3-17-17

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | March 17, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 140

CONFLICT KITCHEN TO CLOSE

CRAFTING FOR A CAUSE

Ashwini Sivaganesh

Jane Kong, a senior economics major, works on a tissue paper flower craft for the Children’s Hopsital of Pittsburgh as part of an event in the William Pitt Union Thursday. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

IN WAKE OF AHCA, HEALTH PROS DISCUSS BILL Rose Luder

For The Pitt News Chief legal officer at UPMC Sheryl Kashuba drew laughs from a full audience — including Chancellor Patrick Gallagher in the front row — as soon as she began her part of a discussion on health care Thursday afternoon.

“First let me say what weird times we’re living in when you’ve packed the room for talking about insurance,” she said.

About 150 students and faculty members gathered Thursday to discuss health care and the government’s role in providing resources in an event titled “The Affordable Care Act: Repeal, Repair, or Replace?” The panelists discussed the Affordable Care Act — also known as ACA, a 2010 bill intended to fill the gaps in health care coverage. The discussion focused on the possibility of replacing the ACA with a Republican bill that proposes ending Medicare expansion

by 2020 and including age-based tax credits for those who earn less than $75,000 or $150,000.

During his campaign, President Donald Trump’s platform included repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s health care plan. His calls for a removal of “Obamacare,” were met with wide approval

by Republicans — nearly all of whom had opposed the ACA. See AHCA on page 3

Contributing Editor After seven years, Conflict Kitchen will close up shop at its Schenley Plaza location May 31.

The restaurant — which serves international food from countries the United States is in conflict with — is funded by sales, in addition to some local organizations including the Sprout Fund and the Benter Foundation.

Until now, Carnegie Mellon University provided administrative support for the restaurant, but now CMU will maintain administrative assistance for the other creative activities the Conflict Kitchen team plans to take on, according to a press release posted to the restaurant’s website Thursday.

“Although we will no longer be based in Schenley Plaza, Conflict Kitchen will continue to expand our educational initiatives throughout the Greater Pittsburgh region with the production of curriculum, performances, public events and publications with cultural institutions, community organizations and schools,” Conflict Kitchen’s management said in the release.

The restaurant has long been a local favorite, known for producing food and educational content about cultures and peoples from various areas of the world. The current menu features food from the Native American confederacy the Haudenosaunee.

The group is looking for new partnerships as it expands locally and nationally.

News

The caption for the front page photo "Hardy Har Har," published Mar. 15, identified a comedian preforming at Collegiates and Comedians as John Dick Winters. This is not correct.

Joe Marchi is the comedian pictured and Winters performed later in the show. The Pitt News regrets this error.

Pitt remembers Dr. Thomas E. Starzl

Grant Burgman Staff Writer

Although Dr. Thomas E. Starzl is known in the Pitt medical community for his contributions to the organ transplant field, his grandson Ravi Starzl knows him as an ice cream connoisseur.

The elder Starzl was such a fan of ice cream that he would frequently eat it for dinner, his grandson said. He was partial to Blue Bunny, since it’s produced in his hometown of Le Mars, Iowa.

“Because he was concerned what he liked would go out of style, he would buy absurd quantities of it,” Ravi said. “He would go out and buy, like, 14 varieties of ice cream.”

Outside of his role as ice cream connoisseur, Starzl was a revolutionary transplant surgeon who performed the first liver transplant in 1967. He passed away on March 4 in his Schenley Farms home at 90 years old.

Starlz’s death ended what was a 36year tenure at Pitt. He worked as both a professor and a surgeon, until 1991, for several Pittsburgh hospitals including UPMC Presbyterian and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

“He will be remembered for many things, but perhaps most importantly for the countless lives he saved through his pioneering work,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in a statement released after Starzl’s death.

His surgeries pioneered the way transplants are done today from his successful performances of the first human kidney transplant in 1962 to the first human liver transplant, on 19-month-old Julie Rodriguez, just five years later. Starzl’s research mostly involved prevention of organ rejection, but his later work involved transplant tolerance and chimerism, the existence of cells from both the donor and

pittnews.com

recipient.

