Jan. 19, 2012
Clarion at No. 9 PITT
Friday, January 20, 2012 • 7 p.m. ET
Fitzgerald Field House (6,798) • Pittsburgh, Pa.
MEDIA INFORMATION
Television: Watch the broadcast live on PittsburghPanthers.com. Shawn Amistade will provide the play-by-play. Amistade was a four-time national qualifier for the Panthers at 133 pounds from 1998-2002.
Live Blog/Chat: www.pittsburghpanthers.com.
Coaches: Pitt: Rande Stottlemyer, 33rd season (291-223); Clarion: Matt Dernlan, 1st season (1-4).
Series: Pitt and Clarion meet for the 43rd time in series history. The Golden Eagles lead the overall series 21-19-3.
MATCH PREVIEW
PITTSBURGH—The No. 9 ranked Pitt wrestling team (10-1) hosts Clarion (1-4) on Friday, Jan. 20 at the Fitzgerald Field House. The match is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Clarion leads the overall series against Pitt 21-19-3, but the Panthers are close to matching the Golden Eagles in wins with victories in the last 10 meetings between the teams. The Golden Eagles haven’t beaten the Panthers since 2001 and haven’t posted a win at Fitzgerald Field House since 1994.
Redshirt junior Donnie Tasser is back in the rankings at No. 33 after a 7-3 upset over Bloomsburg’s Frank Hickman, who was ranked No. 8 at the time of the match. Tasser will get another chance to knock off a top-10 opponent – and pretty much lock up the top-seed in the EWL tournament – with a potential match against No. 8 James Fleming. The Clarion junior is 16-2 this season and unbeaten in dual meets (5-0).
Redshirt junior
Matt Wilps joins Tasser in the polls at No. 4, his highest ranking of the season. Also recognized in the WrestlingReport.com poll for the Panthers are No. 15
Tyler Nauman (149), No. 15
Anthony Zanetta (125), No. 21
Shelton Mack (133), No. 23
Ethan Headlee (174) and No. 29
Tyler Wilps (165).
The Golden Eagles have four ranked wrestlers, led by No. 6 Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (165) and Fleming. Alex Thomas is No. 28 at 197 and Quintas McCorkle is No. 26 at heavyweight.
The Panthers have won 15 straight matches in the EWL, including their three matches this season (Cleveland State, Lock Haven, Bloomsburg). The last EWL defeat was a 31-8 loss to Edinboro on Feb. 20, 2009, at Edinboro. The Panthers haven’t lost an EWL match at home since falling to Edinboro 21-12 on Feb. 23, 2008.
In its three conference wins this season, Pitt has lost just four individual bouts.
Following the match with Clarion, the Panthers will have two weeks off. They will return to action with a conference match at West Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 4.
