Pitt’s Reece Heller feels right at home wrestling in the Midlands Championships.

The Illinois native went 5-0 in an impressive run to the 184-pound championship to capture his second Midlands title while Panthers teammate Mac Stout was also an offensive force in winning the 197-pound championship.

“We were scrapping hard,” Heller said after Monday’s championship round, where he beat Rutgers’ Shane Cartagena-Walsh 9-6.

Heller’s big bounce-back

Heller went 0-3 and injured his ankle in the Rider Quad Meet 10 days earlier, but he showed no ill effects in a 22-6 technical fall over Penn’s Nathan Taylor, a 16-7 major decision over Rutgers’ Brian Soldano, a 15-2 major over Indiana’s Sam Goin and a victory by injury default for Edinboro’s Jared McGill.

I asked Heller how he put Rider’s disappointment behind him so quickly.

“I think it’s just knowing that you can’t change the past,” he said. “Going back and dwelling on three tough losses doesn’t do you any favors. You have to push through that. My ankle was bothering me, but I knew it wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t wrestle. I wanted to jump right back into it. I’m super happy that I did, especially now that it worked out for me.”

Heller also won the 2022 Midlands – Pitt didn’t wrestle in the tournament last season – but this year’s title came with a big group of supporters on hand. His older brothers Sage and Holden – who wrestled for Pitt the previous two seasons – were in the stands along with their parents.

The Hellers’ Riverwoods home is about 30 minutes from where the tournament is held in Hoffman Estates, so his family brought a whole group of supporters.

“My dad was with some of his old high school wrestling teammates and his coach, who has to be like 90 years old,” Heller said with a laugh. “My uncles don’t know too much about wrestling, but they were really getting into it.”

Heller beat Soldano at Midlands in 2022 but lost by fall to him during last season’s NCAA tournament. This time he dominated the Rutgers wrestler and everyone else in his weight class.

“I never go into a match saying ‘I’m going to pin this guy or tech him or score as much as I can,’ ” Heller said. “I just like to wrestle and wrestle through positions. I was super happy to push the pace on a lot of these guys. It shows that what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been working on has been paying off.”

Stout stands out

So is the work being put in by his practice partner.

Stout went 5-0 at 197 with a tech fall, a major decision and three decisions. He rolled up 72 points in those five bouts, including his 13-9 victory over Indiana’s Gabe Sollars in the championship bout.

“He’s a freaking stud,” Reece Heller said of Stout. “I love training with him. We definitely get each other better.”

Coach Keith Gavin also was impressed by Stout, who improved to 12-2 on the season with his ninth consecutive victory.

“There were some good, ranked guys in his weight,” Gavin said. “The Rutgers guy who beat him at nationals last year (John Poznanski) was on the other side and lost to the Indiana guy that Mac beat.”

Also on the podium

Kade Brown’s third-place finish at 149 pounds didn’t help Pitt in the team standings – where they finished in a tie for fourth – because he was a non-scoring wrestler, but it was another impressive performance for the true freshman from Ohio.

Brown went 5-1 with his lone loss coming to Stanford’s Jaden Abas, a 2021 All-American.

“Kade’s really good,” Gavin said. “His progression has been impressive since he got here in the summer. He was very aggressive, and he is always looking to score. He’s fun to coach.”

Dylan Evans went 4-2 to place fifth at 157 pounds while Luca Augustine was sixth at 174.

Injury report

The news from Illinois wasn’t all good. Luca Augustine was injured in Sunday’s victory over Rutgers’ Jackson Turley and defaulted out of the tournament. Gavin said he hopes to have Augustine back in the lineup for the ACC opener against Stanford on Jan. 10.

Finn Solomon also defaulted out of the event.

“It was something he did over the summer and he reaggravated it,” Gavin said of his 149-pounder. “I’m not sure how long that’s going to take. We have to get him checked out when we get back.”

The Panthers also were without 133-pounder Vinnie Santaniello, who injured his knee and could be for an extended period of time.

“Vinnie got hurt in the Rider match,” Gavin said. “We don’t know yet. He’s going to get checked out Jan. 2. It could be a while.”

Heavyweight Dayton Pitzer didn’t wrestle in Illinois, but Gavin said that was precautionary, as the redshirt sophomore is trying to get back to full health.

“I felt good about his wins at Rider, where he wrestled three matches,” Gavin said. “He just didn’t feel comfortable going to this yet. A lot of it is that you’ve got to be ready mentally.”

Seeking clarity at 141

Redshirt freshman Anthony Santaniello has been Pitt’s starter at 141 pounds, but Hempfield Area graduate Briar Priest served as the Panthers’ scoring wrestler at the weight while Santaniello’s points did not count.

Santaniello went 3-2 at Midlands while Priest was 2-2, and Gavin isn’t sure who will be in his lineup at 141 going forward.

“We’re still trying to figure it out,” he said. “I was hoping they’d separate themselves, but they lost in the same round. Anthony was the guy, but he’s in a bit of a funk. He didn’t lose to bad guys or anything. He lost to good wrestlers, but the way he’s wrestling, we’ve got to get his confidence up. We could see both of them for a little while here.”