Pittsburgh's Mac Stout now officially owns the brotherly bragging rights after his 4-2 victory.
On Friday night in Philadelphia, amidst intense action across eight wrestling mats, the Stout brothers stole the spotlight for seven minutes.
Competing for Pittsburgh and Princeton, respectively, Mac and Luke both won their first round matches, setting up the match wrestling analysts had been talking about for weeks. Two brothers, face to face, with one bid to the quarterfinals on the final.
The Stouts took the mat to great applause, shook hands and went to war.
The first period ended scoreless, likely due to familiarity. Mac Stout chose bottom to start the second period and escaped quickly to put himself on the board first. A takedown from Mac Stout gave the Panther sophomore a 4-0 lead halfway through the second period. Luke Stout escaped, narrowing his brother's lead slightly, but the younger Stout set the pace. He carried his 4-1 lead into the second, but Luke escaped to start the third and cut down his brother's lead to two. Luke Stout gave everything he could in the final seconds, but Mac's takedown proved to be the difference.
The Panther hugged his Tiger brother and will now look ahead to the quarterfinals. But in the City of Brotherly Love, this was more than just a wrestling match. It was a celebration of the spirit of wrestling and what the sport means to the Stout family and the community as a whole.
