3-16-17

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | march 16, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 139

PPA shares parking permit plan at Oakwatch

HARDY HAR HAR

James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor

Pittsburgh Parking Authority is implementing a new digitalized parking system, rather than using sticker parking permits, as early as May 1.

John Fournier, director of enforcement and residential permit parking from the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, made the announcement at the monthly Oakwatch: the Oakland Code Enforcement Project meeting. The Oakland Planning and Development Corporation runs the public forum, where community members engage in a discussion with police forces, members of the mayor’s office, Pitt officials and guest speakers about enforcing code violations. The chairs of Oakwatch budgeted extra time Wednesday for discussion John Dick Winters (left) performs at Collegiates and Comedians, a Pitt Tonight event hosted by Phil Forrence (right).

Julia Zhu STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER surrounding parking concerns, namely the alleged illegal trade of parking passes and overcrowding of parking in Oakland.

After taking notes about resident’s parking concerns, Fournier announced Zoe Pawliczek and Rose Luder believe one can develop resistance to pollu- Pitt Union Wednesday night from 6 to 7:30 the new system in which Pittsburgh resip.m. The lecture, hosted by FORGE — a tion.

The Pitt News Staff dents would apply online for parking Pitt group for facilitating opportunities for “Some of my students have hurt me tellWhen Pitt political science professor Iza rights, rather than the current system in refugee growth and empowerment — highing these jokes, ” Ding said.

“It’s a psychologwhich the PPA mails residents a physical Ding developed a cough while researching lighted how the varying global stances on ical strategy developed to normalize these in China, her students joked her lungs were parking permit that sticks to their car. climate change is affecting the definition of issues. ” “There’s this convenience factor,” too “Westernized.” a refugee.

To increase awareness about these issues Ding, who researches global and regionFournier said. “And it also stops the black During her lecture she shared her findand other environmental concerns regardal environmentalism in Eastern Asia and market.” ings from her research on China, a couning climate change, Ding spoke to a crowd According to Fournier, the stickerless Central and Eastern Europe, said people of 25 students about environmental politics in China, who deal with worse air polluSee Oakwatch on page 2 tion than those in the United States, often and refugee displacement in the William See Environment on page 3

Pitt professor lectures on climate change, refugees

News

Oakwatch, pg. 1

parking permits will be digital, held in a database and connected to residents’ license plates, eliminating any possibility for secondary sales of the physical permits. PPA enforcement vehicles will use a license plate recognition camera, allowing for them to check each car’s parking permit while driving, saving time and thus reducing the cost of policing.

“We will be able to enforce more areas more quickly,” Fournier said. “Those efficiency gains will allow us to have much more active enforcement.”

Fournier said the tentative starting date for the program would be May 1, and that the PPA would replace permits in different areas of Pittsburgh as they expire.

Before introducing the changes, however, Fournier said he wanted to hear the community’s ideas, leading to a stream of questions and concerns.

One woman said too many people were parking without proper parking permits through nights and weekends and asked for evening parking authority enforcement. Another woman said landlords were allowing too many students to live in homes, leading to too many parking permits and not enough space on the street.

Janice Markowitz, a lifelong Oakland resident who uses an oxygen tank told Fournier handicapped parking spots were hard to come by. She blamed Oakland residents who were taking handicapped spots that she and others needed.

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“There’s a black market of handicapped placards,” Markowitz said. “The city needs to enforce it.”

One man told Fournier he wasn’t convinced the new system would save enough money or time to justify the confusion of having no physical permits. Residents wouldn’t be able to self-police if there was no visible proof on each car.

Fournier noted all the residents’ concerns in his phone, telling the crowd he’d make sure to check them later. Running over 15 minutes past the allotted time, Koller motioned for the meeting to move on. City police, Pitt police and Point Park police all spoke, giving brief reports on the past month’s crime. One officer said they’ve been monitoring social media to determine where parties are happening.

“Yeah but [the students] monitor the police scanner,” Mark Oleniacz, of South Oakland, said.

