Nov. 16, 2001

PITTSBURGH-Things started out well for the No. 17 Pittsburgh wrestling team as it won the first two of ten total matches at No. 8 Lehigh on Thursday evening. That would be all the victories the Panthers would gain, however, and the Mountain Hawks scored a 29-6 victory at Grace Hall in Bethlehem, Pa.

The contest started at heavyweight and redshirt sophomore Jacob Lininger (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) scored a 9-6 win over Lehigh's Joe Sahl to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead.

Redshirt freshman Mike May (Derry Area, Pa./Derry Area) was able to double the Panthers' lead when he upset Mario Stuart, who came into the match ranked 12th by InterMat in the 125-lb. weight class. May got his first career dual match win by a 4-3 score.

The Mountain Hawks were able to reel off eight straight wins after the May victory, including two major decisions and a pin. In the 133-lb. match, No. 18 Shawn Amistade (Washington, Pa./Trinity) was upset by the Mountain Hawks' Dan Hyman, 3-1. Tommy Rohn got the win for Lehigh at 141 over Blaise Mucci (Blairsville, Pa./Derry Area) by a 14-6 margin, good enough for a major decision, which he earned with a riding time point.

Jim Mangan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson), who was filling in for the injured Justin Giovinco (Norristown, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh), was pinned by Lehigh's Mike Pirozzolla, ranked 18th, at 4:48 in the 149 lb. match to give the Mountain Hawks six more points and a 13-6 lead.

Lehigh got a victory at 157 lbs., when Nate Cote defeated Panther freshman Donald Rush (Avella, Pa./Avella) by a score of 9-4. In the first of three matches between top 20 wrestlers, the Mountain Hawks' No. 4 Chris Vitale edged Pittsburgh's No. 9 Carl Fronhofer (Salem, N.Y./Salem), 7-5.

Up 19-6 with three bouts remaining, the Mountain Hawks didn't let up and scored 10 more points to account for the final margin. At 174, Brad Dillon got a major decision over the Panthers' Matt Catullo (Oakmont, Pa./Riverview). In the final two matches, 184 and 197 lbs., the Mountain Hawks' ranked wrestlers got the best of the Panthers as No. 10 Rob Rohn beat No. 14 Dan Stine (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury), 12-5, and No. 3 Jon Trenge topped Pittsburgh's No. 14 David Sandberg (Spokane, Wash./North Central), 7-5.

The loss was Pittsburgh's first of the season and fifth straight against the Mountain Hawks. The Panthers will return home to face Virginia Military Institute in the home opener on Monday, Nov. 19 at Fitzgerald Field House. The matches start at 7:30 p.m.