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Pitt is the Proud Host of the 2008 EWL Championships
Two Pitt wrestlers came home from last year's conference meet hosted by Cleveland State as EWL champions, marking the first time since the 2004 season that the team had accomplished such a feat. Drew Headlee captured the 133-pound title, and Keith Gavin earned the 174-pound victory. Pitt had two other finalists, Matt Kocher and Sean Richmond, who both recorded second-place finishes. All four competitors qualified to represent the university at the national tournament.
Pitt finished fourth in the team competition with 95.50 points. The previous three seasons, the Panthers captured third-place finishes in the league tournament. Winning the competition was Edinboro with 113.00 points. In second was West Virginia with 104.50 points, and in third was Lock Haven with 98.00 points.
Pitt's first finalist was at 133 pounds where Headlee faced West Virginia's Mark Anderson. In Pitt's dual meet with the Mountaineers, Headlee won a 4-2 decision over Anderson. The two were scoreless in the first period when Headlee scored on an escape and takedown in the second and proceeded to put Anderson on his back. With a pin at the 4:18 mark, Headlee became the 26th Panther in school history to win an EWL title. With the victory, Headlee earned his first trip to the NCAA Championships since the 2005 season when he earned All-America honors.
At 157 pounds, Kocher faced Lock Haven's Seth Martin. The familiar foes split their two previous matches during the 2007 season, with each wrestler tallying one win. Kocher pinned Martin at the WVU Open, and Martin evened the score at the dual meet in the Fitzgerald Field House. Martin was the first to score at the conference meet, earning two on a takedown. Kocher came back with an escape to cut Martin's lead to one. Another takedown gave Martin the 4-1 lead heading into the second period, and he added a fifth point with an escape. Kocher responded with a takedown to put the bout at 5-3. Martin stretched his lead to three points after another escape and went on to score two more to pull away, 8-3, heading into the final period. The third period ended witout any scoring and after being awarded riding time, Martin won the match and the championship, 9-3. Kocher took second place and advanced to the national tournament, where he claimed All-America honors. He was the Panthers' only three-time NCAA qualifier heading to the tournament.
Pitt's Richmond made his first appearance in the EWL finals, taking on Edinboro's Deonte Penn. Because Richmond didn't wrestle in the dual meet with the Fighting Scots, the two had not gone head-to-head this season. Penn scored early with two on a takedown and went on to pin Richmond before the end of the period with a fall at the 2:44 mark. With a second-place finish, Richmond earned his first appearance in the national tournament.
In the 174 pound weight class, Gavin was set to take on West Virginia's Kurt Brenner. The two met earlier this season in the dual meet and Gavin was victorious late in the bout, pulling out a 9-4 decision. In the first period, Gavin took a two-point lead with a takedown, but Brenner had an escape to narrow Gavin's lead to one heading into the second period. Gavin picked up another point on an escape in the second and added another takedown for a 5-1 lead. Brenner scored one-point on an escape to set the score at 5-2 heading into the final period. With a point for riding time, Gavin was victorious by a decision of 6-3 and became Pitt's second EWL champion of the day and the 27th in school history. He joined the three other Pitt finalists from the conference meet at the national tournament and garnered All-America honors with a second-place finish in his weight class. This marked the second time that Gavin has qulaified for the tournament in his career, having also done so as a sophomore.
Each of those grapplers is back this season and is poised to make another run at a conference crown. Zach Sheaffer, the 2005 EWL heavyweight champion, also returns this season and appears to have returned to the form that brought him the title in his freshman campaign.
Action is scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 8 at Fitzgerald Field House.
*College Students with ID and younger
 On the University of Pittsburgh Campus 1000 Lytton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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