All Consis Now for Panthers

Pitt Wrestlers each go 1 and 1 on Day 1

Dom Forys, TeShan Campbell and Ryan Solomon each won then lost. Taleb Rahmani lost then won. They're all in the same round now: three wins away from the podium.

By Stephen Patrick 

Dom Forys, the 6 seed, started with the best chance to be Pitt's 77th All American. But as the clever switch of the "d" to the "t" in March Matness indicates, wrestling's post season is even more maddening than our winter sport counterparts'. Forget picking a perfect bracket, or ten. The 6 seed making it to the quarterfinals (or the 2 seed in Anthony Collica's case) is far from a guarantee. Hey, Earl Hall and Conor Youtsey are returning All Americans, and they both went 0-2! 

credit: Pitt Athletics

Forys' work is cut out for him now. He will have a winnable match vs Austin Eicher (Michigan State) first, but then the uphill battle begins. Following that, he will face the winner of returning All American Connor Schram (Stanford) and freshman stud Mitch McKee (Minnesota). Assuming he wins that, he will have the loser of the 1 vs 8 quarterfinal, which is sure to be Illinois 4th place finisher Zane Richards. 

Cliches exist for a reason. When athletes tell you they're going to take it "one match at a time" or "one inning at a time", they mean it. Without looking too far ahead, I asked co-Head Coach Drew Headlee for a scouting report on McKee and Schram.

According to the Headlee, McKee is good with crab rides and also solid on top and bottom. He has a lot of freestyle experience and "he's got some throws". He added that McKee is a "dangerous" wrestler, and if you recall Forys' round of 12 match last year, he's succumbed to throws before. Although Drew did not make the connection between McKee's and Earl Hall's style, (that was my analysis), he did contrast it with Schram's.

"Pretty straight forward, shoots a lot of single legs, Western PA boy". Being a Western PA boy himself, Drew added he has seen Schram wrestle a lot. Schram went 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st in PA states, and now may be one of the road blocks for yet another Western PA boy to join the ranks of All Americans.

Rahmani's funk prevails again

When the 157 bracket got re-drawn after Michigan's Brian Murphy had to withdraw, Taleb switched from having the 11 seed to the 7 seed in the first round. Not a big deal on paper, but this year's 7 seed is Dylan Palacio, who won five straight matches in last year's tournament, before losing to take 4th. Palacio was injured for most of the year, and only wrestled 11 matches before NCAAs. This surely hurt his seed, and in turn, hurt Taleb. Although Rahmani gave him a tough match, and nearly caught him as time expired, ultimately Palacio would come away with the major decision.

This set up a rematch from the Virgnia dual between Taleb and Andrew Atkinson. A back and forth affair that saw Rahmani pull out the 10-8 OT victory in the first encounter, the second meeting of these two would be no less exciting. Today saw an impressive display in opening aggressiveness, with Taleb getting a takedown only seconds in to the match. The next six minutes and forty seconds or so saw multiple flurries, backpoints, the ref missing Taleb's pin, scrambles, the ref missing another pin, etc. It was quite exciting.

His first match tomorrow will be a chance for revenge, as he'll square off against Josh Shields of Arizona State. Shields majored Taleb 12-3 at Midlands earlier this year, but a lot has changed since then. Taleb has been on quite a roll, and is an ACC champ. Drew Headlee agrees.

"He's come a long way since then".

Campbell and Solomon both fall to higher seeds

After both winning solid 4-0 and 4-1 wins respectively, TeShan and Ryan lost to higher ranked foes in the second round. Campbell's loss came to 7 seed Anthony Valencia (Arizona State) and Solomon's to 2 seed Connor Medbery (Wisconsin).

There isn't much to say about Solomon's loss: a 5-0 shutout in which neither wrestler took many shots or tried many moves. Although he kept good position and almost connected on a few snatch singles, in the end nothing would convert.

Campbell on the other hand, had a more action filled match and almost took the lead in the third period with a series of tilts, but like his teammate, would be unable to complete the scoring attempts.

Preparing for tomorrow 

Friday is by far the biggest day of the NCAA tournament, featuring the quarterfinals, the Bloodround and the semifinals. In order to reach the coveted podium, all four Panthers will have to win three consecutive matches.

"It's mostly about heart," Drew Headlee commented regarding the ability to pull off the aforementioned feat. "You came for one goal, to win a National title, and that dream is gone... and now you got to regroup and see what you're made of to come back and take third place".

The team will be refocusing tonight, zeroing in on what they have to do to accomplish their dreams. And although this tournament is full of outstanding athletes and winning those three matches is going to be extremely difficult, hey, "someone's gotta do it".