He also found time to mentor several medical professionals in the transplant field, including Abhinav Humar, the clinical director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute.

“The world has lost today the greatest figure in the history of transplant, and I have lost my greatest mentor,” Humar, who’s also chief of the Transplant Division of Surgery at UPMC, said in the release.

Many others felt a gap in their lives after Starzl’s passing. On March 11 — his birthday — more than 400 family, friends and members of the medical community showed up at Heinz Chapel to honor his legacy.

Ravi, a co-director of the biotechnology, innovation and computation program at Carnegie Mellon University, remembers his grandfather’s propensity for making people laugh, but notes there were two sides to him.

“He had an extraordinary sense of humor, but when it came to things he was serious about, he was deadly serious — like a laser,” Ravi said, referencing how seriously the elder Starzl took his job in medicine.

Starzl was born in Le Mars, Iowa, in 1926. He was raised by his father Roman, who worked as an editor, publisher and owner of a local paper, and his mother Anna, who worked as a nurse. He graduated from Westminster College in 1947 with a B.A. in biology and went on to get his doctoral degree in neurophysiology from Northwestern University in 1952.

He spent time at both Northwestern and the University of Colorado before coming to Pitt in 1981. It was at the University of Colorado that Starzl attempted and completed the first liver transplants.

According to Ravi, his grandfather’s mindset about life and how to conquer a

problem was the reason for so many of his something ridiculous. The name he used that time was ‘Finkle Grouper,’” Ravi achievements.

“He believed in the tradition of [Eng- said.] “My grandfather retained his diglish philosopher] John Stuart Mill — that nity, his fearsome intellect and sharp wit the wheel of the world is moved by those to the very last instant.”

And for those who didn’t have the who take risks,” Ravi said. “The one thing he admired above all other things was chance to directly work with him, includpeople trying new things.”

During routine movie nights with his grandson, Starzl would leave the captions on and pause the film “every five minutes, ”Ravi said, just to discuss what was happening in each scene.

“That’s something I won’t be able to do with anyone else,” Ravi said. “We would analyze a movie to death.”

Ravi described his grandfather as a “prankster.”

Once, after his wife Natalie made Photo courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh him chili, the elder Starzl wrote up a fake award from the “International Gour- ing registered nurse Kelly Kaupinis, 23, mand Society,” placed it in a professional who works at UPMC Presbyterian, the impact Starzl had for transplants is someenvelope and mailed it to their home.

Once, after Ravi’s Natalie made his thing she sees in her work to this day.

“If it weren’t for people like Starzl dograndfather chili, the elder Starzl wrote up a fake award from the “International ing the work he did, I wouldn’t be able to Gourmand Society,” placed it in a pro- help people in the same way, like a recent fessional envelope and mailed it to their patient I witnessed who recovered from a double lung transplant,” she said. “And home.

“You could always tell it was my I think it’s pretty awesome that he made grandfather because the name would be that difference here in Pittsburgh.”

March 17, 2017

2

AHCA, pg. 1 The Republicans released their replacement plan, called the American Health Care Act, earlier this month. The bill passed in the House Budget Committee Thursday.

The discussion Thursday did not attempt to answer which bill, the ACA or the AHCA, would be better for Americans’ futures. Instead, the panelists offered more dramatic approaches to solving the problem of health care, such as establishing an entirely new health care system.

The panel consisted of four health professionals who spoke one-by-one, each presenting their own lecture, focusing on the history and future of health care in the United States, and ending with a Q&A. Everette James, associate vice chancellor for health policy and planning in the School of Health Sciences, opened the panel. He said since Sen. Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump ran on the ticket of “repeal and replace,” he expected that new health care legislation would be put in place. As the government was constructing a health care system in the early 1900s, he said, the United States missed the chance to move toward a system of social health

insurance.

“We set up a system focused on the private sector with a goal of providing coverage for everybody but not actually guaranteeing it,” James said.