The crowd laughed, but as the meeting moved on into “property progress” discussion — an analysis of repeated Oakland building violations, such as unshoveled snow, unmowed lawns and unsafe building conditions — the tone of the room turned to anger.

While the crowd panned through a handout of Oakland homes that were violating code, one woman — whose property was listed as being abandoned and overgrown with weeds — began to shout, and claimed she was being harassed by the OPDC. She said no one from the OPDC had offered to help bring her property up

John Fournier of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority takes notes on his phone as he listens to the parking concerns of Oakland residents. John Hamilton VISUAL EDITOR to code when she was unable.

Rebekkah Ranallo, OPDC communications manager, said the OPDC was willing to purchase Oakland homes, bring them up to code and resell them to permanent home owners. Ranallo told the crowd she’d offered to purchase the woman’s property, but neither of the two could agree on what was fair.

After many community members jumped in, and some began shouting, the Oakwatch chairs stepped in and moved on to city council and Pitt Student Government Board announcements.

SGB member Arlind Karpuzi shared some recent initiatives happening on and

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off campus, such as the It’s On Us T-shirt Project and the Alternative Break program.

Kollar, in conclusion of what he said was his first meeting as a leader, said he “wasn’t expecting as much agitation,” but still thought it was a productive meeting.

However, he said he would have liked to see a higher student turnout. Markowitz agreed and added that students “put a good vibe” in the community and meetings.

“We’re in an important, eclectic area, with eclectic residents,” Markowitz said.

“And we’re all working together.”

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Environment, pg. 1 try normally blanketed in smog that has recently been labeled a leader of climate change.

“What’s really interesting is that you would think it’s a compliment to say [that], but the response from China is quite interesting in that it does not want to take that responsibility and actually rejected that,” Ding said.

While Ding spoke of her research in China for much of the lecture, she also spoke about how climate change has affected people globally. Her global discussion focused on the displacement of people due to environmental factors.

Ding showed the crowd a global map from 2015 depicting the distribution of people who were displaced from their homes as a result of natural disasters, 98 percent of which were a result of climate change. Yet, the definition of a refugee still does not include those escaping from climate change-induced natural disasters, according to Ding, who said the accepted definition still comes from the 1951 UN refugee convention.

“Mass migration could be a new normal

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due to unchecked global warming,” Ding said. “It’s quite difficult for us to envision but the problems are actually really severe for these people.”

For example, the saltwater intrusion in Tuvalu — an island off the coast of New Zealand — has led to difficulty growing crops due to the increasingly unreliable water source, according to Ding.

In light of problems such as these, junior environmental studies and economics major Selaam Araya, said recent efforts were being taken to include environmentally affected people in the definition of refugee.

“This is my think piece,” Araya, whose parents became refugees from Eritrea when a drought heightened violence during its civil war, said. “I love talking about refugees and climate change, [they] are my academic interests.”

Since climate change is leading to more and more migration, the lecture fit the mission of FORGE, according to co-President Abigail Wang. Wang, a senior studying neuroscience, said the club has always addressed refugee issues through its events.

“What we like to do [with FORGE] is to help people on campus foster more empathy and understanding,” Wang said.

While Ding is sure that mass migration will be a side effect of global warming, she said there are several aspects of the phenomena that climate scientists still aren’t certain of, such as whether or not climate change is reversible, or how much worse climate change will become in future years.

Some effects of rising global temperatures are only evident through numbers, like statistics on ozone depletion and rising CO2 levels, other consequences are more visible, like coral bleaching and rising sea levels.

Almost 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human activities are responsible for rising global temperatures and environmental deterioration, but they are uncertain about the dynamics of global warming, such as the physics of shifting ice shelves or the possibility of reversing its effects, according to Ding.

“Global environmental change is not a linear process so it is difficult for us to predict its future,” Ding said.

Ding added that “glaciers are the most sensitive indicators of climate change,” as shown through rising sea levels and natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes, but others are “quite scary,” Ding said.

