Six things to know as Pitt wrestling gets started
As No. 16 Pitt prepares to open the season, here are six things to know:
The lineup
125—Colton Camacho, RS-Jr., 47-25
133— Vinnie Santaniello, RS-Fr., 3-1
141—Cole Matthews, RS-Sr., 90-27
149—Finn Solomon, RS-Fr., 16-3
157—Jared Keslar, RS-Fr., 11-4
165—Holden Heller, RS-Sr., 61-40
174—Luca Augustine, RS-So., 27-16
184—Reece Heller, RS-Jr., 52-28
197—Mac Stout, RS-Fr., 8-4
285—Dayton Pitzer, RS-Fr., 7-3
There’s a lot of experience here – Matthews is a four-time NCAA qualifier and 2022 All-American who, like Holden Heller, returns for a sixth year – but in today’s world of college wrestling, it’s a young lineup.
Santaniello’s four matches came while he was at the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School. He missed last season with an injury after transferring to Pitt.
Solomon was impressive while taking a redshirt year at N.C. State and likely will be the starter, although redshirt junior Ryan Michaels is also in the mix after going 17-5 at 141 a year ago. Michaels is coming off a broken hand and didn’t participate in wrestleoffs.
Stout and Pitzer turned in impressive campaigns last season and offer high upside, but each will face stiff competition to reach the podium as a redshirt freshman.
The schedule
There’s no CKLV, Midlands or Southern Scuffle on this season’s slate – the only tournaments scheduled are the Clarion and F&M opens – but this group will certainly be battle-tested come march.
The Panthers have a dozen dual meets scheduled against ranked opponents, including home meets with No. 3 N.C. State, No. 5 Virginia Tech, No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 13 Arizona State and No. 23 Illinois.
It’s a great time to be a season-ticket holder, as this might be the best home schedule in years. If you don’t have yours yet, you can buy them here.
Full Schedule (Not all TV/streaming options have been announced)
Nov. 5 @Clarion Open (FloWrestling)
Nov. 12 @Navy Duals (Annapolis, Md.)
vs. Navy
vs. Morgan State
vs. VMI
Nov. 19 @ Lehigh (FloWrestling)
Nov. 20 @ Maryland
Dec. 8 Illinois
Dec. 10 @Ohio State (Big Ten Network)
Dec. 18-20 @National Collegiate Duals in Nashville
vs. Cornell
vs. Iowa State
vs. Arkansas Little Rock
Jan. 5 @F&M Open
Jan. 12 Oklahoma State
Jan. 14 @Iowa State
Jan. 21 Arizona State
Jan. 26 NC State
Feb. 2 @Duke
Feb. 9 @North Carolina
Feb. 16 Virginia Tech
Feb. 22 Rider
Feb. 23 Virginia
March 10 ACC Championships @North Carolina (ACC Network)
March 21-23 NCAA Championships @Kansas City, Mo. (ESPN)
The opener
Most of the Panthers will be in action for the first time on Sunday at the Clarion Open, which will be streamed on Flo. Twenty Pitt wrestlers are expected to participate, including most of the starters.
The tournament looks to be more difficult this year with the addition of Ohio State
Matthews and Holden Heller won’t wrestle because they’re sixth-year seniors, and, at this point, coach Keith Gavin prefers them to be healthy and rested as opposed to battle-tested.
Augustine just got cleared to resume wrestling after an offseason injury and won’t be in the lineup at Clarion. Pitzer also will skip the event, primarily because Pitt doesn’t have a backup heavyweight.
Weighty issue
Speaking of Pitzer, one of the biggest questions this year is if he’ll be able to maintain a higher weight throughout the course of the season. He showed flashes of brilliance last year, but also saw his weight dip as low as 215, meaning he could be giving up as much as 70 pounds in some bouts.
The plan since his recruitment had been to redshirt him as a freshman and let him add weight to his frame, which should be able to support it. The issue – aside from the good problem of him performing so well that there was a push from the fanbase to pull his redshirt – was that his metabolism is so fast that he has trouble keeping weight on. (Wish I had that problem!)
Pitzer did redshirt and stayed off the mat for most of the offseason, concentrating on adding muscle. It seems to have worked – he’s now around 235 pounds and has reached as high as 240.
Whether or not he’ll be able to hold that weight over the course of a five-month season remains to be seen.
The rules
Forget about shouting TWOOOOOOOOOO! for a takedown.
This NCAA season brings some of the biggest rule changes we’ve seen, including the change to a three-point takedown.
The switch is intended to promote more offensive attacks – although the reverse might end up being true, as the risk of losing a match because of one bad shot is now much higher.
That’s the most noteworthy change, but not the only one. The NCAA has now added a three-point nearfall to go along with two- and four-point varieties. And the dreaded hand-touch takedowns have gone away as well.
Video review has been tweaked to allow officials the authority to confirm or overturn all calls (or missed calls) during a challenged sequence. That sequence is now defined as the time from the alleged error until the match is, or should have been, stopped by the referee.
Other rule changes, per the NCAA:
- The first medical forfeit of a tournament will count as a loss on the wrestler's record. An exception will be if the medical forfeit occurs immediately after an injury default in a tournament.
- The penalty for a delayed coach's video review challenge request will be changed to a loss of the video review. Previously, it was a control-of-mat violation and 1-point deduction from the team total.
- Any true placement matches conducted in an event will not alter the final team score.
- Officials can let action continue after penalizing an illegal hold and not require a stoppage after imminent scoring finishes when the safety of wrestlers is not in danger.
- The current mandatory five-second count for the waist and ankle ride will be expanded to include all situations in which the top wrestler grasps the bottom wrestler's ankle.
- Weigh-in times across all competition types will be standardized to two hours or sooner before the start of competition. Previously, tournament weigh-ins were two hours or sooner, but dual meet weigh-ins were permitted only one hour or sooner before the start of competition.
The impact
What will all those changes – particularly the takedown change – mean for Pitt this season? Not much, according to Coach Gavin, who saw the new rules in action for the first time during the annual Blue-Gold Match.
“I feel like we’ll get a better feel for it this weekend,” he said Friday. “It didn’t really impact any match during the Blue-Gold match.
“I think the 3-point takedown is what it is. I don’t think it was necessary, but I don’t think it will change much. The good guys are still going to be the good guys.”
In theory, it could hurt someone like Matthews, who sometimes showed limited offensive attacks but won matches on a combination of escapes and a riding time point.
“The flip side is a guy like Cole, who is hard to take down, if he gets one takedown, now he’s really hard to score on,” Gavin said. “It could really benefit him as well. If he goes up 3-0, he’s going to be really hard to beat.”
As last year’s NCAA tournament proved, Matthews needs to be more offensive in order to win a title.
“I think that looking at it last year, regardless of what the rules are, he needs to get more action on his feet,” Gavin said. “The margin of error was too small.”