ROANOKE, Va. – With the 2023 NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championships upon us, the Roanoke wrestling team is especially looking forward to having senior Mahlic Sallah compete for the Maroons once again on the national stage.
Last season, Sallah became the first Maroon to compete at the NCAA Championships. But not only that he became the first ever Maroon to earn All-American status with a seventh-place finish at 184 lbs. at the 2022 championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
This season, Sallah picked up where he left off winning his first seven matches with two tech falls, one fall, and one major decision. At the 2022 Citrus Invitational in Florida, he lost a decision to a regionally-ranked opponent from Castleton to finish fourth at the event that features top Div. III programs as well as Div. II teams.
The 2022-23 season saw the Old Dominion Athletic Conference reinstate wrestling as a conference sport as the ODAC saw programs in addition to Roanoke's at Ferrum, Shenandoah, Washington and Lee, and Averett. The conference brought in two associate members in Southern Virginia and Greensboro.
Sallah ran through all of them. He started the season with a 9-3 decision over Cameron Blizard of W&L and continue with a tech fall over Hunter Thompson of Shenandoah. He also earned tech falls against Khalil Beck of Greensboro and Ethan Fragoso of Ferrum. He finished the regular season with a 4-1 decision over Khalil Mitchell of Averett.
His tournament win came at the 2023 Pete Wilson Invitational as the ran the table and collected a 5-2 decision over No. 6 nationally-ranked Niall Schoenfelder of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to win the title.
At the 2023 ODAC Championships, Sallah once again ran through his conference opponents. In the quarterfinals, he won by fall over Ikia Garcia of Southern Virginia at 6:23. He reached the finals with a fall over Fragoso of Ferrum at 3:36. He claimed the inaugural title at 184 lbs. with a 6-2 decision over Mitchell of Averett.
He qualified for the 2023 NCAA Championships with a third-place finish at the 2023 South East Regional at York. He opened with a 12-5 decision over Thompson of Shenandoah and won his quarterfinal against Eric Washington of Marymount by a 5-1 decision. In the semifinals, he dropped a 7-1 decision to Blizard of W&L before bouncing back with a 9-1 major decision over Ryder Slayton of Messiah. He claimed his spot for this weekend with a 5-3 decision over Frank Medina of Stevens.
Sallah will begin his quest to win a national title and repeat as an All-American. He will start off by taking on No. 8 seed Edwin Morales of Bridgewater State (Mass.). Morales qualified for the championships by finishing runner-up at the Northeast Regional. He is a three-time national qualifier. The match should take place approx. 12-12:30 p.m. on Friday, March 10, depending on how the other matches at the championships pan out.
The winner of the opening round will face off with No. 1 seed and defending national champion Jaritt Shinhoster of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Shinhoster comes into Roanoke with a 25-2 record, 11 of the wins have come by pin, three by tech fall, and five by major decision.
