SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The NCAA announced the pre-allocations and first coaches’ rankings for the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Thursday afternoon. The Southern Conference received 15 allocations and had 16 student-athletes earn spots in the coaches ranking.
 
The weight class conference champion in each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular-season performance by conference wrestlers through Feb. 20. The pre-allocations are determined using a sliding scale of a .700 winning percentage, top-30 coaches’ rank and top-30 ratings percentage index (RPI) with a maximum of 29 pre-allocations per weight class. The SoCon earned two allocations each at 125 pounds, 133 pounds, 149 pounds, 165 pounds and heavyweight. The remaining weight classes earned one allocation each, which is the automatic qualifier for the conference tournament champion.
 
For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if it did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA championship spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at conference tournaments based solely on place-finish.
 
After the conference tournaments have concluded, the Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining at-large qualifiers to fill out the 43-man bracket in each weight class, which will be announced March 8, while brackets and seeding will be announced on ncaa.com at 6 p.m. March 9.
 
The coaches’ rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each conference. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. For the first ranking, wrestlers must have two Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days.
 
A full description of the entire selection process for the 2022 Division I Wrestling Championships is available at ncaa.org.
 
The SoCon’s 16 ranked individuals are:
 
125 pounds (2 NCAA allocations)
Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga (25)
Caleb Smith, App State (31)
Korbin Meink, Campbell (32)
 
133 pounds (2 NCAA allocations)
Brayden Palmer, Chattanooga (18)
Codi Russell, App State (29)

141 pounds (1 NCAA allocation)
Shannon Hanna, Campbell (29)
 
149 pounds (2 NCAA allocations)
Jonathan Millner, App State (4)
Joshua Heil, Campbell (9)

157 pounds (1 NCAA allocation)
Dazjon Casto, The Citadel (26)
Cody Bond, App State (31)
 
165 pounds (2 NCAA allocations)
William Formato, App State (19) 

174 pounds (1 NCAA allocation)
Austin Murphy, Campbell (24)
Thomas Flitz, App State (28)
 
184 pounds (1 NCAA allocations)
Caleb Hopkins, Campbell (29)
 
197 pounds (1 NCAA allocation)
None
 
Heavyweight (2 NCAA allocations)
Taye Ghadiali, Campbell (21)
Michael McAleavey, The Citadel (28)