When the United States government realized that many people were not covered under the private system, he said, programs like Medicare, Medicaid and, more recently, “Obamacare” — a phrase which has become synonymous with ACA — were set up. James noted that only about 170 million out of 290 million American citizens were covered by private insurers in 2015.

If it were to pass today, the AHCA would leave 52 million people uninsured, compared to 28 million under the existing law, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.

UPMC’s Executive Vice President Steven Shapiro said the AHCA differs from the ACA in its use of government funding. The AHCA would reduce government spending by lessening the number of people covered by government-funded programs, which is the opposite of what the ACA does.

Both bills treaded a difficult course, Shapiro said.

“It’s really difficult to thread that needle, to give affordable health care for all and still lower the national spending on health care, which is a problem,” Shapiro said.

Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management Julie Donohue attempted to address this problem by proposing the use of a European-style single-payer system, where one public agency organizes financing health care. She said that the “patchwork” type system — a system that uses a variety of different programs to patch up the gaps in employee-sponsored insurance for those who are not insured under ACA — was failing.

“No one in their right mind would create this kind of patchwork system,” Donahue said, referring to both the ACA and AHCA. When the panel opened up the room for questions, one person asked whether health care reform would ever go beyond the question ‘what is my personal problem?’

“I think it’s so personal that it’s difficult to have these global discussions,” Kashuba said. “There’s medications currently that can expand your life by two months, and these are costly. And if you’re that person

that wants two more months, there is no money that is too much.”

Maureen Clark, a junior studying rehab science, said she was not excited about the possible implementation of the AHCA, but she has also been negatively affected by the ACA. “My family’s premium went up astronomically when the ACA was passed,” Clark said. “We had to switch [health care] plans,” Clark said.

Angela Wateska, who works as a research associate with the Department of Medicine, also said she felt uneasy about the implementation of the AHCA because her research focused on improving health care delivery to the underprivileged.

“This new policy, I have a very low opinion of it,” she said. “I don’t want to see the rate for health insurance go up and 24 million people go uninsured.”

Shapiro said the solution to the health care crisis doesn’t have to be solved by a bill. Instead, he said, individuals have some responsibility in ensuring that everybody has a right to healthy living.

“Being at a premier academic institution, the real solution lies with us, in quality care,” Shapiro said.

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

pittnews.com

March 17, 2017

3

The Pitt News

Editor-in-Chief

Managing Editor

ELIZABETH LEPRO

LAUREN ROSENBLATT

editor@pittnews.com

manager@pittnews.com

News Editor

Opinions Editor

ASHWINI SIVAGANESH

AMBER MONTGOMERY

newsdesk.tpn@gmail.com

tpnopinions@pittnews.com

Sports Editor

Culture Editor

STEVE ROTSTEIN

EMILY BRINDLEY

tpnsports@gmail.com

aeeditors@gmail.com

Visual Editor

Layout Editor

JOHN HAMILTON

JORDAN MONDELL

pittnewsphoto@gmail.com

tpnlayout@gmail.com

Online Editor

Copy Chief

MATT CHOI

SIERRA SMITH

tpnonline@gmail.com

tpncopydesk@gmail.com

Amanda Reed | Assistant News Editor Alexandria Stryker | Assistant Copy Chief James Evan Bowen-Gaddy | Assistant News Editor Copy Staff Henry Glitz | Assistant Opinions Editor Amanda Sobczak Mia DiFelice Bayard Miller | Assistant Sports Editor

Meghan Sunners | Assistant Visual Editor Emily Hower | Assistant Layout Editor Matt Moret | Online Engagement Editor

pittnews.com

Bridget Montgomery Corey Foreman Matthew Maelli Alexa Marzina Rachael Crabb

Michelle Reagle Rielly Galvin Sydney Mengel Kim Rooney Kyleen Pickering

Editorial Policies

Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus.

Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News.

Any letter in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to let-

ters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left.

The Pitt News is an independent, studentwritten and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is pub- lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer.

Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the

editors, may be referred to the Community Relations Committee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law.

