March 8, 2010
PITTSBURGH -
With five automatic bids already to the 2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships, the Pitt wrestling team will find out the fate of its remaining wrestlers Wednesday, March 10 with a live streamed announcement at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com.
There will be a total of 330 student-athletes participating in 10 weight classes during the Tournament, which runs March 18-20 in Omaha, Neb.
Brad Traviolia, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee chair, will begin the show with an introduction. Pat Tocci, Director of Administration and Public Relations of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, will then reveal each of the 10 brackets. The live stream can be seen directly at:
NCAA Wrestling Championship bracket live announcement
NCAA.com will also provide complete, printable brackets online at 7 p.m. following the conclusion of the show.
Pitt, which won the 2009-10 EWL regular season title, has five wrestlers who automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament as Anthony Zanetta (Pittsburgh, Pa/Keystone Oaks), Tyler Nauman (Middletown, Pa./Middletown), Matt Wilps (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) and Ryan Tomei (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) each won their respective weight classes during Sunday’s EWL Championships at West Virginia. Zac Thomusseit (St. Paris, Ohio/St. Paris Graham) automatically qualified after a second-place finish in the EWL’s 184-pound weight class.
It will be the second trip to the NCAA Championships for Nauman, a redshirt sophomore, who compiled a perfect 18-0 dual record this season for the Panthers. Zanetta (freshman, 125), Thomusseit (sophomore, 184), Wilps (sophomore, 197) and Tomei (RS junior, 285) will each make their first appearance. Pitt had four NCAA Tournament qualifiers last year in Nauman, Ethan Headlee, Jimmy Conroy and former All-America heavyweight Zach Shaeffer.
Pitt’s automatic qualifiers for 2010 NCAA Championships:
Anthony Zanetta (Freshman, 125)
Tyler Nauman (Redshirt sophomore, 141)
Zac Thomusseit (Sophomore, 184)
Matt Wilps (Sophomore, 197)
Ryan Tomei (Redshirt junior, 285)
