At-large bids for the NCAA Wrestling Championships, held March 18-20 in St. Louis, were revealed Tuesday afternoon and gave the NC State wrestling team one more qualifier for the sport's biggest stage — 197-pound fifth-year senior Nick Reenan.

That means the Wolfpack is one of eight teams nationally with nine (of a possible 10) or more wrestlers qualified for NCAAs. Three teams had all 10 reach St. Louis, while NC State was the only ACC squad with more than eight.

That will help greatly in the Pack's quest to extend its school record to seven straight top-20 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and they are vying for an even higher placement than that.

It wasn't long after the team claimed its third straight ACC championship that ninth-year head coach Pat Popolizio and his superstar brother combination of 157-pounder Hayden Hidlay and 184-pounder Trent Hidlay started talking about the "ultimate goal" of winning a national title.

Many within the sport feel the Pack is in prime position to claim just its second top-10 finish since 1993 and vie for a team trophy, which requires a top-four NCAA finish. NC State tied for fourth place in 2018 to capture the program's first and the ACC's second NCAA team trophy.

All five major outlets that update their national rankings weekly — FloWrestling, The Open Mat, InterMat, WrestleState and Track Wrestling — currently project the Pack to finish among the top six at NCAAs based on their individual weight class rankings, which puts them squarely in the team trophy mix.

The official NCAA brackets were released for Wednesday night, and according to FloWrestling's Andrew Spey, the team score projections based solely on the seeds (if the better seed won every match) would have NC State finishing third nationally, two team points (a razor-thin margin) ahead of No. 4 Virginia Tech and 3.5 points ahead of No. 5 Missouri.

For just the second time in school history, the Wolfpack boasted a pair of top-two seeds. The Hidlay brothers both received the No. 2 seed at their weight classes after winning ACC titles.

The only previous time the Pack has been able to make that impressive claim was in 2016, when heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski earned the top seed at his weight class and Tommy Gantt was No. 2 at 157. Both finished as All-Americans, with Gwiazdowski losing in a thrilling title match to an Olympic gold medalist, and NC State as a team finishing 11th nationally.

Just four programs nationally boasted multiple top-two seeds, and NC State was the only one not from the powerhouse Big Ten Conference to do so — the others were Iowa (four), Penn State (three) and Michigan (two).

As a conference, the ACC boasted four top-two seeds, second only to the Big Ten's 13.

Overall, six of the Pack's NCAA representatives were awarded top-10 seeds, which is the third-most nationally, behind only Iowa and Missouri, who both had eight in the top 10.

We break down the brackets for all NC State qualifiers below with some notes about their specific draws, in descending order based on the seeds:

The fifth-year senior is vying to become the Pack's first-ever four-time All-American and nabs the fourth top-five seed of his career. The four-time ACC champion and former NCAA finalist will face No. 31 Michael Petite (Buffalo) in round one, then the winner of No. 15 Chase Saldate (Michigan State) and No. 18 Cade DeVos (South Dakota State).

His likely opponent (if the higher seed wins every match, which is unlikely to happen but the hypothetical we follow for this entire article) in the quarterfinals would be No. 7 Jarrett Jacques of Missouri and in the semifinals it would be No. 3 David Carr, an unbeaten wrestler out of Iowa State.

Carr is a junior-level world champion in freestyle wrestling, and though he and Hidlay have not wrestled in folkstyle (the style is not wrestled in college competition in the United States), they did meet last October in freestyle at Senior Nationals, where Hidlay posted a 10-5 victory.

The redshirt sophomore brings a mark of 6-1 to NCAAs, and he has already avenged that '1,' with a win over Virginia Tech's Hunter Bolen in an epic ACC championship match that went to overtime. It was Hidlay's first win over Bolen in four college matches, and he won't see him until the NCAA finals if both keep winning.

In round one, Hidlay faces No. 31 Ryan Reyes (Oregon State), and then likely Layne Malczewski (Michigan State), who enters as the No. 15 seed. He hasn't wrestled either in college yet and would likely face another he hasn't seen yet in the quarterfinals in Northern Illinois' Brit Wilson, the 13-1 No. 7 seed.

If the seeds hold, the probable semifinal for Hidlay is No. 3 Lou DePrez of Binghamton. DePrez is 7-0 in the season, and split two matches with Hidlay last year — Hidlay won in tiebreakers (essentially double overtime) in a November dual, but DePrez got revenge with a 3-2 victory at the Southern Scuffle Jan. 1. Many around (and even outside) the program say Hidlay has improved dramatically since then, and this will be a golden opportunity to prove it.

The fifth-year senior surprised everybody when he made a run to third place at the NCAA Championships after entering unseeded at the 2018 NCAA Championships — which isn't even possible since all 33 wrestlers in the bracket are seeded now. This time, Wilson will look to make another deep run from a much better starting spot.

He'll take on No. 29 Chase Zollmann (Wyoming) in round one, then likely No. 13 DJ Lloren (Fresno State), who is 11-1 on the year but lost to Wilson in a 2018 dual by 19-1 technical fall.

Wilson's likely quarterfinals foe would be No. 5 Dom Demas (Oklahoma), who is 12-1 on the season and took fourth at the weight the last time the NCAA Championships were held (in 2019). Two former top-four NCAA placers in the quarterfinals could provide fireworks and be one of the most anticipated matchups that round in the entire tournament.