The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University staff, faculty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and editorial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

Business Manager CALVIN REIF

Sales Manager SEAN HENNESSY Marketing Manager LARA PETORAK Graphic Designers

advertising@pittnews.com

Production Manager MAYA PUSKARIC Account Executives

Inside Sales Manager MARISSA ALTEMUS Digital Manager ISAAC PROCH Inside Sales Executive

Taylor Trgovac

Robert Capone

Marty Waters

Scott Elias

Madison McClure

Matty Houck

Julianne Rohac

Arianna Taddei

Marketing Assistant

David Barone

Antonio Blundo

Jill Baldauf

Isabel Scrabis

Katie Bozzo

March 17, 2017

Izzy Krempa

University Account Executive David Mo Barone

4

Opinions from the editorial board X Pitt Tonight

Top 10: St. Patrick’s Day Facts You probably think you get the gist of ole St. Patty’s Day — shamrocks, wearing green, 6. St. Patrick’s Day should actually be asIreland, all that jazz. But there’s more to it than that, historically. We did our research this week sociated with the color blue.

But one color-blind guy messed it up back and dug up a few lesser-known facts about St. Patrick’s Day, some also revolving around in, like, 1780 and now everyone just wears shamrocks, wearing green and Ireland, but green. with a bit of a twist. Please don’t fact-check us 5. The Shamrock Shake was originally on any of these. invented in Ireland, and Ronald McDonald 10. St. Patrick gained his sainthood with stole it while on holiday there.

Well, normally we would be mad at Mcthe miracle of turning beer from gold to Donald’s for such a crime, but those shakes are green.

This is the reason we annually turn city a gift to us all, so who are we to complain? rivers from brown to green. This miracle also 4. The three leaves on a shamrock stand acts as a reference to Jesus turning water into wine, but you tell us which one seems more for the holy trinity: Joe, Kevin and Nick Jonas. miraculous.

For hundreds of years, the Irish wor9. The luck of the Irish actually comes shipped the holy trinity, the Jonas Brothers. from exposure to the Blarney Stone, which Every so often, a four leaf clover will appear — that’s just Frankie, the Bonus Jonas. I’m pretty emits radiation.

The more you know! Feel free to use this sure they’re part Irish. fact as a pickup line tonight.

3. We pinch people who don’t wear green.

Because people who aren’t wearing green 8. St. Patrick actually drove the snakes out of Ireland because he’d never seen a on St. Patty’s Day are living the dream of not celebrating St. Patty’s Day and therefore must snake before.

Can you believe it? He just kinda freaked be swiftly pulled out of their reverie. out and went overboard. We think everyone 2. The traditional Irish jig was started by can understand though. How would you react if you saw a fanged, boneless assassin slithering people rhythmically kicking snakes.

You’d be surprised by how many cultural through the grass for the first time? He almost did the same thing when he first saw a squirrel. dance traditions originated from the sheer instinct to survive. Don’t get us started on clogWhat a holiday that would be. ging.

7. There’s no way to know if Ireland is 1. “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” shirts were inventreal.

None of us have ever been there and we’re ed by a Portuguese grandmother.

It’s a scam, sure, but that old lady and her just a bunch of ethnocentric millennial Americans. We’re more inclined to believe in the lost entire family are filthy rich now. What’re you city of Atlantis before Ireland. All those pic- going to do? Con women gonna con. tures of lush green fields? Could be Portland.

We’re not convinced.

pittnews.com

column

EDUCATION, NOT OPTIONS, KEY TO CLIMATE FUTURE Julia Aldrich Columnist

While recycling and refillable water bottles were once the most popular fad among the environmentally conscious, there is now a more pressing matter for humans to turn their attention to in order to slow global climate change: the animal industry.

When you navigate to Pitt’s website on campus sustainability, you’re given a list of all of the ways the University is making an effort to “go green.” A plan to increase levels of recycling on campus?

Liam McFadden STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

March 17, 2017

Great! Printers that reduce paper waste?

