March 14, 2007

PITTSBURGH - After placing in the top of their weight classes at the EWL conference tournament, four Pitt wrestlers will head to Detroit this week for the NCAA Championships. Held from March 15 through the 17th at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the tournament will be streamed on ESPN360 via the station's website with the championship finals broadcasting live on ESPN.

Pitt has three seeded competitors entering this weekend. No. 2 Keith Gavin (Factoryville, Pa./Lackawanna Trail) will compete at 174 pounds. He has a 24-3 record this season with his only losses against the No. 1 and 3 seeds. Both Drew Headlee (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg) and Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) are No. 11 seeds. Headlee will compete at 133 pounds, and Kocher will represent the Panthers in the 157-pound weight class. At 165 pounds, the Panthers have Sean Richmond (Emmaus, Pa./Easton) wrestling.

At 174 pounds, Gavin will first wrestle Oregon's Ronnie Lee. If he wins that bout, he'll compete against Joshua Patterson of Binghamton, Matthew Maciag of Wisconsin or John Heleniak of Millersville. Gavin defeated Maciag earlier this season with a 6-4 sudden victory. He's 11-3 against NCAA qualifiers and 4-1 against anyone in his portion of the bracket. Gavin could face No. 3 Steve Luke of Michigan should both continue to advance. Head-to-head, they've split the series this year. Luke won a 6-4 decision at the Cornell Body Bar, and Gavin picked up the 6-4 sudden victory in Las Vegas. The No. 1 seed in the tournament is Missouri's Ben Askren, the reigning NCAA champion. Gavin is 0-2 against Askren who is notorious for fast pins. Still, in a field of 36 competitors, he's wrestled 10 of them and has succeeded. This will be Gavin's second appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Pitt's Headlee is a returning All-America honoree at 133 pounds. In 2005, he placed eighth in the NCAA tournament. This weekend, he'll compete in a bracket with nine former All-America wrestlers. Headlee is 9-7 against NCAA qualifiers and has wrestled the No. 1 and 2 seeds earlier this year. In his first bout, he'll take on Wisconsin's Zach Tanelli. The winner of that match will go up against either No. 6 Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly or Cory Vom Baur of Wyoming. Headlee won a 3-1 decision against Vasquez earlier this season. In the bottom of the bracket, he could potentially face No. 2 Matt Valenti, a wrestler he lost a 9-5 decision to in Las Vegas. This is going to be Headlee's second appearance at nationals as he looks to become the 16th wrestler in school history to earn All-America honors twice.

Kocher doesn't have an easy road ahead at 157 pounds, but it may help that he's in the lower half of the bracket. He is one of 38 wrestlers in school history to qualify for the NCAA Championships two times or more. Kocher's 9-6 against NCAA qualifiers and 7-2 against wrestlers in his portion of the bracket. To his advantage, he's defeated No. 3 James Strouse of Hofstra by a 3-2 decision and lost to No. 2 Arizona State's Brian Stith by a close 4-2 sudden victory. In his opening bout he'll wrestle Lehigh's David Nakasone. The two didn't go head-to-head in this year's dual meet as Kocher was injured. The winner of that bout will take on either Jarrett Hostetter of Millersville or No. 6 Brandon Becker of Indiana. Should Kocher progress through the tournament, he could potentially face Stith again to compete for a spot in the championship finals.

At 165 pounds, Richmond will be making his first appearance in the NCAA tournament. He'll be wrestling No. 4 Travis Paulson of Iowa State in his opening bout. The winner will wrestle either Roger Smith-Bergsrud of Illinois or Bryan Tice of Fullerton. Richmond is 0-4 against NCAA qualifiers this season but has battled to a 21-12 overall record and a second-place finish in the EWL tournament.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Thursday, March 15
10 a.m.........Session 1 (Pigtails and First Round)
5:30 p.m.....Session 2 (Prelims and Wrestlebacks)

Friday, March 16
10 a.m.........Session 3 (Quarterfinals and Wrestlebacks)
6 p.m...........Session 4 (Semifinals and Wrestlebacks)

Saturday, March 17
9 a.m...........Session 5 (Wrestlebacks; 3rd, 5th, 7th Place)
7 p.m...........Session 6 (Championship Finals)

CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE
Televised Championship Finals: ESPN
Live Web Streaming: ESPN360 (www.espn360.com)
Live Bracket Updates: NCAAsports.com
Live Text Coverage: www.intermatwrestle.com