The winner of that would likely face undefeated No. 1 seed Jaydin Eierman of Iowa in the semifinals. The loser would drop to the "blood round" (where the winner becomes an All-American and the loser's tournament run ends). If the seeds held, the likely blood-round opponent would be No. 10 seed Zach Sherman of North Carolina. Wilson is 6-1 in his career against Sherman, most recently winning by 10-1 major decision in the ACC finals.

Camacho shocked everybody as a redshirt freshman, when he upset a former NCAA finalist in the ACC's gold-medal match. He fell in his bid to repeat as conference champ this season, falling in overtime to the No. 2 NCAA seed Sam Latona of Virginia Tech. Camacho will need only one upset according to the seeds to get to the semifinals and likely another crack at Latona, who has beaten him in a pair of close ones this year.

To get there, Camacho would have to beat No. 27 Gage Curry (American), then likely No. 11 Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) in what could be one of the best second-round matchups in the entire tournament. Camacho and Ragusin both wrestled at October's Senior Nationals, where Ragusin was the talk of the wrestling world after upsetting a former NCAA champion early and placing second. The two did not face each other there, and Camacho placed sixth at that tournament (and Latona fifth).

If the seeds held, Camacho's "on-paper" upset would then occur in the quarterfinals, over third-seeded Brandon Courtney (Arizona State), to reach the semifinals and force a rematch with Latona, which is sure to come down to the wire again.

The fifth-year senior won his first ACC title this winter and was rewarded with the No. 8 seed, which means he draws the closest "on paper" match in round two and then the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals if he wins that.

Bullard's path in the championship bracket goes No. 25 Cody Surratt (Air Force) in the first round to No. 9 Donnell Washington (Indiana) in round two and then likely No. 1 Michael Kemerer (Iowa). Washington has a deceiving record of 9-5 in this weird COVID-impacted season where Big Ten teams only wrestled each other. Washington's five losses were all against top-seven NCAA seeds and he posted a win over the No. 3 seed, so that's a tough draw for Bullard.

If Bullard does get past Washington and fall to Kemerer, his likely blood round foe would be No. 11 Austin Murphy of Campbell.

Perhaps moreso than any other wrestler on the team in the last 12-14 months, Deonte Wilson has been the one that has not had a top-tier opponent to really build his resume. He clearly established himself as the ACC's top heavyweight this year — and the league wasn't bad at the weight, by any means, qualifying four to NCAAs — but he hasn't had a top-10 foe since Pitt's Demetrius Thomas in the ACC finals last year (a one-point win for the Panther).

If Wilson gets past No. 23 Michael McAleavey (Citadel) in round one — whom he beat 7-3 last year — he'll get that opportunity with No. 7 Ethan Laird (Rider). Laird wrestled at 197 pounds last year, but has recorded impressive victories over a pair of top-11 NCAA seeds this season at heavyweight.

The winner will go on to face No. 2 Mason Parris (Michigan), while the loser would drop to the consolation bracket and likely see the winner of No. 24 Jonathan Birchmeier (Navy) and No. 25 Nathan Traxler (Stanford).

Trombley split the starting spot this year with freshman Ryan Jack, but showed how deep the ACC was at the weight by claiming fourth at the conference tournament and being awarded the 12 seed, which puts him around the top one-third of NCAA qualifiers.

If Trombley wins round one over No. 21 Jared Van Vleet (Air Force), he'll draw a familiar foe in Pitt's Micky Phillippi, the No. 5 seed. Trombley has wrestled Phillippi tough the last two years, falling 4-0 in last season's dual then closing the gap to 4-2 this winter, but will be a decided underdog on paper.

Like twin brother Daniel, Thomas could be seeing the No. 1 seed early — but he'll need an "upset" according to the seeds for that chance.

He'll have revenge on his mind from the beginning, when he faces No. 16 William Formato of App State, who beat him in his first match of this season, 4-0. However, Bullard was just getting back from an injury and topped Formato twice in 2019-20 (13-3 and 6-2), so has a good chance of being the one to face top-seeded Alex Marinelli (Iowa) round two.

Marinelli topped Bullard, 12-4, at the 2019 NCAA Championships. If Bullard falls in that one, he'd likely have to beat a pair of top-10 seeds to claim All-America honors in the consolation bracket.

The fifth-year senior needed an at-large bid after falling one place shy of an automatic NCAA berth at the ACC Championships.

However, his place in the bracket matches him up with No. 5 Jacob Warner (Iowa) in round one. Warner placed seventh nationally as a redshirt freshman and has only lost six times since then, including twice this year — in overtime to the No. 1 seed and by one point to the No. 2 seed.

First-round draws don't get much tougher than this one, but Reenan will still be able to provide some valuable team points in the wrestlebacks if the seeds do hold and he falls in round one.

The team trophy race is projecting to be extremely tight for second through fifth place (or perhaps even further), so every point will matter — but Reenan has a tough draw, even in the consolation bracket. If he wins his first wrestleback bout (likely against No. 21 Marcus Coleman of Iowa State), he'd face the loser of the second-round match between ACC rivals No. 11 Jay Aiello (Virginia) and No. 6 Nino Bonaccorsi.

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