Five takeaways from NC State wrestling's win over Virginia Tech

The No. 3 NC State wrestling team posted a thrilling 21-18 win over No. 7 Virginia Tech Friday night at Reynolds Coliseum. It marked the squad’s third straight win over an ACC foe ranked in the top 10 nationally, and was keyed by this pin by redshirt freshman 133-pounder Jarrett Trombley in the second-to-last match of the evening:

The Wolfpacker has five takeaways from the results:

It will be the third straight season that NC State has won at least a share of the league’s dual championship, and they will clinch it outright with a win next Friday over Duke. The Blue Devils redshirted their three best returning wrestlers and are 0-16 this year, losing their first four ACC duals by a combined score of 174-21.

That win has further implications than that, though. It would give the Pack a 15-0 mark and its first undefeated dual season in school history. The only thing to watch will be if NC State can tie (or surpass) its school-record finish in the coaches’ poll. It finished No. 2 in the land after a 23-1 campaign in 2016 and entered last night ranked No. 3 nationally, trailing a pair of teams with two matches remaining each:

No. 1 Iowa (11-0) – vs. No. 13 Minnesota Feb. 15, vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State Feb. 23

No. 2 Penn State (10-2) — vs. No. 6 Ohio State Feb. 15, vs. American Feb. 23

It’s too bad National Duals aren’t a thing anymore. It’s guaranteed this team would’ve loved to have had the chance to take on either one, and it would’ve made for great TV (or another excellent national showcase for Reynolds, more on that later).

At least in the regular season, now he’ll need to prove it again in the postseason. But the improvement the big sophomore has shown since stepping on campus is incredible (though it makes sense considering he gets to train with former NCAA champions Nick Gwiazdowski, a two-time world bronze medalist, and Michael Macchiavello).

Wilson was not ranked as a blue-chip recruit by anybody. Only one outlet, InterMat, even listed him as a top wrestler at his weight class as a high school senior — and he checked in at No. 12 in the country.

Roughly 18 months after stepping on campus, he has been put in tough spots that don’t even take into account that he was the underdog on paper — and responded in the best way a young athlete can.

A week ago, he was the last match against rival UNC and took the mat in a situation where whichever wrestler won would clinch the dual for his team. Only two polls ranked Wilson nationally — the coaches’ had Wilson No. 32 and his opponent No. 27, while The Open Mat had it No. 33 vs. No. 22.

Wilson went out and battled his way to a dramatic 5-2 win, iced by a takedown in the closing seconds that made Reynolds Coliseum absolutely erupt.

This week, it was the No. 26 Wilson vs. the nation’s No. 18-ranked heavyweight according to the coaches. Not only that, Wilson took the mat with his team trailing 15-9 after redshirt freshman Trent Hidlay’s first dual loss, followed by an 18-second pin of teammate Tyrie Houghton at 197 pounds.

Reynolds went quiet, but Wilson brought the crowd to their feet again by scoring the bout’s only takedown with two seconds left in his 3-1 victory. The moment hasn’t proven to be too big for the athletic big man that likes to show off his impressive gas tank by bouncing around during breaks while his opponents are breathing heavy.

After a 3-1 start in ACC duals, he has practically guaranteed himself the No. 2 seed for the ACC Championships behind No. 10 Demetrius Thomas of Pitt and should be ranked among the top 20 at his weight nationally next week. According to the coaches' panel rankings, in ACC action Wilson has topped wrestlers ranked Nos. 18, 22 and 29 nationally.

The Bullard twins regularly get overshadowed by the other brothers on the team — Hayden and Trent Hidlay, who are ranked No. 2 and 3 nationally at their weight classes.

But if the wrestling world hadn’t taken notice of the noise redshirt junior Thomas Bullard has made at 165 pounds yet, they will after his 2-1 win over three-time All-American David McFadden, a consensus top-10 wrestler at the weight. On a night of on-paper upsets for the Wolfpack, none were bigger than this one.

Bullard was ranked as low as No. 17 entering the match by some media outlets, but he should be threatening the top 10 in all of them after that performance. He’s also beaten Pitt’s Jake Wentzel, No. 11 in the coaches’ panel rankings, twice and split two matches with No. 12 Ethan Smith of Ohio State but was more dominant in the more recent matchup. Those are the types of wins that help get a guy on the NCAA podium — and four of his five losses have come by one point.

He’s proven he can go with anybody in the country thanks to impressive scrambling and a nasty top game. Daniel isn’t far behind at 174 pounds and hasn’t had a ton of ranked opportunities, but does boast a top-10 victory on his resume over Cornell’s Brandon Womack, a former All-American.

The Hidlay brothers were mentioned earlier and have powered the Pack all year. This was Trent Hidlay’s first dual loss of the year, and it came against the nation’s No. 2-ranked grappler at his weight, Hunter Bolen. It’s probable that these two meet again in the ACC finals, and wouldn’t be surprising for them to run into each other at least once at NCAAs.

The difference was a takedown off an underhook (Hidlay’s bread and butter) with 24 seconds left in the first period. It’s likely that whenever these two wrestle, the difference could again be a takedown off an underhook — but it won’t always be for Bolen.

This is still a very winnable match for Hidlay, and if he gets revenge in the postseason it’s possible only Hidlay himself will remember the regular-season result.

The wrestling world has been buzzing about NC State wrestling and the atmosphere it has created at Reynolds Coliseum — and it’s impossible to argue about that point. Talking to opposing coaches before duals for broadcasts on ACC Network Extra, most of them have brought it up themselves or mentioned how impressive of a building Reynolds is for the sport.

I’ll admit I’ve never had the opportunity to attend a wrestling dual in Big Ten country, but the guys who work at FloWrestling have — and they have been raving about the wrestling scene in Raleigh on their podcast for a while now, really since former UFC fighter Ben Askren attended the dual against Virginia Jan. 24 (though you could probably even go back to last summer when Raleigh hosted the World Team Trials).

Since that 28-9 win over UVA, the crowds have been bigger and better, and NC State has beaten a trio of top-10 foes by a combined score of 61-44. They took six of the 10 matches against each of No. 10 Pitt, No. 8 North Carolina and No. 7 Virginia Tech; averaged over 3,200 spectators for the two home dates during that stretch; and set a new Reynolds Coliseum attendance record with 4,383 rowdy fans that resulted in an atmosphere legends are made of last Friday.

The wrestling world and beyond have been talking about the scene at Reynolds against UNC, and even if the crowd of 2,076 wasn’t as big last night, they’re still talking about the Wolfpack. Both of the guys below work for FloWrestling:

This is a year in which the sport was treated to an epic, No.1-vs.-No. 2 showdown between powerhouses Iowa and Penn State (the Hawkeyes won, 19-17), so it’s high praise.

Those are the national wrestling experts' words, not mine … but it’s hard to argue.

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