Pitt-Johnstown grad enjoying role on NCAA wrestling committee
Mar. 24—KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A prolific scorer on the basketball court at Meyersdale and Pitt-Johnstown, Jennifer Tuscano's love for the game should never be doubted, but the executive associate athletic director at Pitt wasn't thinking about the hardcourt this weekend.
Tuscano was more worried about the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in Kansas City.
"I probably won't look at a basketball bracket until Monday," Tuscano said during an interview at the T-Mobile Center, where 333 wrestlers were competing for national titles.
Tuscano played for Mountain Cats coach Jodi Gault from 1995-1999. She also has a healthy respect for Pitt-Johnstown wrestling coach Pat Pecora, who built the program into one of the best in Division II and won a pair of NCAA team titles during Tuscano's years in Richland Township.
"I always felt like between Coach Pecora and Coach Gault, whatever the wrestlers were doing for preseason conditioning, somehow we were in the same training pattern as them," she said with a laugh. "My teammates and I joke about that a lot. Every time I see Coach Pecora, I joke about it. What he's done at Pitt-Johnstown and the history of wrestling there has been tremendous for sure."
Tuscano has been at Pitt for more than a decade and was named the athletic department's 2022 Gold Standard Leader for exemplary service and leadership. She oversees the university's men's soccer, women's basketball, softball and wrestling programs, which required her to adapt.
"It's been basketball for me all along," she said of her early path. "When I first got the job at Pitt, I worked with our women's basketball team. It wasn't until we made some administrative changes of the sports that we oversaw that I picked up wrestling six years ago."
Her first experience at the NCAA wrestling tournament came in 2018 in Cleveland, a year prior to her serving as tournament manager for the event in Pittsburgh. It was an eye-opener for Tuscano.
"A few of our staff members went and observed the championship," she recalled. "I walked into the arena on Thursday at 11 and it was packed. Packed! I'm used to basketball, where you clearly know what teams are competing and what sections their fans are in, because there are open spaces if that team's not competing. Wrestling — totally different. It was packed. It's just a different experience and a different environment."
This year has also been a different experience for Tuscano. Her first three years on the wrestling committee were relatively controversy free, aside from 2023. As the sport — and the world in general — recovered from the pandemic, fans were just happy to see wrestlers competing for national championships again.
Tuscano and the other committee members have been in the spotlight a bit more this year.
On Wednesday, the opening question of the pre-tournament press conference was to Penn State's Carter Starocci regarding the committee's seeding process. Starocci, who was seeking his fourth NCAA title, entered the tournament as the No. 9 seed at 174 pounds after taking two injury-default losses at the Big Ten tournament. The committee came under scrutiny for putting Starocci on the same side of the bracket as former NCAA champions Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech and Shane Griffith of Michigan.
"The first question was an interesting question," Tuscano said with a laugh. "For us, there's selection criteria and weighted selection criteria for a reason. I think you take a look at what the data presents to us but also you look at the full body of work throughout the season for wrestlers.
"Our emphasis, obviously, on competing at conference tournaments was a priority when we looked at those things. But it's the big picture look at it. I've got great committee members around me that make it a lot of fun. It's certainly challenging, but a lot of fun."
