the No. 18 Panthers.
Only 157-pounder Marcus Robinson and heavyweight Daniel Bucknavich appear in FloWrestling’s rankings – both honorable mention selections – and Robinson isn’t expected to wrestle against Pitt. The Panthers, meanwhile, have four top-10 ranked wrestlers, led by No. 1 Cole Matthews (141), and an honorable mention selection.
“I think they’ll be scrappy,” Pitt coach Keith Gavin said of the Vikings. “It will be a good first dual meet for us.”
About the Vikings: Cleveland State went 8-9 last season, including 5-5 in the MAC. Led by coach Josh Moore, who was a two-time All-American for Penn State, the Vikings are No. 78 out 78 Division I teams according to WrestleStat’s rankings.
Last meeting: Pitt beat Cleveland State 38-6 on Dec. 20, 2012, in the final matchup of EWL rivals. The Panthers were led by pins from Nick Bonaccorsi, P.J. Tasser and Zac Thomusseit.
Match to watch: 197 pounds – Nino Bonaccorsi vs. Anthony Perrine.
Bonaccorsi will be making his season debut, and Perrine, a sixth-year senior who transferred from Gardner-Webb, provides a decent challenge. Perrine is 54-38 in his career and has lost by major decision in most matches against top-flight competition. He should provide a nice tuneup match for Bonaccorsi before an interesting date with Maryland freshman Jaxon Smith a week later.
Projected lineup (with Flo Rankings)
125-Colton Camacho
133-No. 9 Micky Phillippi
141-No. 1 Cole Matthews
149-Tyler Badgett
157-No. 10 Dazjon Casto
165-HM Holden Heller
174-Luca Augustine
184-Reece Heller
197-No. 10 Nino Bonaccorsi
285-Jake Slinger
Lineup change: Tyler Badgett will likely step into the lineup at 149 pounds after a second-place finish at the Clarion Open. Badgett won his first four matches before being pinned in the finals by high school senior Meyer Shapiro, a junior world champion who has committed to Cornell.
Badgett, a two-time state runner-up from California, went 3-5 as a true freshman for Pitt in 2020-21. He went 10-6 while taking a redshirt last season.
Brock McMillen is still the projected starter for the season, but isn’t 100 percent, as evidenced by his 2-2 performance at the Clarion Open, where he was the top seed.
“He’s dealing with some medical issues,” Gavin said of McMillen. “It’s going to take some time for him to figure out. It’s not an injury, so it’s not an easy thing to figure out.”
Last Time Out
Pitt took 17 wrestlers to the Clarion Open and finished third as a team, trailing Purdue and Navy. As expected, Pitt starters Micky Phillippi (133), Cole Matthews (141), Dazjon Casto (157), Holden Heller (165), Luca Augustine (174) and Nino Bonaccorsi (197) did not compete.
True freshman Mac Stout was the Panthers’ only champion. He beat top-seeded Jake Koser of Navy, a two-time NCAA qualifier, 4-2 in the semifinals and Clarion’s Ty Bagoly 9-5 in the finals.
“I was happy that Mac got some good matches in,” Gavin said. “The kid from Navy is tough and has been around for a while. He showed a lot of maturity there in figuring it out. Mac is doing great.”
Colton Camacho, Tyler Badgett and Reece Heller each placed second, while freshmen such as Jared Keslar and Kelin Laffey impressed their coach.
“I thought it was good,” Gavin said of the team’s performance. “I thought most of the guys wrestled hard. We had some good results. It was a good opening event for. Lot of the young guys.”
125
Camacho went 4-1 and lived up to his second seed, falling 6-3 to Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the finals. Gavin was pleased by the performance and is looking for that kind of consistency out of the redshirt junior this season.
133
No entry
141
True freshman Briar Priest went 2-2, losing to Pa. natives Luke Lucerne of Navy (by technical fall) and 8-2 to Bucknell’s Dylan Chappell.
Redshirt freshman Emory Taylor went 1-2 but gave Lucerne a better match – the Navy wrestler won 8-2 – than Priest did.
149
As mentioned above, Badgett went 4-1 and placed second while McMillen went 2-2 and did not place.
True freshman Kelin Laffey impressed, going 5-1 on the mat. He was beating second-seeded Ryan Burgos of Edinboro in the second period before being thrown to his back and pinned.
Sophomore Ty Cymmerman, a transfer from Hofstra, went 1-2, including an 8-0 loss to Clarion’s John Altieri.
157
True freshman Jack Pletcher’s 3-2 performance included plenty of Pitt ties. He beat teammate Collin McCorkle 3-2, lost to future teammate Dylan Evans 4-2 in sudden victory.
McCorkle, a redshirt freshman, went 3-2 with one-point losses to Pletcher and Evans.
Evans, the commit from Seneca Valley, went 5-1 on the mat, with his lone loss coming to Kemerer.
165
True freshman Jared Keslar turned in one of the eye-opening performances at Clarion, going 5-1 with three victories over top-50 wrestlers according to WrestleStat. He beat Rodrick Mosley, an NCAA qualifier from Gardner-Webb, in tiebreaker-2.
Redshirt sophomore Tye Weathersby went 2-2.
174
Carson Miller, a true freshman, went 3-2, including a 6-3 loss to Clarion starter John Worthing.
Former Panther Jared McGill, who is now at Edinboro, won the weight.
184
Wrestling at 184 for the first time, Reece Heller impressed, scoring 37 points in three victories before losing by fall to Clarion’s Will Feldkamp in the final.
Redshirt junior Nick Meglino needed just one day to match his career-high for victories in a season, going 3-2. Two of those wins came against top-50 wrestlers – Brown’s James Araneo and Gardner-Webb’s Jha’Quan Anderson.
James Lledo went 1-2, falling to Feldkamp and Anderson.
197
Stout lived up to the hype and showed he’s going to be a worthy successor to Bonaccorsi.
285
Jake Slinger, who is expected to start while freshman Dayton Pitzer redshirts, went 2-2 with losses to top-35 opponents.