4 minute read
Ready to Grind
by KIMBERLY WEINBERG Portraits editor
READY to GRIND
The Panthers join the ranks of DIII college wrestling
On a map of Wrestling USA, Pennsylvania would be the size of Alaska.
Yet a map of the 104 NCAA Division III wrestling programs last year showed only a handful within a threehour drive of Bradford.
On Jan. 12, the new Pitt-Bradford NCAA DIII wrestling program will host two of those teams for the first home wrestling meet in Pitt-Bradford history.
It is something the campus is getting excited for.
“People are super interested in Pitt-Bradford wrestling,” said first-year head coach Colin Johnston. A former DI wrestler at West Virginia, he went on to become assistant coach and interim head coach at Davidson College in North Carolina before being named head coach of the new Pitt-Bradford program.
Johnston retains the look of a wrestler and said that whenever he wears Panther gear, people frequently stop him in Bradford to meet the new coach of the new team.
“They’re excited about coming to our matches,” he said. “People love the sport of wrestling.”
Pennsylvanians, Ohioans and New Jerseyites especially seem to love wrestling, which makes the sport a perfect addition to help meet Pitt-Bradford’s admissions goals.
Already interest is high. The first-year roster boasts 18 wrestlers, including five transfer students from the two-year Mercyhurst College North East campus.
At an admissions open house in November, Johnston hosted several recruits from neighboring states. “There are a ton of student-athletes who want to wrestle,” he said.
As further evidence of the sport’s popularity, Pitt-Bradford is one of seven universities adding DIII wrestling this year.
Johnston, who grew up in Eighty Four, Pa., attributes the success of the sport in Pennsylvania to the clubs where many young wrestlers begin. “I think it’s the coaching staffs that do such a great job working with wrestlers at such a young age,” he said.
What got Pitt-Bradford administrators like Butler to begin looking at wrestling was a pre-med student named Andrew McRandal ’18, who had wrestled in high school and found a few like-minded friends who wanted to continue wrestling in college.
“I had wanted to start a wrestling team because it was something I had really enjoyed and wanted to spend my free time doing,” McRandal said. Butler promised McRandal he would look into it.
Butler put McRandal in touch with Kathy Moonan, accounts payable manager and a huge supporter of Pitt-Bradford athletics and Bradford wrestling.
Another early supporter was Rich Kahle, facilities and fitness center manager and former wrestler himself, who helped the team find practice space and even set up and clean mats. “He was just always out there willing to help out and was very interested in it,” McRandal said.
The second breakthrough for the program came in 2017, when Moonan asked her friends and local wrestling supporters Kevin and Cindy Keane to make a gift that allowed the club to begin wrestling intercollegiately and laid the groundwork to make the jump to a DIII team.
On a Saturday morning in November, Moonan dropped off her famous homemade chocolate-chip cookies, fruit and power bars for the team’s trip to Cleveland to wrestle in the John Carroll Duals. She got a hug from senior Kendric Moore, one of the wrestlers who had been involved at the club level, as the sleepy wrestlers started to stretch out or shoot hoops while waiting for the rest of the team to show up.
“This is a dream come true,” she said, beaming at them.
Having a coach this year is what has made the biggest difference between the club and NCAA levels, the wrestlers said.
Junior Garrett Smead, 197-pound weight class
Photo by Alan Hancock '07
Mitch Dowd is a sophomore from Pottstown, Pa., wrestling at 197 pounds this year. He wrestled last year with the club and was one of five wrestlers who traveled to Allen, Texas, in March to compete at the National Collegiate Wrestling Association’s National Championships on behalf of the Panthers.
Although a wrestler in high school, Dowd said that he had not even planned on wrestling in college, but a friend brought him along to club practice. “We all got along really well,” he said. “Andy and Kathy did a lot for us.
“The only thing we were missing was a coach.” He said he enjoyed the more approachable club level of the sport, but that he has no complaints about the new full-fledged team. “It’s a little more organized now that we have a coach.”
Dowd also said that he has seen a lot of support from the Pitt-Bradford faculty.
Quentin Ellis is a junior from Olean, N.Y., who wrestles at 184 pounds. He is one of five students on the team who transferred to Pitt-Bradford after wrestling and completing two years of college at Mercyhurst North East.
“It was pretty cool having everybody come here together,” he said of transferring from the two-year program alongside his teammates. He also liked that Pitt-Bradford had a good reputation for his chosen major, criminal justice.
He likes the idea of being on the first team. “It is pretty exciting to be part of the history of Pitt- Bradford,” he said.
McRandal said he is not disappointed to have missed the transformation to DIII as a wrestler.
“I wish I could have wrestled for Division III, but I have learned so much from wrestling and what Pitt-Bradford had to offer me, and that has contributed to my success as a person,” he said, adding that he wanted to make sure the next generation of students had the chance to enjoy wrestling at Pitt- Bradford like he did.
This fall, he was able to make the short trip from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he is a first-year medical student, to nearby Penn State Behrend, where he watched his teammates compete in their first NCAA DIII dual match. It was a match that would leave him hoarse from cheering.
“They wrestled so well,” he said, “and it was great to see the guys returning from last year on the mat and seeing those guys take it to that next level.”
Clockwise from top, Mitch Dowd, Nick DiStefano, Joe Blanco, Coach Johnston, Colton Davis and Kendric Moore. All five wrestlers started with the club and continued wrestling this year.
Photo by Alan Hancock '07
To follow the Panthers’ wrestling season, visit athletics.pittbradford.org or follow @UPB_Panthers on Twitter.
