Mt. Pleasant grad Dayton Pitzer named Most Outstanding Wrestler as Pitt places 2nd at ACC Tournament

It was quite a weekend for the Pitt wrestling team.

The Panthers finished second at the ACC Tournament at Duke, had three champions and qualified seven wrestlers for the NCAA Championships set for March 20-22, in Philadelphia.

The winning trio were graduate student Reece Heller (184 pounds), Mt. Lebanon grad and redshirt sophomore Mac Stout (197) and Mt. Pleasant graduate and redshirt sophomore Dayton Pitzer, who was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the event after defeating the No. 1 and No. 2 heavyweights in the tournament.

Pitzer defeated Stanford’s Peter Ming, 8-2, in the quarterfinals; toppled No. 1 North Carolina State’s Isaac Trumble, 4-1, in the semifinals; and used a takedown in overtime to beat No. 2 Virginia Tech’s Jimmy Mullen in the finals.

Pitzer was a three-time PIAA champion in high school.

Stout defeated North Carolina’s Cade Lautt, 17-4, in the semifinals; and beat Stanford’s Nikolas Stemmet, 10-2, in the finals.

Heller also only needed to win two matches for his title. He defeated Virginia Tech’s T.J. Stewart, 4-2, in the semifinals; and got a takedown in overtime to edge North Carolina State’s Dylan Fishback, 4-1.

Redshirt junior Luca Augustine, from Waynesburg, finished second at 174. He lost to North Carolina State’s Matty Singleton, 5-2, in the finals.

Also qualifying were graduate student Nick Babin, redshirt sophomore Briar Priest (Hempfield) and redshirt sophomore Jared Keslar (Connellsville).

Babin placed fourth at 125, Priest was fourth at 141 and Keslar was fifth at 165.

One of Priest’s wins was against Penn-Trafford grad Troy Hohman from N.C. State, 9-6, in sudden victory.