BETHLEHEM, Pa.—The Pitt wrestling team went into Grace Hall and defeated No. 17 Lehigh on Sunday afternoon by a 21-12 scoreline thanks to seven individual bout wins.
In the annual in-state wrestling rivalry between Pitt and Lehigh, the No. 23 Panthers (3-1) beat the Mountain Hawks (0-1) for the second consecutive season.
Lehigh won the first two matches of the dual to lead 7-0, but Pitt responded with six consecutive wins to pull ahead and clinch victory in the matchup.
No. 7 Cole Matthews at 141 pounds started the surge for the Panthers before No. 24 Finn Solomon at 149 came from behind in his bout to win in dramatic fashion in a key contest.
Jared Keslar held on to win at 157 pounds before No. 10 Holden Heller at 165 and No. 21 Luca Augustine at 174 won their bouts comfortably to give Pitt a growing lead in the dual.
In a tight match at 184 pounds, No. 17 Reece Heller's takedown in the final seconds essentially secured the dual win for the Panthers. No. 13 Dayton Pitzer at heavyweight also earned a nice individual win over No. 11 Nathan Taylor to complete a successful afternoon for Pitt in Bethlehem.
"We're really focused on how we compete right now, and I thought we had a better attitude today than we did last Sunday against Navy," Pitt head coach Keith Gavin said. "It's important to see that progress. We won a few toss-ups today, and we need to keep developing our mentality and moving forward."
The Panthers have a quick turnaround and another tough test on Monday night at Maryland. No. 23 Pitt will face the Terrapins (1-0) in an enticing ACC-Big Ten dual at 7:30 p.m. at XFINITY Center Pavilion.
The Pitt-Maryland dual in College Park will stream a broadcast online via B1G+, which requires a subscription. Follow @Pitt_WRES on the X app for updates from the dual.
No. 23 Pitt 21, No. 17 Lehigh 12
125: Luke Stanich (Lehigh) dec. Colton Camacho (Pitt), 8-5 (Lehigh leads, 3-0)
133: No. 5 Ryan Crookham (Lehigh) maj. dec. No. 13 Vinnie Santaniello (Pitt), 11-2 (Lehigh leads, 7-0)
141: No. 7 Cole Matthews (Pitt) dec. Carter Bailey (Lehigh), 7-3 (Lehigh leads, 7-3)
149: No. 24 Finn Solomon (Pitt) dec. Matt Repos (Lehigh), 11-4 SV (Lehigh leads, 7-6)
157: Jared Keslar (Pitt) dec. Luca Frinzi (Lehigh), 8-6 (Pitt leads, 9-7)
165: No. 10 Holden Heller (Pitt) dec. No. 32 Jake Logan (Lehigh), 7-1 (Pitt leads, 12-7)
174: No. 21 Luca Augustine (Pitt) dec. Thayne Lawrence (Lehigh), 6-2 (Pitt leads, 15-7)
184: No. 17 Reece Heller (Pitt) dec. Caden Rogers (Lehigh), 4-1 (Pitt leads, 18-7)
197: No. 11 Michael Beard (Lehigh) tech fall No. 18 Mac Stout (Pitt), 18-3 (Pitt leads, 18-12)
285: No. 13 Dayton Pitzer (Pitt) dec. No. 11 Nathan Taylor (Lehigh), 2-0 (Pitt wins, 21-12)