Panthers Continue to Dominate in Tournament Competition
12/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Dec. 21, 2005
CLEVELAND - The Panthers have been making a statement on the tournament circuit. A redshirt junior, Matt Kocher won his fourth tournament title of the year while Keith Gavin wrestled to his first at the Cleveland State Open last weekend.
Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) opened the tournament with three consecutive pins. In the first round, he pinned Penn State's Jon Clemens at the 5:00 mark. In round two, Kocher took down Ernie Varela of Cal Poly at the 1:41 mark, and in the quarterfinals defeated Northwestern's Dominic Marella at the 1:33 mark. Kocher's win in the semifinals came as an 11-2 major decision over Central Michigan's Tyler Grayson. He took the championship bout at 157 pounds with a 3-1 decision over Indiana's Matt Coughlin. With the win last weekend, Kocher now has four tournament titles including the Nittany Lion Open, East Stroudsburg Open and Slippery Rock Open. He stands at 29-1 for the season and 91-26 in his Pitt wrestling career.
With his win last weekend, Gavin (Factoryville, Pa./Lackawanna Trail) has placed in his last three tournaments including both the Nittany Lion Open and East Stroudsburg Open. In the first round at 174 pounds, Gavin won an 8-7 decision over Appalachian's Neal Martin and went on to defeat Hofstra's Alton Lucas with a 4-2 decision in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Gavin won 9-3, over Indiana's Trevor Perry and took his championship with a 9-2 decision over Penn State's Mike Ward. Gavin now has a record of 17-5 on the season, having earned four falls and six major decisions.
True freshman Robbie Hickman (Waretown, N.J./Southern Regional) wrestled in his first tournament of the year, compiling a 2-2 record at 133 pounds. Hickman's wins came as an 8-0 major decision over Eastern Michigan's Micah Carter and a 6-2 win over Jeremy Deopy of Kent State.
Fellow freshmen Brandon Skonieczky (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) and Mike Eckenroth (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest) finished 0-2 at 125 pounds and 2-2 at 165 pounds respectively. Eckenroth won by default over Ohio's Jacob Ison and defeated Brett Houghton of Appalachian with a score of 7-0.
Joe Ciampoli (Altoona, Pa./Altoona) wrestled at 141 pounds for the Panthers, finishing 2-1 overall. Ciampoli decisioned Cleveland State's Dan Castillo and won by an 8-0 major decision over Cal Poly's Edwin Warsh.
Also compiling a 2-1 record was redshirt freshman Dave Kapetanovich (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills/CCAC) at 165 pounds. Kapetanovich defeated two Slippery Rock opponents with an 11-8 win over Vaughn Black and a 10-5 decision over Nick Rivero.
Wrestling at 197 for Pitt was Matt Darnell (Lyndhurst, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley C.A.), finishing 1-2 in the tournament. Darnell's win came as a 3-2 decision over Adam Hohla of OUWC.
The Panthers' next competition will be the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, N.C. The two-day tournament will run from Thursday, Dec. 29, to Friday, Dec. 30. More information is to come at pittsburghpanthers.com.