Wrestling Finishes With 14.5 Points at Annual Midlands Open

12/30/2003

Justin Nestor led the Panthers with four victories, including two falls.

EVANSTON, Ill. — The Pittsburgh wrestling team won 11 of its 23 individual bouts at the annual Midlands Open on the campus of Northwestern University. Junior Zachariah Doll (Quakertown, Pa./The Hill School) was the only Panther to qualify for the second day of competition but fell to Matt Ellis of Oregon State by a score of 6-1 to finish 2-2 for the tournament.

Doll went 2-1 on Monday, entering the tournament as the No. 5 seed and defeating Vinny DiGiovanni of Ohio by a score of 10-3 in the first round. Doll then picked up a decision win over Matt Klinger of Cleveland State in the second round by a count of 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Doll lost to the No. 4 seed, Ralph Everett of Hofstra, who was ranked 10th by InterMat and 12th by Amateur Wrestling News. Everett won the bout, 7-2, pushing Doll to the consolation bracket on Tuesday. The loss to Everett was Doll's first in 15 bouts in 2003-04.

Sophomore 157-pounder Justin Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) won four of his six matches on Monday to improve to 19-8 for the season. Nestor lost his first match, a 7-2 decision to James Woodall of Penn State, before reeling off four consecutive victories. Nestor's run began with a 4-0 win over Brock Wittmeyer of Penn and was followed by a pin at the 2:59 mark against Jason Effner of Cleveland State.

Another pin followed for Nestor over Kyle Bernholz of Penn at the 2:00 mark before a 2-0 sudden victory over the No. 11 seed in the tournament, Jake Yost of Chattanooga. Nestor lost a tough 6-5 decision to Robert Belville of Sacred Heart to be eliminated from the Midlands Tournament. Nestor's two falls on Monday give him eight for the season already and 21 for his career, moving him into a tie for sixth-most all-time at Pittsburgh with Perry Miller (1987-92) and Mike Moore (1990-93).

At 149 pounds, freshman Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College) won two matches before bowing ouit to Cal Ferry of Illinois by a 2-1 decision in the consolation bracket. Kocher's first match was a 10-0 major decision over Ryan Hlinak of Chicago. In the second round, he was narrowly defeated by the tournament's No. 3 seed, Trent Paulson of Iowa State, by a score of 5-3. Paulson is ranked fourth by InterMat and fifth by Amateur Wrestling News in the Dec. 16 polls. Kocher then went on to defeat Darren McKnight of Michigan State, 2-1, before losing to Ferry. Kocher is tied with Nestor for the team lead in victories with 19 after Monday's action.

Senior Josh Birt (Spokane, Wash./North Idaho JC/East Valley) was the No. 10 seed for the tournament but lost a tough 7-1 decision to J.D. Bergman of Ohio State in the first round. Birt rebounded to defeat Tony Lyssiotis of Eastern Michigan, 4-0, and the No. 9 seed, Marcus Schontube of Penn, 4-3, before losing to Joel Edwards of Penn State by an 8-4 count. Both Bergman (16th) and Schontube (14th) were ranked nationally by Amateur Wrestling News. Birt is now 12-4 for the season.

Also competing for the Panthers in the Midlands Open were Ronald Tarquinio (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny), who went 1-2 at 141 pounds as the tournament's No. 8 seed. Tarquinio is now 14-7 in 2003-04. Sophomore 174-pounder Francis Iorfido (Johnsonburg, Pa./Johnsonburg) lost both of his matches, one to the tournament's No. 6 seed, to drop to 15-5 for the year.