From the Vault: Pitt Wrestling On This Day
The Road to a National Championship
On this day in 2008 Pitt Wrestling took down Eastern Wrestling League rivals Lock Haven. All-American Wrestler, and now Head Coach, Keith Gavin powered through his bout to secure a big fall on the way to a duel win and eventually a national championship.
Pitt's success on the night was guided largely by its three All-Americans: Drew Headlee, Matt Kocher and Keith Gavin, who were all victorious and accounted for 60% of the team's production. "It was just a typical performance from those three tonight," Stottlemyer remarked about the Panther trio. "They're a big reason why we are where we are as far as our national ranking. They really carry our team."
Headlee started off strong, taking his opponent down in the first period en route to a 12-0 major decision, in which Headlee was awarded a point due to stalling violations on two separate occasions.
Kocher also claimed a major decision against a Bald Eagle grappler. The nation's No. 5-ranked 157-pounder pummeled Lock Haven's John Mangini, allowing him only five points on escapes, and masterfully executed an offensive attack that included four takedowns, two near falls, a reversal and well over a minute of riding time.
Gavin's bout proved to be arguably the most important of the night. Pitt held a slim 11-10 advantage on the scoreboard when the nation's top wrestler locked up with Lock Haven's Mike Metzger. Gavin like Headlee and Kocher, surged out to an sizable lead, but refused to relent and put Metzger on his back with just 29 seconds to go in the bout.
"A lot of guys would have been happy with the major decision, but Keith wanted more for himself and his team and he certainly came up big again for us tonight."Head Coach Rande Stottlemyer
Just over two months later Gavin was at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis battling Michigan's Steve Luke for the second time that year. Gavin spent the whole year ranked as the top ranked wrestler and had it put to the test by Luke, who Gavin only narrowly defeated in Las Vegas earlier that year.
Gavin captured Pitt's first Wrestling national championship since 1989 and added a 16th national championship to the Pitt program, ending the year undefeated.