Fantastic! A garden to collect excess rainwater? Amazing!

Let’s go one step farther.

Given our new administration’s skeptical views about climate change, we should celebrate Pitt for taking steps in the right direction. For the fourth year in a row, Princeton University listed Pitt among 361 other colleges in its “Guide to Green Colleges,” gaining recognition as one of the most environmentally friendly universities in the U.S. and Canada. If we want to make Princeton’s top 50 list in the future, there are ways the University can build on its existent sustainable programming.

If we’re not actively pushing and educating students about the immense ways our food choices impact the environment, then we’re not doing enough to really serve the causes we claim to support. It’s not only about giving students the option to eat less meat but telling them how these choices can influence the future of the environment and create sustainable change.

The question of whether eating meat is See Aldrich on page 7

6

Aldrich, pg. 6 bad for the environment is not a question anymore. And the issue isn’t that people are unwilling to try more plantbased foods or unaware of the perils the environment is currently in, but rather, it’s that people aren’t aware of the effects their demand for meat has on the earth.

Lean and Green — a Pitt student initiative that strives to promote sustainability on campus through environmentally friendly and healthy diet choices — conducted a study that showed Pitt students don’t fully understand the impact their eating habits have on the environment.

According to Paige Walter, the group’s media coordinator, the study surveyed 83 students at Market Central and asked them whether saving the animals, protecting the environment or living a healthy lifestyle would be most persuasive reason to go vegetarian. Of those surveyed, 31.3 percent said they would give up meat to live a healthier lifestyle while 28.9 percent said they would to protect the environment.

These are hopeful responses but not nearly enough to show that Pitt students recognize or value the key connection between meat eating and the environment.

The livestock industry of chickens, cows and pigs produces more greenhouse gas emissions that all cars and trucks combined, according to Greenpeace. So as we eat more meat, the de-

mand for meat likewise goes up and increases those gases. But when we eat more meat alternatives instead, like nuts or tofu, we can make a big difference in what’s being released into our climate.

According to Walter, if a person went vegetarian for a year, they would produce three times less carbon than if they were to purchase a hybrid car.

And interestingly, more than 92 percent of responders said they would like to see more plant-based foods in the

capability to make significant changes for the future of the environment. Give the students want they want — which is more diverse plant-based options — but also tell them why they should want it.

Informing students about why these options are environmentally favorable can only inspire students to choose them more often.

Abdou Cole, the resident district manager for Pitt Dining by Sodexo, is part of the team working to create

a day, usually because this food is good for their health.

Cole also said he hopes to educate students on how and why to make more ethical food choices by hosting pop-up courses — an idea Pitt should work to implement in as many places on campus as possible.

But in order for students to start eating less meat with the intention of reducing their carbon Posters throughout the dining halls, informational email campaigns, programs in residence halls and even financial incentives for what students spend their money on can help inform students and shape their knowledge and decision making. A program similar to AlcoholEdu that makes firstyear students more aware of how they can make sustainable food choices would have a large impact on the University.

In conjunction with offering more vegetarian options, letting non-vegetarian students know about the sustainable benefits that come from choosing these foods can encourage them to eat them more often.

The animal industry is only going to keep growing if people keep eating meat. If Pitt wants to have an impact and keep up its reputation as an environmentally conscious university, it should ensure its students know how they can do their part to help out the earth.

of 83 students surveyed at market central...

pittnews.com

31.3% said they would give up meat to live a healthier lifestyle

28.9% said they would give up meat to protect the environment dining halls at Pitt. So it’s clear that students are willing to eat less meat and explore more veggie-friendly options.

But what’s not clear for students is why these options are imperative for making choices that help our planet.

With Pitt’s student population at about 34,000, the University has the

sustainable changes for the University and its students’ dining options. The executive chefs at Market Central are constructing a variety of tasty, plantbased dishes they plan to introduce to the menu next year. And Cole estimated that about 45 percent of diners already eat at least one vegetarian or vegan dish

March 17, 2017

Julia primarily writes about politics and social issues for The Pitt News.

