Mt. Lebanon’s Stout brothers make NCAA history by facing off in Philly

By: Paul Schofield
Friday, March 21, 2025 | 4:28 PM

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It was a historic night at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Thursday during Day 1 of the competition.

It was appropriate that Philadelphia, which is known as the “City of Brotherly Love,” was the site of the first “Battle of Brothers” at the Wells Fargo Center.

While brothers have competed in the same tournament since it began in the late 1920s and there are five sets of brothers competing this season, the Stouts were the first pair to wrestle each other in a match at NCAAs.

Pitt redshirt sophomore Mac Stout defeated older brother Luke, a senior at Princeton, during the second round of the tournament in the 197-pound weight class.

Mac Stout, seeded sixth, used an escape and takedown in the second period to defeat Luke, 4-2, and advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals. Luke, who was seeded 11th, dropped into the consolation bracket where he will try to earn All-American status and a spot on the podium.

It was also the first time the Mt. Lebanon grads have met on the mat other than in practice at home and at clubs.

After the hard-fought match, the brothers hugged a couple of times.

During an interview after the match shared by FloWrestling, Mac Stout talked about how tough it was to face his brother.

“It stinks,” he said. “I wish I never had to wrestle my brother, but I wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t for him, you know.

“I finally got one back after all those years he was shoving my head into the mat.”

Mac said he planned to talk to his brother as soon as possible after the match.

“He’s my best friend, I talk to him every day,” Mac Stout said. “I knew that regardless the outcome, we would still be best friends after the match.

“It’s a weird feeling. We scrap in the room all the time. It’s different, though, you know? I don’t know. It’s just a weird feeling. It’s over with now. Hopefully, I think it’ll help me be able to wrestle more freely now and forget about that whole thing on my shoulders.”

The brothers will not meet on the medal podium Saturday.

Mac Stout lost, 2-0, to No. 2 ranked A.J. Ferrari of Cal State Bakersfield in the quarterfinals to drop into the consolation bracket.

Luke Stout won his first consolation match but lost his second, falling two wins short of a medal.

The Stouts come from a wrestling family. Older brother Kellan was a WPIAL and PIAA champion in 2015 at 182 pounds; Luke was a two-time WPIAL and one-time PIAA champion in 2019 and 2020 at 195 pounds; and Mac was a two-time WPIAL champion (2020 and 2022) and PIAA runner-up in 2020.

Kellan Stout began his collegiate career at Penn State before transferring to Pitt and becoming an NCAA qualifier in 2019.

THeir father Bryan was a four-time All-American at Clarion.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon