No. 18 Pittsburgh (3-1) staved off a No. 22 Maryland wrestling (1-1) upset attempt, escaping with a 21-16 win in a match that was decided in the heavyweight round.
An unusual development shook up the Terps’ roster before the match had even begun: Braxton Brown, the 125-pound redshirt sophomore who had been starting in the opening round of dual meets for more than a year, had weighed in Monday morning at 133 pounds. The news meant that redshirt sophomore Tommy Capul would get his first ever start in the 125-pound category.
Head coach Alex Clemsen would not directly comment on why Brown weighed in at 133 pounds Monday morning, nor did he confirm whether the weight reclassing was intentional.
“He wouldn’t have weighed in at 133 if I didn’t intend it,” head coach Alex Clemsen said.
Brown fought in his first-ever 133-pound bout against Pitt’s redshirt freshman Vinnie Santaniello. Brown’s move of choice against Santaniello was lifting him off the ground, which he did four times. On three of those occasions, he threw Santaniello to the floor, after which he received a caution from the officials. He won the decision 6-3.
“We’ve been working a lot on third period type wrestling and making sure I’m not gassing out in the third period,” Brown said.
Redshirt sophomore Tommy Capul staved off a fall from redshirt sophomore Colton Camacho in the 125-pound fight, but after three four-count near falls and a pair of takedowns, Camacho ended the fight after two rounds scoring a near fall for the Panthers.
Sophomore Kal Miller opened his 141-pound bout against redshirt senior Cole Matthews with a takedown and a four-count near-fall, sending the Pavillion crowd into a frenzy. After a second period that saw so little action it earned Miller a stalling penalty (minus a tear that appeared in the lower back of Matthews’ singlet), Miller scored another takedown. Miller earned a major decision against Matthews 12-4, putting the Terps in the lead.
149-pound Ethen Miller got a tough fight out of redshirt freshman Finn Solomon. Miller scored a pair of takedowns to Solomon’s one, but the 7-3 decision does not tell the story of the fight. Solomon had Miller literally standing on his head for much of the third period, with the Kansas City native grasping at Solomon’s ankles to keep his shoulders off the mat.
157-pound redshirt senior Michael North racked up Maryland’s fourth consecutive bout victory over the Panthers with a 4-2 decision over redshirt freshman Jared Keslar. North kept the fight in a relative stalemate after scoring a takedown against Keslar, negating his takedown attempts to stay in the lead.
Panthers 165-pound redshirt fifth-year senior Holden Heller broke the Terps’ win streak with a technical fall victory over redshirt sophomore Gaven Bell. Heller was favored to win the bout over Bell, who started in place of the injured redshirt sophomore John Martin Best.
174-pound junior Dom Solis did not fare much better against Panthers redshirt sophomore Luca Augustine, though the fight ended in a regular decision 5-3. Solis looked to be mounting a comeback in the third period, but those hopes were dashed with a stalemate that nearly turned into a near-fall for Augustine. The Panthers tied the match with the decision.
The Panthers retook the lead in the 184-pound bout between redshirt senior Reece Heller and redshirt junior Chase Mielnik. The effort from Mielnik to keep the Terps’ deficit down from five to four ultimately fell short when the clock expired with Heller controlling ride time and leading 19-5. Mielnik chose the down position in the third, hoping an escape could reduce Heller’s victory to a major decision.
Following the technical fall, the Terps needed a victory of some kind for any hope of winning the match, and redshirt sophomore Jaxon Smith delivered. The Terps 197-pound starter gained the 8-2 decision over redshirt freshman Mac Stout to put the Terps in position to win the match with any quality victory.
The match came down to the heavyweight bout between graduate student Seth Nevills and redshirt freshman Dayton Pitzer, and Nevills fell just short to Pitt heavyweight. Pitzer scored a reversal on Nevills in the early second period after a scoreless first frame, which Nevills scored right back.
Nevills had riding time advantage in the third period and chose the bottom to add to his lead with an escape. But he only escaped with two seconds left in the third period, giving Pitzer insurmountable riding time advantage and costing him the bout 4-3 and ending the match 21-16 in favor of the Panthers.
Following their first loss of the season, the Terps will travel next to the Cliff Keen Vegas International as individual wrestlers.