Write to Julia at jla85@pitt.edu.

7

Sports

PANTHERS OUSTED FROM TITLE CONTENTION Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

After a successful opening round at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, all four of Pitt’s competitors dropped out of contention for first-place titles by the end of the second session Thursday night.

Junior 133-pounder Dom Forys, sophomore 165-pounder TeShan Campbell and redshirt junior heavyweight Ryan Solomon each picked up wins Thursday morning to advance to the second round. But later in the day, all three were eliminated, and redshirt freshman 157-pounder Taleb Rahmani lost his firstround match Thursday morning.

Although none of them are eligible to win national championships, all four will have the opportunity to achieve All-American status through the consolation bracket. The top eight finishers in each weight class become All-

Americans, and the Pitt wrestlers can still finish as high as third place.

Forys, the No. 6 seed at 133 pounds, started the day for the Panthers against unseeded Corey Keener of Central Michigan. He tallied a pair of takedowns late in the first and second periods to take a 5-0 lead, then scored a pair of takedowns in the third to cap off a 10-2 major decision victory.

Sixteen wrestlers made it to the second round, with Forys among them. He met No. 11 seed Bryan Lantry of Buffalo in a hotly contested battle that came down to the final seconds.

Lantry took an early lead with a takedown late in the first period and led 2-0 going into the second. Forys escaped then took Lantry down late in the second, making the score 3-2 in Forys favor going into the final period. But Lantry escaped with a minute left to tie the score, then

Dom Forys dropped a 5-3 decision to Bryan Lantry Thursday in the Round of See Wrestling on page 9 16 at the NCAA Championships. Meghan Sunners ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR

TOP-50 PROSPECT EDWARD BRINGS LEADERSHIP, SCORING ABILITY TO PITT SOCCER

Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

The Pitt men’s soccer team hasn’t beaten an ACC opponent in four years of conference play, but the Panthers’ fortunes might soon change.

Pitt received a verbal commitment Wednesday from forward Kizza Edward, one of the most prized prospects in the country.

Edward, part of the prestigious Soccer Institute at Montverde Academy in Florida, is ranked as the No. 41 recruit in the 2017 class according to the website Top Drawer Soccer.

Edward is a Uganda native who spent his first year of high school at Carlisle School in Martinsville, Virginia. He then transferred to Montverde prior to his sophomore season and joined the SIMA program, which is separate from the boys’ varsity soccer team.

Athletes in the SIMA program play a regular high school schedule from November through January and train during the other 10 months of the year, all while studying full-time at Montverde.

According to Montverde head coach Mike Pitt’s men’s soccer team received a verbal commitment Wednesday from Potempa, Edward considered several other DiKizza Edward, the No. 41 prospect in the nation. Meghan Sunners ASSISTANT vision I programs — including ACC schools VISUAL EDITOR

pittnews.com

March 17, 2017

Clemson and Wake Forest — before choosing the Panthers.

“He’s a fantastic kid in every way. He’s a fantastic student, a wonderful human being ... and he’s a very good striker,” Potempa said.

“He’s the all-around package as a person and student-athlete.”

Last season, Edward he scored 25 goals while leading Montverde to a 20-0-1 record and the SIMA Winter FAB 50 National Title.

Potempa repeatedly pointed to Edward’s leadership skills as his strongest asset, both on and off the pitch. Edward is the senior prefect at Montverde, making him the de facto leader of the entire senior class, not just the soccer team.

“The school awards prefect leadership positions. It’s a very prestigious position at the school,” Potempa said. “As a junior, you interview with the faculty and staff to try to get a leadership position. They choose one overall to lead the school, and Kizza is our prefect leader.

He’s a great ambassador — he’s just a great kid.”

Edward didn’t see much playing time his first year at Montverde as a sophomore, but Potempa said he’s been a key player on the team See Soccer on page 9

8

Wrestling, pg. 8

Campbell’s second-round matchup came against Arizona State’s No. 7 seed Anthony Valencia, a redshirt freshman who many considered the top prospect in the country for the 2015 class.

