MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Redshirt sophomore Noah Adams earned his 11th consecutive win as the West Virginia wrestling team fell to No. 10 Pitt 29-6 on Thursday, at the WVU Coliseum.
“There were some signs of fight tonight and I saw a lot of improvement,” WVU coach Tim Flynn said. “We have a lot of steps to go to be where we want, but we’re focusing on us right now and making little improvements every day.”
The Panthers (3-1) jumped out to an early 9-0 lead after earning a major decision and a technical fall at 125 and 133, respectively. The Mountaineers (0-3) couldn’t respond as Pitt earned a pair of decisions when sophomore Caleb Rea dropped the match at 141 and freshman Liam Lusher suffered a close 11-9 loss in his dual match debut for the Mountaineers at 149.
At 157, redshirt freshman Alex Hornfeck gave No. 12/11/6 Taleb Rahmani all he could handle, but his upset bid ultimately came up short as he found himself on the wrong side of a 7-6 decision.
With the pair tied at two heading into the second period, Hornfeck chose to start at the bottom and quickly earned an escape point to take a 3-2 advantage. Rahmani responded with a takedown to regain the lead, before Hornfeck picked up two reversal points to continue the back-and-forth affair. Rahmani would close the period with an escape point to even the match heading into the third.
Rahmani chose to start the third in the bottom position and earned a quick reversal to gain a two-point advantage. Hornfeck found an escape but could not earn another point as he fell 7-6 to give Pitt an 18-0 team lead.
The Panthers secured the team victory after wins at 165, 174 and 184 to take a 29-0 lead over WVU.
The Mountaineers closed the match strong, however, as redshirt sophomore Noah Adams and senior Brandon Ngati earned decision wins at 197 and 285.
Adams topped his second ranked opponent of the season after earning an 8-6 decision over Kellan Stout. After a scoreless first period, Adams chose to start the second period from the bottom and quickly earned a reversal. Following an escape and a takedown from his counterpart, Adams regained the lead with his second reversal of the period.
The Coal City native remained in the top position through the remainder of the second period to take a 4-3 lead into the final period. Stout tied the match to begin the third period with an escape, but Adams countered both of Stout’s third period escapes with a takedown to earn the decision. The win marked Adams’ 11th straight to begin the year.
Ngati started the final bout of the contest fast and never looked back as he bested Pitt’s Cole Rickert, 10-3. The Gaithersburg, Md. native earned a pair of takedown points in the first and second period, before outscoring Rickert 6-2 in the third to earn the win.