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For example, in Siberia, because of rising global temperatures, bodies infected with smallpox — a disease last seen in 1977 — buried under the once-frozen Siberian ground are now being exposed to the air as global temperatures rise. The previously eradicated disease may be revived and spread as DNA containing the virus is now in the open.

In China, research has shown people living in the southern part of the country live five years longer on average than those in the north, where cities and air pollution are more prevalent. This prompts the question of what the country is actually doing to solve its environmental problems arises.

“In other countries, the problem is resolved after you make the law,” Ding said.

“The problem in China is that [the laws] are never implemented.”

Ding said that countries, like humans, act in their self-interest, but in order for change to happen, countries need to recognize that climate change is a global issue.

“If we want to think about solutions to the global refugee issues, it is really important for us to take climate change and the problems associated with it into consideration,” Ding said.

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Filing fee restricts mayoral candidate field If this year’s bench for Democratic mayoral primary is looking a little thin, we might have the local party to blame.

Last week, the Allegheny County Democratic Committee made the unsurprising announcement that it would endorse incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto for the 2017 Democratic primary for mayor. Two of the three candidates, Peduto and Councilwoman Darlene Harris, sought the committee’s endorsement, while the more anti-establishment Rev. John Welch has not.

The decision came in the middle of Pittsburgh’s first mayoral primary race with an earlier due date for filing fees, or the $10,000 each candidate must now pay to be considered for endorsement. Candidates who fail to win the endorsement are currently refunded 30 percent of the fee.

The county Democratic Party’s new endorsement process marks a sizeable shift in when it requires candidates seeking the organization’s endorsement to pay the relevant fees. Previously, the party required candidates to pay a filing fee of $3,000 before the endorsement decision was made and an assessment fee of $4,000 after one candidate won the endorsement.

Typically, this second fee would only be paid by the candidate who won the endorsement.

The system was replaced in 2015 with a new process that had candidates pay filing and assessment fees all up-front in order to discourage non-serious candidates from filing. And while the new system allows for a refund for candidates who fail to win the party’s endorsement for mayor, losing candidates end up losing much more money than they would have under the old rules.

Dj Ryan, executive director of the county Democratic Committee, pointed out that the overall size of the fees had remained the same from 2011 to 2017.

“The candidates are still paying the same amount, they’re just paying it all up-front,” he told The Pitt News.

Ryan said the candidates get their money’s worth for what they pay in filing fees. “Our candidates get a lot out of the endorsement system — access to of-

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fice space, voter databases and other party resources.”

Winning candidates likely would agree, but of course these resources are only open to whichever one actually receives the endorsement — the rest are left without anything in return.

Even for those who do not suffer a loss of funds from the lost endorsement, large, up-front filing fees stand in the way of potentially qualified, lower-income candidates from being able to actually use the county’s resources in a campaign.

Ryan disagreed with the idea that the filing fee presented an obstacle to candidates without substantial financial backing.

“The only mayoral candidate who hasn’t sought the Democratic Committee’s endorsement this cycle is Rev. Welch,” he pointed out. “And he’s said that he wouldn’t seek the committee’s endorsement even if he had $2 million.” Welch likely declined to seek the county party’s endorsement because of his campaign’s anti-establishment themes.

But the fact that none of the announced candidates had an issue with the filing fee doesn’t mean that some potential candidates may have declined to announce their candidacies because they knew they couldn’t afford to pay the endorsement filing fee.

And the increase in potential financial costs certainly doesn’t make it any easier, or more likely, for lowerincome candidates to enter the race.

It’s impossible to know how many qualified candidates from underprivileged communities in the city are underrepresented because of their inability to comply with the committee’s new filing rule because they have to pay so much up front. And far from making the county Democratic Party stronger, this absence of full representation can only serve to weaken it.

Candidates have the ability and the right to run for office without the blessing of the Democratic Party’s endorsement — they don’t even have to run for office under the Democratic Party’s label. But it’s beyond naive to believe that such a run has much chance of real success in Pittsburgh — a city that hasn’t had a mayor from any other party since the Great Depression.

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Education funding helps in war on crime

Jeremy Wang Columnist

In the war on crime, politicians seem to be more focused on punishing criminals than breaking the cycle of violence.

While politicians ignore these base causes of violence, public figures like Chicago musician Chance the Rapper have decided to take action to address them. “Our kids should not be held hostage because of political positions,” he announced at a press conference last week as he donated $1 million to Chicago’s public school system. His donation highlighted the most effective and versatile institutions in the strategy to fight crime — schools. But they are also one of the most underrated and underused.

While education is generally left out of the conversation, heavy-

TNS handed policing and strict laws are usually at the center of the political spotlight in crime-fighting. The Democratic Party’s typical answer to gun violence is to ban certain firearms and their accessories despite overwhelming scientific research and evidence that such laws fail to reduce violence.

On the other side, the Republican Party’s platform has responded to rising murder rates by encouraging capital punishment — even though there’s little to no evidence that executions deter criminals. President Donald Trump threatened on Twitter to “send in the Feds” to tackle Chicago’s crime.

The criminal justice system is a vital cornerstone in discouraging people from shooting each other, but not removing the motivations to do so. Law enforcement simply canSee Wang on page 5

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Wang, pg. 4 not and should not be expected to act as a therapeutic service to remedy the causes of violence. Our school systems can. But in the political PR race to seem tough on crime, schools are often under prioritized and their resources much more susceptible to budget cuts — endangering our most vulnerable students.

Instead of focusing on schools, politicians tend to favor enforcement-heavy approaches to crime that reflect a tendency for the American public to expect far too much out of the police and the criminal justice system. In an article for The Atlantic from April 2015, author Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out the broad social woes that have created an atmosphere of despair and violence in lowincome, urban communities. “Peel back the layers of most of the recent police shootings that have captured attention and you will find a broad societal problem that we have looked at, thrown our hands up and said to the criminal justice system, ‘You deal with this.’”

Politicians’ overextension of the criminal justice system seems even more

ridiculous in light of the disconnect between lower crime rates and strict laws targeting crime. Four of the 10 cities with the highest violent crime rates in the nation are in states scoring an A- in the Brady Campaign scorecard on gun laws — meaning they have some of the strongest gun control regulations in the country. Seven of the 10 cities with the lowest violent crime rates scored Ds and Fs. Mass incarceration fueled by “toughon-crime” politics has led to the jailing of over 2 million Americans. And research shows that these overcrowded jails are optimal breeding grounds for increased rates of violent behavior and repeat offenses.

But while the criminal justice system fails to address the fundamental problems behind persistent violence in many urban areas, public schools play a key role at every step of the process in helping America’s youth stay out of trouble while alleviating the impacts of urban poverty — a major risk factor for violence.

Education advocacy groups, such as the Council for a Strong America, sup-

port early childhood education programs as producing better academic and social outcomes. These programs also teach children basic social-emotional skillsets like teamwork, empathy and problem solving.

After-school programs for middle schoolers helped reduce delinquent behavior, while programs emphasizing social skills and character development saw the greatest returns. In high school, just a 1 percent increase in the graduation rate among men would save the United States as much as $1.4 billion per year in reduced costs from crime, according to a 2003 study from UCLA economist Enrico Moretti.

Despite the clear benefits of increased spending on education, most states have been cutting school budgets for the past eight years, making it much more difficult to expand access to early childhood education, increase after-school programs and retain committed and motivated teachers. In at least 31 states, the amount invested in each student in 2014 was less than in 2008, and in 15 of these states, school budgets were slashed by more than 10 percent.

In Pennsylvania alone, nearly $1 billion was cut from public school budgets in 2011 under former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. Pittsburgh Public Schools underwent a $34.1 million funding cut under Corbett’s administration as well.

Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable youth bore the brunt of the consequences and threats to public school funding only further entrench the cycle of poverty which nurtures crime and violence. Children in underserved school districts have little reason to expect education to act as a ladder out of violent communities, and the desperation the situation produces only adds to the cycle of violence.

In a speech last July at a memorial service in Dallas, former President Barack Obama lamented, “It is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.” If this is the rhetoric our politicians want to use, we should start asking ourselves why a book is less accessible than a $600 handgun.

Jeremy primarily writes on gun policy and violent crime.

Write to Jeremy at jiw115@pitt.edu.

The Pitt News SuDoku 3/16/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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March 16, 2017

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Correction: In the March 14 story “Big City, Tiny Art,” The Pitt News mistakenly reported that artist Harish Saluja is 60 years old. Saluja is 70 years old. The story has been updated online to reflect the correct information. The Pitt News regrets this error.

Culture

COURTESY OF MATTHEW DIETERICH, MDIETERICHPHOTO.COM

Beyond the city lights: stargazing in Pgh Ellen Kruczek

Staff Writer Every new moon, a group gathers to stand outside in the cold, mosquito-ridden fields of Deer Lakes Park in Frazer and West Deer townships — a 32-minute drive from the Cathedral of Learning.

They’re not a secret society or dedicated “Cinema in the Park” enthusiasts. They’re there to look at the sky, but they aren’t scientists. They are Pittsburghers who want to feel small in a big universe — members of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh.

Bill Moutz, a 73-year-old former steelworker, has been interested in the stars since he was a child, when he often went stargazing on camping, fishing and boating trips. Eventually, he turned the hobby into a lifestyle when he joined the AAAP in 2003.

“People don’t always think they’re born of the universe,” Moutz said. “Some people think, ‘oh, I’m from Turtle Creek,’ or ‘oh, I’m from Murrysville.’ No, you’re born into the universe, and you should know a little bit about it.”

Leo Scanlon and Chester Roe, both working-class Pittsburgh natives, founded the AAAP in 1929 as a telescope-building organization. Over the past 88 years, the organization built both the Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, and the Mingo Creek Park Observatory in Finleyville, Penn-

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sylvania, as well as a base of 244 members.

Their purpose is clear: share the sky with anyone who wants it.

Prior to joining the AAAP, Moutz was interested in science but had little experience with it.

“My dad didn’t make a lot of money. I knew that if I was to go to college, I would have to pay my way through, and I didn’t really see that happening,” Moutz said. “I didn’t explore scientific fields. [But] I always did enjoy and share the night sky.”

After his wife, Maureen, bought him a twoinch diameter telescope that “couldn’t see crap,” Moutz and his wife went to an AAAP star party on the Carnegie Science Center lawn. Star parties — where a large group of amateur stargazers come together to share their telescopes and knowledge with other amateurs — are not exclusive to Pittsburgh.

In cities across the country, fans of the night sky gather for community and comets.

Amateur stargazing groups and astronomical societies have been founded from Houston to Chicago to New York City, and one group in Los Angeles — The Los Angeles Astronomical Society — has more than 600 members.

There’s even an umbrella organization called the Astronomical League, comprised of more than 240 amateur stargazing and astronomy groups, including the AAAP and 11 others

across Pennsylvania.

At their first AAAP star party in August 2003, the Moutz couple saw astronomical events they’ll never forget — Martian polar ice caps and a green iridium flare from a satellite through a member’s telescope. As the bright green flare exploded across the sky, Moutz’s world expanded past the Steel City.

“It’s almost a spiritual experience. You’re in awe about the vastness of the universe,” Moutz said.

Over time, Moutz went from student to teacher. At the AAAP’s monthly business meeting on Feb. 10, he talked passionately to the other members about different types of telescopes and stargazing trips he’d taken. That day, a partial lunar eclipse — obscured by the cloudy weather — aligned with the AAAP meeting.