Valencia started the scoring with a first-period takedown, but Campbell escaped to make it 2-1. Campbell started the second period on bottom and escaped to his feet, tying the score at two entering the third.

Knowing an escape would give Valencia the lead back, Campbell tried to tilt him to his back

to score nearfall points. But Valencia fought him off and got to his feet, then took Campbell down to his back for four nearfall points of his own. Valencia held on to win, 9-2.

In Pitt’s final opening-round match, No. 15 heavyweight Solomon faced unseeded Ross Larson of Oklahoma.

The two heavyweights battled to a scoreless first period, then Solomon escaped to take a 1-0 lead in the second period before adding a takedown to make it 3-0. Larson escaped in the third, but Solomon added one point for riding time to take the 4-1 decision and advance to the second round.

In the second round, Solomon faced No. 2 seed Connor Medbery of Wisconsin, who entered the match with a 26-1 overall record.

After another scoreless first period, Medbery started the second period on bottom and escaped, taking a 1-0 lead into the third.

Medbery started off the final period by turning Solomon to his back for two nearfall points.

Pitt’s coaches challenged the call, but the ruling stood, and Medbery held Solomon down the rest of the way for a 5-0 victory.

All four Panthers will resume action in their respective consolation brackets Friday morning as they attempt to wrestle their way back into the top eight to become All-Americans.

Soccer, pg. 8 the last two years.

“I think his first year here, he was a little overwhelmed by the level of players we have here. It’s very competitive compared to what he was used to,” Potempa said. “He’s one I admire because he took it as more of a challenge. He didn’t complain if he wasn’t in games or wasn’t part of a top level group.”

Although the SIMA program has seen several players go on to successful college and professional careers, Potempa didn’t hesitate to rank Edward as one of the best players he’s ever coached and believes his career could continue beyond the NCAA. “I’ve seen his ability to score goals improve, but his understanding of the game and learning to play in proper positions has also improved,” Potempa said. “With his natural ability as well as what we’ve given him over the last three years, [I think] he’s a professional player when his time is done there, whenever it may be.”

Edward is Pitt’s ninth prospect to verbally commit to the 2017 class, joining Colin Brezniak, Joshua Gaspari, Glenn Muenkat, Javi Perez, Marcony Pimentel, Chad Stout, Timmy Townsend and Andrew Walczyk.

The Pitt news crossword 3/17/17

pulled off a takedown with time running out to win a 5-3 decision and knock Forys out of title contention.

In his first career NCAA Tournament match, Rahmani couldn’t overcome a large early deficit against No. 7 seed Dylan Palacio from Cornell.

Palacio, an All-American in 2016, showed the advantage of his experience early on. The senior picked up a takedown in the first period, then added a reversal and four-point nearfall in the second to take a commanding 8-0 lead.

Rahmani escaped and threw Palacio onto his back at the end of the third period, but time expired and he dropped a 9-1 major decision.

Rahmani won his first consolation match later Thursday night against Virginia’s Andrew Atkinson, and there was no shortage of action between the two 157-pounders.

After a quick takedown by Rahmani, Atkinson escaped and took Rahmani down for a 3-2 lead. Rahmani scored a reversal, but Atkinson escaped again to tie the score at four. Rahmani then added one more takedown before the end of the period to go up 6-4.

Atkinson reversed Rahmani to start the second period, tying the match again at six.

But Rahmani immediately reversed him and put him on his back for a four-point nearfall to take a 12-6 lead. Atkinson would escape, but Rahmani took him down to his back again for another nearfall, giving him a comfortable 18-7 lead entering the final period.

Neither wrestler scored in the third, and Rahmani won by 18-7 major decision to keep his hopes alive into Friday.

At 165 pounds, the No. 10 seed Campbell matched up with unseeded Yoanse Mejias of Oklahoma. After a scoreless first period, Campbell grabbed the lead in the second period with an escape and a takedown, then held Mejias off the rest of the way for a 4-0 decision victory.

pittnews.com

March 17, 2017

9