SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Three Southern Conference wrestlers were among the 44 at-large selections for the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, including Campbell’s Domenick Zaccone and App State’s Caleb Smith and Will Formato.
 
Eighteen wrestlers from five of the nine SoCon schools will be represented at the 2022 tournament, which starts March 17. The Camels lead the way with six representatives, while the Mountaineers have five. Chattanooga follows closely behind with four representatives, while The Citadel has two. Gardner Webb’s RJ Mosley (165) will represent the Runnin’ Bulldogs in Detroit, Michigan, at Little Caesars Arena.
 
Smith (125, App State), Formato (165, App State) and Zaccone (133, Campbell) join the 10 SoCon wrestling champions and the five who received additional allocations on the NCAA wrestling national stage.
 
Smith will make his first appearance at the NCAA championships after going 23-6 on the season. The first-year starter went 6-1 against league opponents this year and earned one wrestler of the week honor for all competition from Nov. 10-16 after the redshirt sophomore earned two second-period pins over Duke wrestler Login Agin and Kent State wrestler Jake Ferri at the Mountaineer Invitational on Nov. 14.  At the conference championship in Boone, North Carolina, Smith finished third in a SoCon bracket that included three ranked wrestlers but only two automatic bids.  
 
Formato, ranked 19^th in the latest NCAA Coaches Rankings and No. 10 in the RPI, placed third at the conference championship behind first-place finisher and NCAA qualifier RJ Mosley of Gardner-Webb and runner-up Drew Nicholson of Chattanooga. The Acworth, Georgia, native, who was the SoCon Wrestler of the Year and NCAA qualifier in 2021, went 22-7 overall and 6-1 in the SoCon this season, earning one player of the week honor following his 6-1 decision over NC State’s No. 15 Thomas Bullard on Dec. 12. He was also the SoCon Wrestler of the Month for December.
 
Campbell’s Zaccone will make his first visit to the NCAA Championships and joins five other Camels that head to Detroit, for the tournament. He finished the regular season 14-9 overall and finished third at 133 pounds at the Southern Conference championships, wrestling back after a first-round loss with three bonus-point victories to take home the bronze.

The at-large selections join the 286 student-athletes that qualified through their conference tournament finishes over the last two weekends. The at-large selections were made by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee using the following selection criteria: head-to-head competition, quality wins (defined as wins against wrestlers already in the field), coaches ranking, results against common opponents, conference tournament placement and winning percentage. The committee was also able to use subjective criteria such as, but not limited to, historical performance.
 
Seeding and brackets for this year’s event will be revealed on Wednesday, March 9, during the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Selection Show on NCAA.com at 6 p.m. ET.
 
 
Individual champions/NCAA qualifiers
125 – Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga
133 – Codi Russell, App State
141 – Shannon Hanna, Campbell
149 – Jonathan Millner, App State
157 – Dazjon Casto, The Citadel
165 – RJ Mosley, Gardner-Webb
174 – Thomas Flitz, App State
184 – Caleb Hopkins, Campbell
197 – Matthew Waddell, Chattanooga
HWT – Taye Ghadiali, Campbell
 
Additional NCAA allocations
125 – Korbin Meink, Campbell
133 – Brayden Palmer, Chattanooga
149 – Joshua Heil, Campbell
165 – Drew Nicholson, Chattanooga
HWT – Michael McAleavey, The Citadel
 
At-large NCAA selections
125 – Caleb Smith, App State
133 – Domenick Zaccone, Campbell
165 – Will Formato, App State