Fifty-one members greeted each other as old friends. The meeting was a sea of grayhaired heads. Members says star parties, which are open to the public, have a large age range, but the regular meetings tend to be middleaged and above. Some think it’s because of the group’s formal meeting style or young people’s tendency to treat star parties as one-time events.

However, Amanda Myers, a 25-year-old economics and supply and demand graduate from Penn State Behrend, said people’s knowl-

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edge and deep involvement keeps the group alive despite its lack of young members.

“Everyone is very personable, knowledgeable and eager to share their knowledge — generous teachers,” Myers said.

After going to the 2015 Black Forest Star Party at Cherry Springs State Park in Central Pennsylvania, Myers bought Walmart binoculars and a star map — a basic map of the night sky — and started learning about the night sky by herself.

But the Pittsburgh hills, trees and power lines made stargazing difficult for Myers. Frustrated, Myers stopped by the flat field behind AAAP’s Wagman Observatory in September 2015. Soon, Myers began showing up to the AAAP meetings, where Pitt professor and longtime stargazer Diane Turnshek took Myers under her wing. Though relatively new to stargazing, Myers talks about the night sky like it’s her home.

“I’ve lived in cities my whole life, so I never got to see much of the night sky growing up.

Because of light pollution, I didn’t know what I was missing,” Myers, an Atlanta native, said. “I want to share what I’ve seen with people.”

Myers and Turnshek worry that city light pollution will keep the night sky hidden from curious Pittsburghers, recalling an anecdote See Stargazing on page 7

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Stargazing, pg. 6 about Los Angeles’ 1994 Northridge earthquake. The earthquake caused a city-wide blackout, removing the light pollution from the night sky.

The Los Angeles Times wrote in 2011 that after the 4:31 a.m. quake, LA’s Griffith observatory received several calls with the same question: Does the sky really look like that? The LA natives were referring to the Milky Way, the centerpiece of a dark night sky. Though neither Myers nor Turnshek were in Los Angeles in 1994, the story serves as a warning of what Pittsburgh light pollution could cause.

According to the Journal of Science Advances, in 2017 light pollution obscures the Milky Way for about 80 percent of North Americans. Myers and Turnshek want to change cities’ reputation as inconvenient places for stargazers by providing stargazing locations within Pittsburgh and transportation to locations outside the city limits.

Myers and Turnshek have joined the International Dark-Sky Association, which uses education and research to advocate against light pollution. Turnshek advocated for antilight pollution measures in a 2015 TEDxPitts-

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burgh talk, a mission she continues currently by talking with Pittsburgh city officials about coordinating to scale down light pollution in the city.

Myers looks to more personal goals for the future. It’s her dream to combine her two passions of economics and astronomy and one day run supply logistics for NASA — which involves tracking all the machinery parts shipped to various NASA locations.

“No one I’m close with that’s my age is interested [in learning about astronomy] like me. Most young people I see involved [in amateur astronomy] are into astrophotography.

Many will come and not know much about the sky — they just know a lot about photography. It’s a great exchange,” Myers said.

For other stargazers, astrophotography is a route to learning more about the night sky.

Matthew Dieterich, a 25-year-old Pitt geology graduate, has even gained national recognition with his passion for astrophotography.

Dieterich didn’t spend his college weekends at frat parties or bars. Instead, he took trips from Pittsburgh to anywhere he could see the stars. At Spruce Nob, West Virginia, he sculpted what he feels is his art: taking pictures of the Milky Way. “You need to be as far away from people

as possible... Pittsburgh is a pretty awful place for nighttime photography,” Dieterich said.

Dieterich traveled to several national parks and had the guidance and support from other photographers from the AAAP. Now, he lives in Victoria, Texas, the state with some of the largest star parties in the country.

One of Dieterich’s photos, taken at Mount Rainier in Washington, won a U.S. Postal Service competition and is now featured on a Forever Stamp.

No matter where he’s been in the country, he always finds time to take a picture of the sky.

“It’s been there with me this entire journey.

