History
Wrestling at Pitt began in the 1912-1913 school year and eventually became one of the most tradition-rich sports at the University. Pitt's wrestling program boasts 16 individual NCAA national champions, the 13th most among all schools, and 74 All-Americans throughout the program's history. Pitt's all-time dual meet record, through the 2012-13 season, is 514-385-19 (0.570).
The school's most prominent years were the during the era the program was directed by head coach Rex Peery. During this stretch from 1952 until 1963, the team never finished lower than 9th at the NCAA Championship, placing second both in 1954 and when hosting the NCAA Championship at Fitzgerald Field House in 1957. Peery coached 13 individual national champions and twice during this span, in 1956 and 1957, the Panthers boasted five All-Americans in one season. Pitt also won the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament in 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1960.
Between 1979 and 2013, Pitt's wrestling team was under the leadership of head coach Rande Stottlemyer, a three time All-American wrestler for Pitt in 1974, 1975, and 1978 and a five-time Coach of the Year (1986–87, 1989–90, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12) in the Eastern Wrestling League, the wrestling conference Pitt competed in between 1976 and 2013. Under his direction, Pitt produced 56 EWL individual EWL champions, 33 All-Americans, and 3 individual National Champions including Pat Santoro, a back-to-back champion at 142 lbs, and the 2008 champion at 174 lbs, Keith Gavin. In 2010, Stottlemyer guided Pitt to a school record 17 dual meet wins and an overall 17-1-1 record en route to the team capturing the Panthers' first-ever EWL dual-meet championship. In 2011 and 2012, Pitt repeated as dual meet champions with 6-0 EWL records in each season. Pitt went on to win its first EWL tournament team title in 2011 and repeated as EWL tournament champions in 2012 and 2013, Pitt's final year in the conference and Stottlemyer's final season as head coach. Following the 2012-13 season, Stottlemyer retired after 34 years as Pitt's all-time winningest wrestling coach with a record of 304-230-12.
Pitt will move into the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013 for all sports with Jason Peters, an assistant under Stottleymyer for ten seasons, taking over as head coach.
Read more about this topic: Pittsburgh Panthers Wrestling
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