Bradford, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford men's wrestling team lost a close meet against Jamestown Community College on Tuesday evening. The Panthers won 4 of the 7 contested matches in the meet, however fell in the final tally due to points picked up by their opponents due to forfeited weight classes. The final score was Jamestown CC 33 - Pitt-Bradford 25
The Panthers fell behind early due to a forfeit at 125 and a pin at 133. Elijah Hernandez picked up the first points for Pitt-Bradford at 141. He picked up a victory by decision with a score of 10-7. The Jayhawks returned the favor with a decision victory at 154 and pushed their lead to 18 after another forfeit at 154.
Pitt-Bradford got back into the match in the middleweights due to back to back pin victories at 165 and 174. Nate Powley won his match at 165 by pin with a time of 2:09 and Daniel Shields followed that up with a pin of his own at 2:27. Down only 3 points with two contested matches to go, the Panthers were unable to close the gap as Jamestown picked up 6 more points via a pin at 197. Despite being unable to make up the difference in team points, Mitch Dowd picked up a dominant 8-0 decision, which included an extra point for 2 minutes of riding time to push his record to 6-1 on the young season.
At the completion of the scoring action, sophomore Matthew Ristau wrestled in an exhibition match. He won the match via pin.
After the match, head coach Colin Johnston said, "I think the guys wrestled hard. Despite giving away a few forfeits, the guys really bounced back and came together as a team. We came up a bit short today but will get back in the practice room and fix the things that need to be fixed."
The Panthers will get a chance to get back in action over the weekend. They will travel south to participate in the Washington & Jefferson Invitational. The event is scheduled to begin at 9:45 AM on Saturday.