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Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR I keep coming back to it. It’s in me — the night sky,” Dieterich said. “Humans want to connect to that. When educating about the night sky, everyone is just jaw-dropped, curious. They [are] all little kids again. That’s the power of the night sky.”

7

Sports

See Online

Pitt men’s soccer lands top-50 national recruit

four panthers begin quests for ncaa titles

TeShan Campbell, Taleb Rahmani, Dom Forys and Ryan Solomon. (Left to Right) Anna Bongardino, John Hamilton STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS, (Far Right) TPN FILE PHOTO

Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

It’s been nearly a decade since Keith Gavin took home the Pitt wrestling team’s most recent individual title at the 2008 NCAA Championships in St. Louis.

The annual tournament returns to the Scottrade Center this year, where Gavin reached the pinnacle of the sport by capturing the 197-pound national championship nine years ago.

The three-day competition begins Thursday, as 330 of the best wrestlers in the country across 10 weight classes will battle it out for the chance to be champions. Four Pitt wrestlers are making the trip, and all four have proven they deserve to be there among the nation’s best.

Prior to Gavin’s undefeated senior season, you’d have to go back almost 30 years to 1989 to find the Panthers’ last national champion — two-time titlist Pat Santoro, who accomplished the feat in both 1988 and 1989.

Plenty of successful wrestlers have left their mark on the Fitzgerald Field House

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wrestling room since, with several ACC champions and All-Americans passing through the program. Tyler Wilps came as close as possible to ending the national title drought as a senior in 2015, but lost a 5-4 decision in the 174-pound finals after two controversial coaches’ challenges in the final seconds.

None of the Pitt wrestlers are favored to top the podium this year, but that doesn’t stop the Panthers’ national qualifiers from striving toward that goal.

Junior Dom Forys, sophomore TeShan Campbell and redshirt freshman Taleb Rahmani each captured their first ACC titles at the ACC Championships March 4, while redshirt junior Ryan Solomon qualified for nationals with a third-place finish.

Forys, Campbell and Solomon are all nationally ranked and seeded inside the top 15 in their brackets, while Rahmani enters the tournament unseeded.

Forys, Campbell and Rahmani’s faces will soon be added to one wall in Pitt’s wrestling room for their ACC titles. All four now have their focus on making it

onto the other side — reserved for AllAmericans and national champions.

Dom Forys Forys (19-1), the No. 6 seed at 133 pounds, fell one win short of achieving AllAmerican status at last year’s NCAA Tournament. As Pitt’s highest-seeded wrestler, he carries the highest expectations and the team’s best chance of finishing in the top eight, but he’s shooting for more.

At a midseason press conference in December, Forys said his goal for the season was to be a national champion, and if he falls short of that, he’ll still be an AllAmerican. Now riding a 12-match winning streak into the tournament, nothing has changed for the Pittsburgh native.

“No matter what, I’ll be happy with my results, but I’m obviously shooting for national champion,” Forys said in an interview after the ACC Championships March 4. “I’m very confident that I can do that.”

Forys’ only loss of the season came in Pitt’s Dec. 4 dual meet against the then-No. 1 Oklahoma State Cowboys. He dropped a 6-2 decision to redshirt freshman Kaid

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Brock, the No. 3 seed at 133 pounds. If Forys and Brock both win their first two matches, the two will meet again in the national quarterfinals.

Although Forys isn’t looking past his early-round opponents, he admitted he wants a second crack at Brock — and he’s confident the outcome will be different this time.

“We have some depth in our bracket, and I’m really prepared to wrestle anybody on the other side of that line. It doesn’t really matter the name,” Forys said. “If I wrestle Brock again, I’ll get my revenge, and it’ll feel good to do that at nationals.”

Forys will take on unseeded Corey Keener from Central Michigan in the opening round Thursday morning.

TeShan Campbell Campbell (20-2) will be making his second appearance at the NCAA Tournament, and he’s still looking for his first win at the marquee event.

