Micky Phillippi's victory not enough in Pitt wrestlers' 36-9 loss to Oklahoma State

Keith Gavin was pleased with the most notable occurrence of the day when Pitt redshirt freshman wrestler Micky Phillippi defeated Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix, 3-1, at 133 pounds.

But Pitt’s coach left Fitzgerald Field House on Saturday afternoon knowing there’s still a lot of work to do.

Oklahoma State, the No. 3 team in the nation, beat No. 14 Pitt, 36-9, handing the Panthers (8-1) their first loss of the season. The Cowboys remained undefeated at 9-0.

Phillippi recorded one of Pitt’s two victories, handing Fix, No. 2 in the nation, his first collegiate loss. Phillippi, a Derry graduate who is ranked No. 4, has won 13 of 14 matches this season. Fix’s record drops to 21-1.

Pitt’s other victor emerged at 165 pounds when redshirt sophomore Jake Wentzel (South Park) pinned Andrew Shomers in 1 minutes, 48 seconds.

“We’ve got a lot of little adjustments to make,” Gavin said. “There were some closes matches in there where if we make some slight adjustments we come out on top. We’ll go back and watch the film to really narrow down what went wrong.”

“The biggest positive was Micky Phillippi’s win, wrestling a hard-fought match against a really good wrestler. He got the job done. Micky’s a super tough kid and I’m really proud of him.”

After a scoreless opening frame, Phillippi started the second on top. An escape by Fix gave him the 1-0 lead through two periods. Phillippi entered the third on bottom and quickly escaped to tie it 1-1. Phillippi then scored a takedown with 30 seconds to go in the third period and held off Fix the remainder of the match.

“It feels really good,” Phillippi said. “I’ve been working a lot in the room for moments like that, so it paid off. I feel good. I feel good about what happened and I feel good about the day.”

Phillippi has a 6-1 record against ranked opponents.

Pitt redshirt junior Taleb Rahmani lost for only the fourth time this season, dropping a 9-3 decision to Wyatt Sheets at 157 pounds.

Heavyweight Demetrius Thomas lost a close heavyweight bout to No. 2 Derek White. Thomas, who ranks 13th, rallied to an 8-8 tie with less than 10 seconds left, but White locked up the victory with riding time.

Pitt opens ACC competition Friday at No. 13 Virginia.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.