LOCK HAVEN, Pa. — Eight of the Panthers' 14 wrestlers placed at Saturday's Mat Town Invitational at Lock Haven University, leading the team to a second-place finish. The Panthers finished with 126.5 points. Cornell placed first with a total of 156 points.

Freshman Drew Headlee (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg) and junior Zachariah Doll (Quakertown, Pa./The Hill School) earned first-place finishes in the 125-pound and 165-pound weight class, respectively.

Headlee came in to the tournament as the No. 7 seed but defeated the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds from the quarterfinals through the championship match to finish 4-0 at the Mat Town Invitational and improved his overall record in 2003-04 to 10-2. Included in Headlee's bouts were wins over InterMat's 18th-ranked wrestler at 125 pounds, Matt Smith of Penn State, and Cornell's Alejandro Alvarez, ranked 18th by Amateur Wrestling News. 

Doll was seeded first after winning his first two matches of the season in dual meets this past week. He then won all five of his matches on Saturday, including four by decision and one by medical forfeit over the No. 18-ranked wrestler, Tim Foley of Virginia. Doll is now 7-0 for the year at 165 pounds.

Other placewinners for the Panthers included Ronald Tarquinio (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny), who finished second at 141 pounds with a 3-1 mark. Tarquinio lost to the No. 1 seed and second-ranked wrestler in the country, Scott Moore of Virginia, by an 8-6 count in the finals. He is now 9-4 for the season.

Freshman Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) placed third at 149 pounds by winning his last four matches, including the bout for third place over Labe Black of Rider, who Kocher lost to in the quarterfinals. Kocher also earned a medical-forfeit victory over 10th-ranked Matthew Storniolo of Penn State. He is now 12-3 for the year with two major decision and a fall.

157-pounder Justin Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) won three of his five bouts to place seventh and improved to 10-5 for the 2003-04 year. Nestor scored two pins in the tournament, the 15th and 16th of his career to tie him with Doll and Hugh Peery (1952-54) for ninth place in Panthers' history.

Both Francis Iorfido (Johnsonburg, Pa./Johnsonburg) at 174 pounds and Josh Birt (Spokane, Wash./East Valley/North Idaho JC) at 197 pounds earned third-place finishes and finished 4-1 in the tournament. Iorfido had four decision victories to improve to 11-2 for the year and Birt had one major decision mixed in with his four wins and is now 6-2 in 2003-04.

Included in Birt's wins were two bouts with the No. 4-ranked wrestler at 197 pounds, Morgan Horner of Lock Haven. Birt won both decisions by a score of 3-1 and the second time, it came in overtime. 

The final placewinner for Pittsburgh was heavyweight Travis Shirley (West Middlesex, Pa./Kennedy Christian) with three wins and three losses for a sixth-place standing. Shirley is 10-5 this season, giving his more wins than he had in his career prior to this year. In the quarterfinals, Shirley lost a tough 9-6 decision to A.W.N.'s 15th-ranked Jeremiah Beltran of Ohio.

The Panthers will next compete in the Beast of the East Tourney in Newark, Del., on Dec. 19.