Pitt Sends 4 to NCAAs

Forys, Rahmani, Campbell win ACCs; Solomon qualifies

Dom Forys, Taleb Rahmani and TeShan Campbell each won their first ACC tournament championship on Saturday and each automatically qualified for the NCAAs. Ryan Solomon also got an automatic bid after finishing third, the result of losing a dramatic overtime rematch with Jacob Kasper of Duke in the semifinals, then edging out two consolation victories over Mike Kosoy and Cory Daniel. Of note, heavyweight had the most qualifiers in the ACC with five; 157 was second with four. 

By Stephen Patrick

credit: Pitt Wrestling Instagram

Taleb Rahmani started his season getting majored by teammate Jake Wentzel in the Blue-Gold match. On Saturday he won the ACC tournament and majored redshirt senior Sal Mastriani, then the No. 16 wrestler in the country. Rahmani, the redshirt freshman from Marysville, Ohio and 4x state placer in Ohio (and 1x champ), has come into his own during the final stretch of the season with marquee wins over Andrew Atkinson and now Mastriani. In this weeks FloWrestling rankings, Taleb jumped to 17th, which is theoretically one spot out of a seed at nationals. I believe he will get the 16 seed, which is very important, as the 17 wrestlers not seeded in a bracket are randomly filled in. So, the difference between getting the 16 vs not seeded could be randomly getting the 33rd ranked wrestler in the first round or getting randomly put against Jason Nolf in the first round. No matter where Taleb falls on the championship side of the bracket, if he wants to All American this year he'll most likely have to win in the round of 12. 

The top 6 seeds at 157 are sure to be Nolf, Michael Kemerer, Joey Lavallee, Tyler Berger, Dylan Palacio, and Joe Smith. The odds of avoiding those 6 in the quarterfinals are nearly impossible as in order to face the 7 or 8 seed in the quarters, he would have to beat the 1 or 2 in the round of 16. Of course, winning in the quarter finals is so important because if you're able to accomplish that, you can finish no worse than 6th. 

Hypothetically, some of the names Taleb could have to beat in the round of 12 include Russell Parsons, Jake Short, Collin Heffernan, BJ Clagon and Josh Shields. All excellent, accomplished wrestlers, but also a slight tier below the upper class. Considering the way Taleb's been wrestling recently and with his "unorthodox" improvisations, can anyone honestly count him out? I'm not.

Forys Continues Dominance 

Dom Forys went undefeated in ACC duals during the regular season and nothing changed in Raleigh. He shutout 18th ranked Jamal Morris in the finals and majored him in the dual vs NC State. Dom is ranked 8th in every major wrestling rankings service, including the coaches poll and InterMat, whose rankings are used in this blog unless noted otherwise. The 9th ranked wrestler in that weight class is Scotty Parker of Lehigh, whom Dom has already beat. Common sense dictates and my opinion agrees, that Dom is Pitt's best bet to All American next week. Although finishing as high as possible is obviously the goal, history doesn't remember if you finished 6th or 8th, it only remembers you for what you are, an All American. Though the individual athlete may disagree, once you're on the wall in Pitt's room, the height of the block you stood on is largely a moot point. Coincidentally, finishing better than 8th for Dom, will be extremely difficult. See, in descending order: Eric Montoya, Stevan Micic, Cory Clark, Kaid Brock, Seth Gross and Nathan Tomasello. 

Based on a conversation I had with Dom way back in August, he may just prove me wrong.

Campbell Crowned 

TeShan Campbell also continued his tear in the ACC, extending from the regular season to the post, earning a major decision over Ray Bethea in the semis and shutting out Brian Hamann in the finals. TeShan is currently ranked 11th in the country, the only ACC wrestler to crack the top 20. If his path to the podium treks through the Bloodround like I suspect it will, some fellow 165 pounders he may have to best include: Dylan Cottrell, Chandler Rogers, Austin Matthews (already beat), and Brandon Womack. TeShan only has two losses on the season, one to Rodgers, and the other to 3rd ranked Vincenzo Joseph in the Keystone Classic finals. I peg TeShan with the second best chance to All American for Pitt, and in order to do it, he's going to have to beat one person better than/equal to him. Doesn't sound that hard, but there's a reason why the round of 12's nickname starts with the word "Blood". 

Opinions (Everyone has them)

• Nick Zanetta must have been the last cut from 141. While the criteria is made public for at large selections, plugging in the numbers for every wrestler in the country would be a mammoth task. I don't know how much he missed by, but it couldn't have been much
• Oklahoma State put all 10 of their starters in the Big 12 finals and all ten qualified for NCAAs. Additionally, a former Cowboy transfer, Keilan Torres qualified from Northern Colorado 
• Ohio State won the Big Ten team title but Penn State was missing 1/10 of their lineup with Nick Suriano injury defaulting in the first round. If he's healthy for NCAAs (meaning he makes the finals like I think a healthy version of him would), Ohio State is going to have to make up the difference in order to repeat. They need Tomasello, Bo Jordan and Kyle Snyder to win. They need Micah Jordan, Myles Martin and Kollin Moore to place top 4. And they need top 12 performances from Jose Rodriguez and Luke Pletcher. Definitely possible
• Gable Steveson, a high school senior from Apple Valley, Mn, won his 3rd state title recently, pinning his opponent in 10 seconds. If there comes a point where the second best wrestler in your state can't last longer than ten seconds against you, you shouldn't be wrestling in high school. As a country, we need to get our top freestyle prospects (Steveson is a cadet world champ) to the Olympic training center instead of wasting time in high school. Like Kyle Snyder. This would be a huge step towards climbing the world freestyle ladder. The US often places top 3 in Junior and Cadet Worlds but rarely in the Senior tournament. Somehow, somewhere, Russia and Iran are passing us, and close observation would lead me to believe it's in that 18-22 year old range. Draw your own conclusions 
• This blog will serve as my ACC recap/NCAA preview combo. I know the brackets aren't out until tonight but the basic gist won't change
• As always, thanks for reading...
• See you all in St. Louis!