He dropped a pair of close matches to more experienced opponents at 174 See Wrestling on page 9

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Wrestling, pg. 8 pounds last year as a true freshman. After making the cut to 165 pounds this year, Campbell has outmuscled and outwrestled the competition all season on his way to earning the No. 10 seed at this year’s tournament.

“Last year I had a thumb injury, I was banged up at a higher weight class, I feel like a lot more things are in my favor [this year],” Campbell said. “I’m on a win streak, I have all that behind me. I didn’t really know if I belonged there last year.”

Like Forys, Campbell carries a lengthy winning streak into nationals, as the Pittsburgh native has won 13 matches in a row.

With the added momentum of winning the 165-pound title at the ACC Championships, Campbell said he believes things will go differently for him in his second appearance at nationals, but he stopped short of predicting where he’ll finish.

“I feel confident,” Campbell said. “The goal is obviously to get on the podium, but I feel as though there’s a lot of things that are playing a huge role to how the tournament plays out.”

Campbell will battle Oklahoma’s un-

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seeded Yoanse Mejias Thursday morning in his first-round matchup.

Taleb Rahmani Forys and Campbell have been mainstays in the Panthers’ lineup all year, but the team’s breakout star this year — Rahmani — didn’t even have a spot in the lineup to begin the season.

Rahmani (23-6) battled with true freshman Jake Wentzel for the starting role at 157 pounds before the season, but Pitt’s coaches decided Wentzel deserved the spot. Wentzel compiled an 8-5 record before suffering an injury early in the season, opening the door for Rahmani.

Unlike Forys and Campbell, Rahmani doesn’t fit the typical mold of a musclebound, lightning-quick wrestler. Instead, the Marysville, Ohio, native consistently uses moves and techniques rarely seen in the American folkstyle circuit.

His go-to move — where he baits an opponent into wrapping him in a bear hug before reaching behind his own back, locking up his opponent’s arms and flipping them onto their back — has mystified even the most experienced competitors.

Rahmani used his unorthodox style to confound opponents on his way to a team-

best 10 pins, 23 wins and an ACC title.

“I think it’s the funky style, but then the coaches, I’ve got to give credit to them.

They helped me settle down a little bit and get more into the basics where I can use both, and the funky style comes out when I need it,” Rahmani said.

Now that he made it to the ACC Championships and won the 157-pound title in his first appearance, he has his focus set on the ultimate goal: the NCAA Championships.

“It still doesn’t feel that real,” Rahmani said about his ACC crown. “The season’s not over, still have another tournament which is even more important ... I’d say expect anything. Anything could happen.”

Rahmani’s opening-round match Thursday morning will be against No. 11 seed Colin Heffernan of Central Michigan.

Ryan Solomon After overcoming an early-season knee injury, Solomon (17-4) rebounded with a stellar second half of the season to earn the No. 15 seed in the 285-pound bracket.

His signature win came in the Panthers’ regular season finale, when he defeated Duke’s Jacob Kasper by 4-3 decision in

March 16, 2017

Pitt’s dual-meet win.

The two met again in the ACC semifinals, where Kasper escaped with a 2-1 decision in overtime on his way to a secondplace finish.

“He’s a tough guy, and he’s good at a lot of things,” Solomon said about his opponent. “He brought to my attention kind of what I need to work on all-around wise.”

The two are on opposite sides of the tournament bracket, so a rubber match could only take place in the consolation bracket or the national finals. If Solomon does make the finals though, it’s more likely that No. 1 heavyweight and Olympic champion from Ohio State Kyle Snyder will be standing across from him. Still, Solomon isn’t worried about who he faces.

“It’d be the same as any other match,” Solomon said about potentially facing Snyder. “He’s a great wrestler, no doubt about it. Can’t say anything bad about him.

But it’s more on you if you believe you can do that, and I do believe it can happen. If we get there, anything can happen.”

Solomon’s first-round opponent Thursday morning will be unseeded Ross Larson of Oklahoma.

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