Despite ups and downs of NCAAs, NC State wrestling is making history
Just like any wrestling tournament, there were major ups and downs for NC State at the NCAA Championships Thursday and Friday.
Unseeded redshirt freshman 133-pounder Tariq Wilson shocked the wrestling world and stormed his way to the semifinals before taking No. 1 seed Seth Gross to the brink in an incredible back-and-forth overtime loss. Talking with The Wolfpacker between matches, one of FloWrestling.com’s analysts called it the best match of the tournament and stuck by that declaration at the end of day two.
Top-seeded redshirt freshman Hayden Hidlay made the finals at 157 pounds, while 197-pound fifth-year senior Michael Macchiavello — who entered as the four seed and finished one match shy of a top-eight finish at 184 pounds last year — snared his first All-America honor by reaching the championship bout. He is just the fourth North Carolina native to place at nationals for NC State.
On the other side of the coin, 141-pound senior Kevin Jack entered as the five seed and lost earlier than expected, falling in round two to Bucknell’s 12th-seeded Tyler Smith in overtime. However, he has worked his way through the consolation bracket to reach Saturday morning’s consolation semifinals.
There were other tough defeats to swallow for NC State, not made any easier by the fact that every championship bracket loss by the Pack came in overtime, proving how cruel the NCAA Championships can be. The closeness of such an outcome makes it sting even more, but that’s how it goes in March on the sport’s biggest stage.
“There were a lot of heartbreakers — this tournament is just a roller coaster,” sixth-year head coach Pat Popolizio admitted. “We could easily have reversed some of those wins, but that’s just the way this tournament shakes out. We’ll focus on the positive things that are happening right now.
“It’s a very exciting time. My body right now is numb from the emotions, the ups and downs of the NCAA Tournament. We ended tonight on a very positive note with the three guys winning out — Kevin Jack getting that last win, and Hayden and Macchiavello being in the national finals.”
When it was all said and done on Friday night, the Wolfpack sat in fifth place — well on their way towards accomplishing Popolizio’s stated goal of breaking the program’s all-time best showing of seventh — with four All-Americans and two national finalists, which are both new schools records.
However, fifth wouldn’t satisfy Macchiavello and his teammates. They want to leave Cleveland with a team trophy, which requires a top-four finish. Michigan — with two finalists and three more in the consolation brackets compared to NCSU’s pair of finalists and two more still alive in the wrestlebacks — enters the final day four points ahead of the Pack.
“We wrote down our team goals at the beginning of the year and one of them was to finish in the top four and get a team trophy,” Macchiavello said. “We’ve put ourselves in position to do that.
“I’m excited to see us finish strong. This is the tournament we’ve prepared for all year long — we’ve trained to peak exactly for this tournament, not for any other competition.”
When Macchiavello and his fellow fifth-year seniors — there were six seniors in the starting lineup this year, although two were fourth-years who never redshirted — came to NC State, the Pack was coming off of a 63rd-place finish at NCAAs, 5-6 record in duals and 0-5 showing in ACC matches.
But that didn’t stop the coaching staff from setting high goals and standards, and holding the team to them.
“They told us before we committed as wrestlers, ‘Look, this is our attitude, this is our game plan. Either you want to be part of it or you don't,’” Macchiavello remembered.
“They were very straightforward in the recruiting process … we have a coaching staff that's very transparent and tells you how it is, has very lofty goals as a program. That's exciting because as athletes we're very ambitious. We want to excel at a high level.”
The seniors took their cues from the coaching staff and set the tone for their younger teammates. Now, NC State is surpassing some of college wrestling’s blue bloods while continuing to chase the few they have not caught yet.
“I was sold on the message of you come to NC State, you're going to compete against Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State every year, and we want you to be a part of that,” Hidlay said.
“Since my day one here with the class that was brought in by Pat and all the other coaches, they told us that we were going to be in moments like this and they wanted us to lead the charge. So thankfully I've had really great leadership from seniors like Pete Renda, Kevin Jack and Michael Macchiavello. This new wave of us, we're running to the top five and we want to compete for a team trophy.”
“The future is bright,” Popolizio said. “I think the mentality and the attitude of the kids we have in our room, the new guys coming in and kids that are going to be coming in is moving in the right direction. The culture’s starting to get created and the expectations are out there of competing to win a national title. We preach it, we talk about it, we live the lifestyle for it, and now we’ve got to go out and execute and do it. We’ve got guys now that are willing and able to do it.”
The future is certainly bright, but the here and now isn’t so bad for NC State. They’ve been focused on bringing a shiny addition to the trophy case home from NCAAs and heading into the third day, they’re in position to do just that.
If they can check off that goal, there would be no coming down from that high.
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