May 4, 2006

EVANSTON, Ill. - Four Pitt wrestlers traveled to the FILA Cadet and University National Championships hosted by Northwestern University. The tournament ran from April 27-30 and featured both Greco-Roman and Freestyle competitions. Pitt wrestlers participated in the collegiate division of Freestyle, earning two spots among the nation's finest.

Freshman Ryan Bosso (Pequea, Pa./Penn Manor) placed seventh in the 55kg division. He lost his first match with a pin at 1:52 from Nick Fanthorpe of the Cyclone Wrestling Club. Bosson went on to win the next two, defeating the Matrat's Seth Norman and Doug Hoover who wrestled unattached. Bosso lost his fourth match to Tim Kephart of the Tiger Wrestling Club by a pin at the 1:47 mark. However, he went on to win the seventh-place bout when Robbie Vaccaro of the East Islip Warriors injury defaulted.

Junior Drew Headlee (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg) finished 2-0 in the tournament at 60 kg. He won his first match against Jim Comfort of the University of Illnois and went on to defeat West Point Wrestling Club's Fernando Martinez. Headlee then injury defaulted two matches against opponents Mike Rowe of the Sunkist Kids and Kevin Vinh of Lehigh.

At 74 kg, junior Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) finished fifth overall with a 6-2 tournament record. He won his first three matches, defeating Phil Meinert of the Minnesota Storm, Stryder Davis of the Orange Crush and Trevor Stewart of The A-TEAM. Kocher dropped his fourth bout the Matt Gentry of the Sunkist Kids. He went on to win two more, pinning Ohio International's Keegan Miller at the 1:08 mark and the Wu-Tang Clan Wrestling Club's Donny Ooton at the 1:26 mark. In his next bout, he faced teammate Keith Gavin for the second time this season. In the last competition, Gavin was victorious, but this time Kocher was able to turn it around in his favor going 1-0, 1-0. He then went on to lose his second match of the tournament to Gentry before clinching a fifth-place victory when Brian Stith of the Sunkist Kids injury defaulted.

Junior Keith Gavin (Factoryville, Pa./Lackawanna Trail) also competed in the 74kg division, winning his first four bouts. He defeated Vince Bertucci of the Matrats, Scott Loescher of Stanford, Lloyd Rogers of the Chattanooga Takedown Club and Tyler Sherfey of the Bronco Wrestling Club. Gavin then lost his first bout to Travis Paulson of the Cyclone WC by a close 1-0, 0-1, 1-0. He lost his final bout of the tournament to teammate Matt Kocher.