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The NCAA allocations came out Thursday afternoon and my initial reaction was disbelief at how few spots were allotted to the ACC. After thinking more on it and looking at the big picture of the season, the numbers made more sense - even if I didn’t agree with them. There were several wrestlers who have looked great in the second half of the season that either didn’t compete in the beginning of the year, or had a weight change. There were also a large number of injuries that had a major impact on the number of matches that some wrestlers were able to compete in--this was especially true for UVA who has had the worst luck with injuries this year that I may have ever seen. After digging into the Coaches’ Rankings, RPI and winning percentages across the conference, I’ve tried to make sense of the numbers. Let’s take a look at where the spots were earned, by whom, and how many wrestlers were just off the bubble of earning another allotment for the conference. If there is any silver lining to the way all of this shook out, it is that there are several ACC wrestlers who will be in prime position to earn an at-large bid with them being so close to meeting criteria to earn an allotment. 125 Expected: 3 Earned: 2 This one was one of the bigger surprises to me. I expected Flynn and Camacho to earn their bids, which they did. I also thought Spencer Moore would add a 3rd, but his RPI dropped between the 1st and 2nd run to put him 1 off the threshold of 28. 133: Expected: 4 Earned: 3 Orine and Latona were guarantees, covering all three criteria. Vinnie Santaniello has a ton of matches this year with some good wins, and some good losses--he was able to earn an allocation through his CR and RPI. I was hopeful with the year that Yarbrough has had that he would be able to earn a slot. He was negatively impacted by injury default losses at Midlands that dropped his winning percentage below the threshold. 141 Expected: 4-5 Earned: 3 This was the weight that really stood out and made a lot of people scratch their heads. The ACC has four ranked in the top 15 but only 3 allotments were earned; it makes it even more intriguing that only two of the three slots were earned by those top-15 wrestlers. Lachlan McNeil earned one allotment by meeting all three criteria, as did Ryan Jack. The third bid was earned by Jack Gioffre from Virginia by way of his winning percentage and RPI. Cole Matthews has looked incredible in the back half of the season, including victories over three top-5 ranked wrestlers, and going undefeated in the ACC. However, he had a very rocky early season, including a point in which he lost four straight matches to lower ranked wrestlers. His winning percentage of 62.5% shows this very clearly. This also severely impacted his RPI, to the point that even three top-5 victories didn’t bring it above the cutoff. His coaches ranking was well within the criteria, but he was below the cutoff for winning percentage and one over the cutoff for RPI. Tom Crook not earning an allotment is the result of a mid-season weight change. If you look at his overall record and winning percentage, it is good enough to meet the percentage criteria and enough matches to earn an RPI. However, only 14 of his matches are at 141. This means he didn’t meet the 15 match minimum at the weight to earn an RPI (which likely would have been within the criteria) and dropped his winning percentage from 78% to just below the cutoff at 71%. So, at one of the deepest and most competitive weights in the conference, we are going to have some ferocious competition in Chapel Hill to earn one of the three AQ spots. 149 Expected: 2-3 Earned: 2 Henson and Arrington are solid top-5 wrestlers, so they were expected to earn allocations. I was hopeful that between Finn Solomon and Jayden Scott one additional slot would be earned. Solomon had the RPI but not the winning percentage after going through a bit of a slump in the second half of the season. Jayden Scott has a few good wins but didn’t have enough matches for an RPI. 157 Expected: 2-3 Earned: 2 I expected 157 to be a bit of a mess. Ed Scott, while he has had a couple uncharacteristic losses, has had a great season with some big wins; he covered all three criteria to earn a bid. Bryce Andonian was able to hit the RPI and winning percentages. It is fortunate that he hit his 15 match mark prior to his injury against Shapiro; since he has been out more than 30 days since his last competition he was no longer eligible for the Coaches’ Ranking. The final two that had a chance were Dylan Cedeno and Sonny Santiago who had nearly polar opposite seasons. Cedeno has looked fantastic in competition; he is 11-3 on the year but has been derailed by injuries; he didn’t hit 15 matches in order to earn RPI and since he has been out of competition, he dropped just below the cutoff of the CR. Sonny Santiago started his season slowly and has had a great second half of his season, especially in ACC competition. He wasn’t able to overcome early losses to get his winning percentage above the threshold and was just past the RPI cutoff. 