BETHLEHEM, Pa. – No. 17 Lehigh captured the first two bouts to take an early 7-0 lead but No. 23 Pittsburgh answered with six consecutive wins by decision on the way to a 21-12 win over the Mountain Hawks in Lehigh's dual meet opener in front of a capacity crowd Sunday inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.
True first-year
Luke Stanich (125), deferred first-year
Ryan Crookham (133) and junior
Michael Beard (197) delivered wins for the Mountain Hawks, with Crookham and Beard providing bonus points, but Lehigh was unable to capture its second straight dual-opening victory.
"The won every match they were favored in," Lehigh head coach
Pat Santoro said. "We knew we needed to steal two, and we didn't. We wrested hard but we weren't very offensive. You can't 'hope' that you're going to win. We were so aggressive those first two weekends and today we were content to stand around and try to get through the period.
"If you're going to lose, go down on our terms," he continued. "Keep present on the mat and just go wrestle."
Stanich earned the nod at 125 and took on Pitt's Colton Camacho, who built a 5-0 lead early in the second period before Stanich answered with an escape and takedown to trail by just one after two periods. In the third, Stanich earned an early escape, and then was able to grab Camacho's lower legs with about 20 seconds remaining and rode out for the 8-5 decision.
Crookham started fast against a ranked foe, Vinnie Santaniello, scoring a pair of first period takedowns to lead 6-1 after one. He added an escape and takedown in the second period, plus 1:05 riding time advantage to claim an 11-2 major decision, putting the Mountain Hawks up 7-0.
With
Malyke Hines out of the lineup at 141, sophomore
Carter Bailey faced seventh-ranked Cole Matthews. The Panther All-American secured a 7-3 decision to get Pitt on the board, behind takedowns in each of the first two periods and a second period escape.
Matt Repos was the second Lehigh true first-year to take the mat as he squared off with Finn Solomon at 149. Repos scored the bout's opening takedown and led 4-2 after two periods, but Solomon escaped early in the third and was awarded a stalling point late in the period to send the match to overtime tied 4-4. In sudden victory, Solomon took Repos to his back for a takedown and four-point near fall to win 11-4.
At 157, junior
Luca Frinzi stepped in for
Max Brignola but came up on the short end of an 8-6 score against Jared Keslar. Keslar scored takedowns in the second ad third periods to offset Frinzi's late third period takedown to get back within two. Pitt's third straight win put the Panthers up 9-7 at intermission.
Pittsburgh (2-2) continued its run in the second half of the dual with Holden Heller defeating junior
Jake Logan 7-1 at 165. Logan did most of the shooting, getting to Heller's legs multiple times, but Heller converted takedowns in the first and third periods.
The Panthers' Luca Augustine delivered Pitt's fifth consecutive win, scoring a 6-2 decision over sophomore
Thayne Lawrence at 174. The only takedown of the bout was scored by Augustine in the third period.
Pitt's six-bout run concluded at 184 as Reece Heller used a late third period takedown to defeat first-year
Caden Rogers 4-1.
Beard stopped the run with a dominant 18-3 technical fall over Mac Stout. Beard scored a trio of first period takedowns and added a takedown, a stalling point and a two-point near fall in the second, before ending the match at 5:29 with a takedown in the third.
The final bout of the dual matched top-15 heavyweights
Nathan Taylor and Dayton Pitzer. Pitt's Pitzer scored the only points of the bout with a second period reversal. Taylor chose neutral in the third and despite several quality shots was unable to record the go-ahead score as Pitzer claimed a 2-0 decision.
Gallery: (11-19-2023) Wrestling vs. Pitt, 11/19/23
At intermission of Sunday's match, Lehigh welcomed back members of its four-peat EIWA championship teams from 2017-18 through 2020-21. The Mountain Hawks captured four consecutive team titles giving Lehigh a league-best 38 EIWA team championships.
The Mountain Hawks will be back in action on Sunday, Dec. 3 when they visit No. 1 Penn State at 2 p.m. The match will be televised on Big Ten Network, with audio coverage on Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM in Easton.
The 2023-24 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
No. 23 Pitt 21, No 17 Lehigh 12
125 –
Luke Stanich (Lehigh) dec. Colton Camacho (Pitt) 8-5
133 –
Ryan Crookham (Lehigh) major dec. Vinnie Santaniello (Pitt) 11-2
141 – Cole Matthews (Pitt) dec.
Carter Bailey (Lehigh) 7-3
149 – Finn Solomon (Pitt) dec.
Matt Repos (Lehigh) 11-4, sv
157 – Jared Keslar (Pitt) dec.
Luca Frinzi (Lehigh) 8-6
165 – Holden Heller (Pitt) dec.
Jake Logan (Lehigh) 7-1
174 – Luca Augustine (Pitt) dec.
Thayne Lawrence (Lehigh) 6-2
184 – Reece Heller (Pitt) dec.
Caden Rogers (Lehigh) 4-1
197 –
Michael Beard (Lehigh) tech fall Mac Stout (Pitt) 18-3, 5:29
285 – Dayton Pitzer (Pitt) dec.
Nathan Taylor (Lehigh) 2-0
Attendance – 1,746
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