Waynesburg native Scott building UNC into top 20 program
PITTSBURGH — Waynesburg Central native Coleman Scott guided the University of North Carolina wrestling program to its best finish at the NCAA Division I Championships since 1995 on March 23 at PPG Paints Arena.
The Tar Heels finished in 19th place with 28.5 points and had two All-Americans in Austin O’Connor and Chip Ness. The last time UNC finished inside the top 20 was in 1995 when the Tar Heels were eighth with 54.5 points.
North Carolina crowed one champion in ’95 in T.J. Jaworksy, who won his third title at 134 pounds. The Tar Heels had three other All-Americans in Stan Banks (3rd at 167), Marc Taylor (8th at 150) and Justin Harty (8th at heavyweight).
Scott, who has been the head coach at UNC since Aug. 13, 2015, led the Tar Heels to a 20th-place finish in last year’s NCCA national tournament with 27 points, as Ness (7th at 184) and Troy Heilmann (4th at 149) earned All-American status.
“We did a lot of good, which was awesome to see,” Scott said. “We lost some matches we could have won. We have to learn to get better and keep improving every year.”
O’Connor, who entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed at 149, jumped out to a 6-1 lead after scoring a reversal with 1:23 left in the second period and held on for a 7-5 victory over Duke’s Mitch Finesilver to take the bronze. Finesilver was the third seed.
O’Connor (34-6) scored a takedown 20 seconds into the bout, and after allowing an escape, added his second takedown for a 4-1 advantage that he took into the second.
“I was kind of surprised that I had that big of a lead early on,” O’Connor said. “The matches against him this year haven’t been that far apart in points, so I kind of got that little cushion and felt comfortable. That was kind of my fault letting him back in the match.”
Finesilver (33-5) cut the deficit to four with an escape to trail 6-2 after two. He escaped to begin the third and scored a takedown to get within one with 22 seconds remaining.
Finesilver let O’Connor escape and was close to scoring a takedown at the edge of the mat as time expired but the redshirt sophomore held on. The Blue Devils challenged that a takedown should have been awarded, but the call stood and O’Connor had eked out the decision to give UNC its best individual finish since Harty was the runner-up at heavyweight in ’96.
“I felt pretty confident that they weren’t going to overturn the call at the end,” O’Connor said. “He kind of clipped my ankle there at the end, and I knew as soon as he touched it I had to get that foot back or we were going into overtime. I worked too hard in that match to let it go into overtime.”
O’Connor and Finesilver wrestled two times in the national tournament this season and six overall. O’Connor tied the season series at three with victories in the bronze-medal match and the quarterfinals, when he edged the Duke redshirt senior, 3-1, in sudden victory.
Finesilver edged O’Connor, 3-2, in the Hokie Open on Nov. 4 before a 6-4 victory in a dual meet at Duke on Feb. 22. Finesilver downed O’Connor, 5-1, in the ACC Championship Final on March 9. O’Connor defeated Finesilver, 3-1, in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1.
“I kind of wanted to wrestled him to be honest,” O’Connor said. “He was the third seed and I dropped to the sixth. I got my revenge in the quarters and I was able to face him again for third place. I beat him in the matches that were most important this season.”
O’Connor suffered a 7-4 setback to Ohio State’s Micah Jordan (29-2) in the semifinals, but came back to edge Missouri’s Brock Mauller (33-5) when he escaped just as time expired for a 4-3 win.
“I want to go for first place the next couple of years,” O’Connor said. “I was able to come back and get third, but that’s not what I want.”
“He (O’Connor) is just a young kid,” Scott said. “He has to grow and make some adjustments, but he’s there, competes with the best of the best and I’m excited to see what he can do.
“I recruited Austin, so you have to recruit the best kids you can find and make them better. That’s the goal of everything.”
Scott’s resume as a competitor speaks for itself with three state titles, one NCCA gold and a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, and O’Connor is grateful to be competing for one of the all-time greats.
“Coach Coleman Scott, Bryce Hasseman (assistant coach), Tony Ramos (assistant coach) and all those guys do a great job of keeping us focused and getting what needs to be done at the right times,” O’Connor said. “Coleman Scott is always there when I need him and he gives great advice when I need it and he helps me stay motivated. I have a great relationship with all my coaches. We have a great coaching staff.”
Ness (22-15) defied the odds as the 15th seed in defeating the No. 2 seed in Penn State’s Shakur Rasheed (20-2) and Iowa State’s Samuel Colbray, the No. 10 seed, to reach the semifinals and guarantee his second All-American finish in as many seasons as a redshirt senior.
Ness dropped decisions to Lehigh’s Ryan Preisch (25-5) and Illinois’ Emery Parker (23-5) to finish in sixth place at 184.
“It is good to see Chip (Ness) to finish his career as a two-time All-American and I’m happy for him,” Scott said. “I didn’t recruit him but was on staff my first year when he came here.”
Scott was back to work on Monday in preparing for next year’s run at the NCAAs at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“I’ll be hitting the road this offseason and freestyle practice starts on Monday,” Scott said. “You don’t get many breaks in this sport, but it will be good. That’s why I do it, and I love what I do.”