165 Expected: 3 Earned: 2 This one was a painful miss. Connor Brady and Derek Fields both covered two of the three criteria and earned bids. Holden Heller met the criteria for the CR but was just past the RPI cutoff and his winning percentage of 70.5% was just under the 71% cutoff. 174 Expected: 4-5 Earned: 4 This weight was pretty chalk for allocations. Mekhi Lewis covered two of three; he is 13-0 so he didn’t have enough matches for RPI. Justin McCoy and Luca Augustine both covered all three criteria and Tyler Eischens hit two of three, missing the winning percentage threshold. Alex Faison was just on the outside of the CR and RPI. 184 Expected: 4 Earned: 4 This was also pretty chalk, with some late drama thrown in from the Hokies. Dylan Fishback and Reece Heller covered all three criteria and Gavin Kane was just under the winning percentage threshold but covered CR and RPI. TJ Stewart was able to get enough matches in the final weekend to meet the 10 match minimum for winning percentage; at 8-2 his 80% winning percentage and 14 in the Coaches’ Ranking was enough to earn a slot. 197 Expected: 4 Earned: 4 Another pretty chalk weight to make three in a row. Trent Hidlay, Mac Stout and Max Shaw each covered all three criteria to earn bids. Andy Smith was under the threshold on winning percentage but met criteria for CR and RPI. 285 Expected: 2-3 Earned: 2 I was hopeful we would see both Catka’s earn a bid, but Ryan just missed the cutoff for CR and RPI. Owen Trephan and Hunter Catka both met all three criteria. The wildcard here is Dayton Pitzer who has been out after injuring his shoulder against Colton Schultz. He was ranked in the top 15 when injured and would have been on track to earn a top 20 RPI. Will he wrestle in Chapel Hill? Will he be anywhere near full strength? It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

On the final day of the Pan-American Olympic Games Qualifying, there were plenty of familiar faces who locked up spots at the 2024 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, none were wrestling for the United States. Two representatives from the US Men’s Freestyle team traveled to Acapulco, Mexico in hopes of qualifying their weights for the Olympics. Neither was successful; however, there were plenty of familiar faces who punched their tickets to the Paris Games. Five former DI All-Americans, Darian Cruz (Puerto Rico), Roman Bravo-Young (Mexico), Austin Gomez (Mexico), Ethan Ramos (Puerto Rico), and Amar Dhesi (Canada) all made it to the semifinals of their respective weights and will wrestle at the Olympics. While the US has the Olympic Team Trials to determine our representative, these wrestlers will go to Paris after their performance today. Both of the wrestlers representing the United States lost to an opponent who was(is) a prominent DI wrestler. At 65 kg, Nick Lee had an early lead on Austin Gomez; however, the Michigan star turned it up in the second stanza. Gomez once trailed 10-4, but used a four-point throw to turn the tide and spur him to a 22-12 tech. Gomez locked up his Olympic berth after a 6-3 win over North Carolina All-American Lachlan McNeil, who was representing Canada. Zane Richards was able to advance to the 57 kg semifinals after a quick 14-1 tech over Peter Hammer Cude (Costa Rica) in less than two minutes. For the Olympic berth, Richards needed to get past former Lehigh national champion Darion Cruz. A few months ago, Richards defeated Cruz at the Pan-American Games, 8-2. This time, Richards wasn’t able to get to his offense and settled for a pair of points on shot clock violations. In the final seconds of the bout, Cruz was able to get a step-out point to push him ahead on criteria, 2-2. The winners of our Olympic Trials at 57 and 65 kg’s will travel to Istanbul in early May for the Last Chance Qualifier, along with three members of the Greco-Roman team. US Results 57 kg Semifinals Darian Cruz (Puerto Rico) over Zane Richards (USA) 2-2 Quarterfinals Zane Richards (USA) over Peter Hammer Cude (Costa Rica) 14-1 65 kg Quarterfinals Austin Gomez (Mexico) over Nick Lee (USA) 22-12 Quotas Earned 57 kg - Mexico, Puerto Rico 65 kg - Cuba, Mexico 74 kg - Cuba, Venezuela 86 kg - Canada, Puerto Rico 97 kg - Cuba, Dominican Republic 125 kg - Canada, Puerto Rico