Just as the weather begins to get cold, wrestling teams from local high schools to national colleges start their seasons.

Every wrestling season begins with team wrestle-offs. Wrestle-offs are a very important part of any team, and they can determine if certain wrestlers can even wrestle that season. Wrestle-offs are when two wrestlers in the same weight division battle each other to determine who will be the starter.

Not only do wrestle-offs occur on local high school teams like Bethel Park, Upper Saint Clair, Baldwin and many more, but they occur on college wrestling teams as well. Our very own Pitt Panthers’ wrestle-offs are coming up very shortly.

The Pitt Panthers have their own name for wrestle-offs called the “Blue and Gold” match. The Blue and Gold match will take place on Friday, Nov. 1 at the Fitzgerald Field House at 7 p.m.

Some of the upcoming matches that are going to be hosted at the Blue and Gold match are expected to be really fun and entertaining.

At 125 pounds, Anthony Zanetta (Keystone Oaks High School) will be wrestling Derrick Nelson (Waynesburg High School).  Zanetta, a redshirt senior and team captain, has a combined record of 82 wins and 28 losses. He is also ranked 8th in the nation by Intermat. Nelson, a redshirt sophomore, has a combined record of 4 wins and 11 loses. Zanetta is very local to Pittsburgh as he wrestled for Keystone Oaks. In high school, he was a 2x PIAA and WPIAL champion.

There are three wresters battling for the 133 weight division. They are Godwin Cutler (Brashear High School), a sophomore, Shelton Mack (Meadville High School), a senior and ranked 15th in the nation by Intermat, and Nick Zanetta (Keystone Oaks High School), a freshman. Nick Zanetta, younger bother of Anthony, was a 2x PIAA runner-up and amassed a record of 132-26 in high school.  There should be some good matches in this weight division as a freshman, sophomore, and senior battle for the number one spot.

At 141, there are two very tough wrestlers: Travis Shaffer (Derry High School) and freshman Edgar Bright (Saint Edwards High School). Shaffer, a junior, has a career record of 31-27, while Bright is going to be wrestling for the first time in a Pitt singlet. Shaffer had a tremendous high school career, graduating with 149 wins and 22 losses, including qualifying for states four times and winning the title his senior year.

At 149,  Mikey Racciato (Pen Argyl High School), Dom Pietropaolo (Pitt-Johnstown High School), Ty Lydic (Latrobe High School), and Jake Keller (Curwensville High School) will all be battling for the starter position. There are a lot of tough wrestlers in this division, and there should be some great matches. Keller, a sophomore, ended up finishing his senior year of high school with a 5th place finish at the PIAA Championships. Peitropaolo, a senior, ended his high school career at Plum with 108 wins and 31 losses; he was also a state qualifier.

Four wrestlers will compete for the 157 spot, including Cole Sheptock (Northhampton High School), Eric Nutter (Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School), Matt Gotzon (Southern Lehigh High School), and Ronnie Garbinsky (Tyrone High School). Sheptock, a redshirt freshman, has a record of 9 wins and 7 losses; Nutter, a redshirt sophomore, has a total record of 8 wins and 9 losses; Gotzon, a junior, is a walk-on on the team, and Garbinsky, a redshirt sophomore, has a combined record of 18 wins and 10 losses. Eric Nutter was a 2x PIAA qualifier and placed 4th his senior year in high school. He also had career record of 131-37.

At 165, three very tough wrestlers will be grappling for the position. There is Geno Morelli (DuBois High School), who has a record of 21-12, Cody Wiercioch (Canon-McMillian High School), who is trying to become a starting freshman, and Troy Reaghard (West Allegheny High School) who has a career record of 21-16. Cody Wiercioch, a freshman, was a standout wrestler throughout high school, winning three PIAA titles, and he was one of the top recruits in the nation. Reaghard, a redshirt junior, had a great high school career as well, amassing 140 wins and only 25 losses; he also finished his senior year as a runner-up in the PIAA Championships.

There should be a battle at 174 between Ty Wilps  (Chartiers Valley High School) and PJ Tasser  (Belle Vernon High School). Wilps, ranked 16th in the nation by Intermat, has a record of 38 wins and 21 losses, and Tasser has compiled a record of 51-29. Wilps, a redshirt junior, and Tasser, a redshirt senior, are both team captains for Pitt Wrestling, which should make for a really interesting matchup. Wilps finished his senior year of high school with a very impressive 40-2 record and a 5th place finish in the PIAA Championships. Tasser also had a great high school career ending with a 112-49 record. He was a 3-year captain for Belle Vernon and a 2x 3rd place WPIAL finisher.

184 should showcase a great match when a top freshman goes up against a redshirt junior. Max Thomusseit from Ohio will be wrestling Aaron Rothwell with a location unavailable. Max, a redshirt junior and ranked 6th in the nation by Intermat, has tallied a record of 46 wins with only 22 losses. Rothwell, a freshman, is looking to make his debut memorable as he goes against  his very own teammate for the starting position. Thomusseit’s older brother, Zach, also went to Pitt and wrestled HWT. Max had a tremendous high school career; he ended with two state championships and was named top 30 in the nation from many media outlets.

There are a lot of tough wrestlers at 197. Four wrestlers are looking for the starting position. Redshirt sophomore Nick Bonaccorsi (Bethel Park High School) sports a record of 40-11, Matt Patrick (Mount Lebanon High School), a sophomore, and Jordan Shulman (Hampton High School), a junior, bring to the mat records of 1-5 and 9-14 respectively, and Ryan Soloman (Milton High School) is a tough freshman this year. Bonaccorsi, a redshirt sophomore, who graduated from BPHS in 2011, was a 4x state qualifier, had a nearly perfect senior record of 41-1, and placed 3rd in the PIAA Championships his senior year. Matt Patrick had a very good senior year with a total record of 27-9.

The final weight, HWT, has four wrestlers looking for the head position, Joel Yahner (Brockway High School), a junior, with 7 wins and 22 losses, Dan Kornberg (Edgemont High School), a sophomore, with a record of 1-6, Mike Gregory, a senior, from Massachusetts with a record of 2 wins and 6 losses, and Luke Fleck (Franklin Regional High School), a freshman. Local guy Luke Fleck had a really good high school career finishing with over 118 wins and 38 losses. He was a 2x state qualifier, and team captain his senior year.

There are a lot of great matches this year at the Blue and Gold match. It’ll feature some of the best college athletes as they battle for the number one spot on the Pittsburgh Panthers Wrestling Team.

Updated: On Nov. 1, Pitt announced its final matchups for the Blue and Gold match. They can be found here.