Former NC State national champion wrestler Nick Gwiazdowski will compete for a spot in the Summer Olympics Saturday night, taking part in a best-of-three finals series against Gable Steveson, a three-time age-level world champion and the 2021 NCAA champion for Minnesota.
Gwiazdowski has represented the United States at every senior level World Championships held since the last Summer Olympics in 2016. The two-time NCAA champ for the Wolfpack won a world bronze medal in both 2017 and 2018, and also competed at 125 kilograms in 2019. The Olympics were originally scheduled for 2020, but pushed back to this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gwiazdowski entered the bracket as the No. 1 seed and won his first two matches by 11-0 technical fall and 6-0 decision, for a combined score of 17-0. However, the second-seeded Steveson boasted an aggregate score of 22-0 in his first two matches.
The two also have history.
Gwiazdowski topped Steveson for the US national team's starting spot at Worlds in 2019, winning the best-of-three series — then dubbed Final X — in two matches, but needing criteria to take both (freestyle wrestling does not have overtime, a tied match is decided by criteria). Steveson got revenge in their last matchup, prevailing 4-1, at the RTC Cup in December.
Gwiazdowski vs. Steveson is one of the most anticipated matchups of tonight's finals, which begin at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.
NC State wrestling also had two other former grapplers competing at the Trials, and both are still alive in the consolations, which begin Saturday at 1 p.m. According to Jon Kozak on Twitter, NC State's Regional Training Center (RTC) tied for fifth nationally with three representatives at the Trials.
Another former Wolfpack national champion Michael Macchiavello reached the challenge tournament finals at 97 kg. His weight had a challenge tournament since it had a reigning world medalist in it.
Macchiavello entered as the No. 3 seed and beat 2021 NCAA champion AJ Ferrari before taking a criteria match over No. 2 Hayden Zillmer, then falling in the challenge tournament finals to No. 1 Kollin Moore.
Due to that loss, he is waiting in the consolation finals to face whomever emerges from that side of the bracket. The winner of the consolation finals will be declared the third-place finisher at the weight, behind Moore and three-time Olympic/world champion Kyle Snyder.
Fellow NCSU All-American Tommy Gantt was also in action in Fort Worth, Texas, at 74 kg, but he lost his first match in controversial fashion. After initially being awarded a 9-7 victory over Wisconsin All-American Evan Wick, a coach's challenge eventually reversed the scoring immediately preceding the buzzer, and changed the final points to result in a 9-8 victory for Wick.
Gantt's first match in the consolations will be against two-time Penn State national champ Vincenzo Joseph, and he will need three wins to reach the third-place match.
——
• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
