Pittsburgh's Drew Headlee Named EWL Wrestler of the Week

12/2/2003

The freshman 125-pounder won all four of his matches en route to a first-place finish at the Mat Town Invitational on Saturday.

PITTSBURGH — In just his first season with the Panthers, Drew Headlee has earned the respect of several wrestling publications and was chosen as the Eastern Wrestling League Wrestler of the Week by Allen Brown and Bruce Closson of WrestlingReport.com.

Headlee (Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg) won all four of his bouts at this past weekend's Mat Town Invitational at Lock Haven University to win the 125-pound weight class. After an 11-2 major decision over Mike Lauff of Slippery Rock, Headlee pinned the No. 2 seed and 18th-ranked wrestler in the country, Alejandro Alvarez of Cornell, at the 3:40 mark in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Headlee defeated another nationally ranked wrester, Matt Smith of Penn State, 8-7, to advance to the finals against Adam Smith of the Nittany Lions.

In the championship match, Headlee scored the bout's only two points to improve to 10-2 in his freshman season with the Panthers. His only two losses have come to 10th-ranked Mark Moos of Michigan and 12th-ranked Mario Stuart of Lehigh. In addition to his two wins over ranked opponents at the Mat Town Invitational, Headlee also defeated 15th-ranked Tom Clum of Wisconsin at the Michigan State Open.

Headlee has four falls and one major decision win, scoring bonus points in five of his 10 victories. WrestlingReport.com has Headlee ranked 26th in the nation in its Nov. 18 listing.