Pitzer turns heads, raises questions with Lehigh victory
Keith Gavin knows how talented Dayton Pitzer is, but the Pitt coach wasn’t sure how his stud freshman heavyweight would fare against a top-20 opponent who outweighed him by 50 pounds or more.
Safe to say that is no longer a concern.
Pitzer dominated No. 17 Nathan Taylor in a 10-1 victory to clinch Pitt’s 22-12 win over Lehigh.
“Dayton’s a savage,” Gavin said. “We’ve seen that in practice, but you never know until you get out there under the lights. He’s a really tough kid. He weighed 217 pounds today at weigh-ins (and Taylor weighed 270).”
Gavin’s tentative plan was to redshirt Pitzer this year, even after he beat starter Jake Slinger 11-1 in the Blue-Gold match, and allow the freshman to pack pounds onto his 6-foot-4½-inch frame.
The Panthers will benefit from a new NCAA rule that allows wrestlers to compete in five events for the team and still redshirt. The prevailing thought was that Gavin would save Pitzer for ACC duals against N.C. State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina and perhaps Virginia while also entering him in the Midlands Tournament, but Gavin said prior to the Lehigh match that he wanted to see how the three-time state champion would fare against Taylor.
Pitzer scored a takedown in the opening minute, added two more in the ensuing periods and thoroughly controlled Taylor, with more than 4 minutes of riding time.
The debut impressed Lehigh coach Pat Santoro, who was honored before the match for his induction into the Pitt Hall of Fame.
“That kid’s really good,” said Santoro, who was a two-time NCAA champ at Pitt. “He’s pretty special. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull his redshirt. I don’t think they want to – I think they want to get him bigger – but he’s really good. He’s going to be a podium guy if he wrestles this year.”
So what does Pitzer think about redshirting this year? The soft-spoken and extremely humble freshman didn’t express much of an opinon on the matter.
“I trust my coaches and trust my teammates. I love my coaches, love my teammates. It’s just one of those things – I know he’ll do the best thing for me. I’m ready whenever. I’m just excited to keep practicing and just getting better.”
Gavin said there is no rush to pull Pitzer’s redshirt.
“This rule is nice,” Gavin said of the chance to make five appearances. “We can play with it a little bit. We’ll do that. No need to make a decision yet.”
Panthers’ 197-pounder Nino Bonaccorsi practices with Pitzer on a daily basis, so the heavyweight’s impressive debut didn’t surprise him.
“We all knew he could do that,” Bonaccorsi said. “We all know he’s ready, but I think that was good for him, to feel it, to be on the mat for a real match. It’s not a shock for us. We know he’s great.”
Coming up big: Pitzer capped an excellent performance from the Panthers upperweights, as Pitt won the final five bouts to rally from a 12-6 deficit that came after Josh Humphreys pinned Dazjon Casto at 157 pounds. That fall, combined with Connor McMonagle’s upset victory over Micky Phillippi at 133, put the Mountain Hawks in position to hand the Panthers their second loss in as many nights. But rather than split the final four bouts, as they did in Friday night’s 18-16 loss to Maryland, the Panthers hit their stride.
“We wrestled with more passion tonight,” Gavin said. “The guys looked like they were excited to be out there. I don’t know if we would have been able to wrestle that way if we didn’t lose to Maryland Friday night.”
Twice as nice: Bonaccorsi arguably had the best weekend of any Panther, as he beat No. 13 Jaxon Smith 8-2 on Friday night, then handled No. 8 Michael Beard in a 10-4 win on Saturday.
“He wrestled two really good guys, especially Beard, who is a guy that has proven he can get on the podium,” Gavin said. “Those matches weren’t remotely close. Nino dominated. Nino’s a really good wrestler, and when he’s present in the match like that, you can just see it. He picks those guys apart. Great weekend for him.”
Gavin told Panther-Lair that the weekend was a bit like an NCAA Tournament preview for Bonaccorsi, with ranked opponents on back-to-back days.
“It’s great to get those good matches during the season,” Bonaccorsi said. “You always get them with the ACC because it’s so tough, but to get those out-of-conference matches, especially with two really good guys, it’s a confidence builder. That’s the realest competition because those are the guys you are going to have to beat when it matters.”
Bonaccorsi’s pace wore down Beard.
“My whole thing is really just wrestling whistle to whistle,” he said. “You’re going to get seven minutes of hard wrestling from me. Whether you can withstand that or not is up to you.”
To Heller and back: Brothers Holden and Reece Heller combined to go 4-0 on the weekend. Their funky styles and penchant for going for big moves are quickly making them crowd favorites.
“Those guys can just wrestle in any position,” Gavin said. “That’s something that we’re working to get them to believe in hardcore – no matter what happens out there, you can come out on top. Both of them did that tonight.”
Rebounding: Colton Camacho and Luca Augustine each bounced back from a costly loss on Saturday night.
Camacho was up 4-1 on No. 26 Braxton Brown on Friday night but got reversed and pinned in the second period in a match that was pivotal to the outcome. On Saturday night, the redshirt junior beat No. 16 Carter Bailey 4-2.
“Right out of the gate, Colton wrestled great,” Gavin said. “That’s a good wrestler that he beat. I’m super proud of him. The only points he gave up was when he tried to pin the guy, in the cradle. You’ve got to respect that.”
Augustine suffered a tough loss on Friday. He had two takedowns called back in a 3-1 sudden victory loss to No. 32 Dominic Solis. He put that behind him on Saturday night in dominating No. 31 Jake Logan by an 11-6 score.
“We talked about his match (against Maryland),” Gavin said. “We wanted more offensive output. He’s in great shape. His cardio is one of his biggest strengths. That paid dividends tonight. He really put the pressure on that kid and opened the match up toward the end.”
Rough starts: It wasn’t a great weekend for everyone in blue and gold.
No. 11 Dazjon Casto blew a 7-1 lead to Michael North on Friday night in a 10-8 sudden-victory loss. He got out to an early lead on No. 9 Josh Humphreys on Saturday night before the Lehigh wrestler reversed and pinned him in the second.
No. 8 Micky Phillippi dropped a 5-3 decision to No. 22 Connor McGonagle on Saturday night.
Hailing Pitt men: Santoro and his former Pitt coach, the late Rande Stottlemyer, were honored prior to the dual.
Gavin spoke about what the two men meant to him.
“Rande was the one who gave me a chance to come here and wrestle,” he said of the man who recruited him to Pitt and coached him to a national title. “To be honest, I wasn’t very good when I first got here, but you wouldn’t know it by the way that he treated me. That’s just who he was. He didn’t give up on people. If I didn’t have someone like that, I don’t know if I’d be in this situation now.”
He also looked up to Santoro, who was the last Panther to win an NCAA title (in 1989) before Gavin did it in 2008.
“Pat was the guy that did what I was trying to do,” Gavin said. “We got to know each other quite a bit over the years, and he’s one of my favorite peoplein the sport. He’s one of the most respected guys in the sport.”