By making the U.S. National Team, former NC State wrestling star Nick Gwiazdowski has checked off a major life goal — but he hasn’t been able to sit back and enjoy his accomplishment. The Delanson, N.Y., native has been too busy, immediately shifting his focus to training for the next event.
That was the mentality that allowed him to win 88 college matches in a row and made him a four-time NCAA All-American (once at Binghamton, three times at NC State) and two-time national champion for the Wolfpack.
With goals beyond college wrestling still to check off — ones more within his reach than ever — he wasn’t about to change his approach after winning the U.S. National Team Trials in June. That earned him the right to represent his country at the 2017 World Championships in Paris, where Gwiazdowski will compete in the 125-kilogram weight class Friday starting at 4 a.m. eastern time (a live stream is available by purchasing a pass from Track Wrestling).
After fours cycles of finishing one spot shy of earning a spot on America’s World Team — which requires a top-three placement at the Trials — Gwiazdowski broke through earlier this year. By winning the U.S. Open in April, he earned a bye into the best-of-three finals at the U.S. World Team Trials in June, where he beat Dom Bradley in two straight bouts (Bradley is currently ranked 14th in the world, while Gwiazdowski checks in at No. 17).
“But once you get that, it’s on to the next one because it’s a short summer and you’ve got to keep moving forward,” he explained. “It felt good to finally get that top spot, but now you’ve got the USA on your chest and you want to bring back hardware for the country [from the World Championships].”
Since April, Gwiazdowski has wrestled in Las Vegas, New York, Nebraska and Spain, and that’s in addition to his regular training in Raleigh, where he’s the headlining member of the Wolfpack’s Olympic Regional Training Center (RTC), Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center and State College, Pa., where he occasionally trains at Penn State.
Gwiazdowski has been back overseas to acclimate to the time change and put the finishing touches on his training since Aug. 12 with NC State associate head coach Frank Beasley, who is in charge of the Raleigh RTC. Head coach Pat Popolizio and the rest of the wrestling staff arrived to support him 10 days later.
Popolizio has been coaching Gwiazdowski since 2011, when they were both at Binghamton, and then the pair made the move to Raleigh. The coach noted both of their career goals changed when they headed south, and Gwiazdowski’s NCAA title as a redshirt sophomore signaled it was time to aim higher than just college competition.
No wrestler had successfully competed internationally out of Raleigh before, but Gwiazdowski found a formula that worked during college and saw no reason to change it, despite plenty of offers to head elsewhere. Winning the Trials reiterated that he has made the right choice.
“I really enjoy it,” he said of deciding to stay in Raleigh. “They support me a ton in what I want to do, where I want to go, who I want to have down here to work out with.
“[The NC State coaches] have done a lot of things that they don’t have to do in their daily routines because right now they’re not paid to coach me, they’re paid to coach these college guys. But what they’re doing for me is huge, especially Frank [Beasley] and Obe [Blanc, a former world team member and current NCSU assistant].
“It’s a huge confidence booster when you have people in your corner that are willing to go the extra mile.”
The spring of 2016 was the last time that Gwiazdowski fell short of accomplishing what he set out to do, when he lost in the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials while trying to earn a spot in Rio. However, he was just coming off a college season in which he lost an epic NCAA championship match in overtime to 2015 World Champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder of Ohio State, who is now teammates with Gwiazdowski on Team USA at the weight class below him.
Since then, Gwiazdowski has been completely focused on freestyle wrestling — different in scoring and rules from college wrestling, which is called folkstyle — and Popolizio is seeing the results on the mat.
“I think he’s obviously at his best and where he needs to be at this point in his international career,” the coach said. “He gained an unbelievable amount of experience wrestling in the tournaments he has been able to go to, and the coaching and training he’s been able to get full time for the last two years has obviously shown a direct effect on his success.
“Before it was college and freestyle, and it’s been all freestyle for the last couple years. He’s been able to pick up on such detailed things that are having a big impact on his technique.”
The brackets at the World Championships are decided by seeding the top four entrants based on previous accomplishments, while the other 20 competitors’ name are randomly selected to determine their starting position. Gwiazdowski’s first match is against Moldova’s Alexandr Romanov; if he wins he will then face Hungary’s Daniel Ligeti, who is ranked fifth in the world.
Gwiazdowski will be adding blue to what became his usual uniform of red and white at NC State to represent America overseas. But he will approach the tournament the same as he always has gone into any competition — not worried about rankings or predictions (FloWresting projects him to win a bronze medal), focused solely on results and confident in his ability to win.
“It’s a huge honor,” he said of representing the USA. “There are expectations that go with it and there’s a lot of pride behind it too. You know it’s the greatest country of earth that you’re representing, so it definitely means a lot to go out there and give it your best.
“My goals are to win matches and leave with a gold, silver or bronze [medal]. I know my abilities and skills, and I’ve worked harder than an 0-1 performance. If it means I’ve got to push myself to a new level, that will happen out there. I plan on coming home with something.”
It just wouldn’t be like Gwiazdowski to return from a wrestling tournament empty handed.
Update: Roughly 16 months after placing fourth at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Gwiazdowski won a bronze medal at his first World Championships appearance. The former NCSU star went 4-1 in his five matches and outscored his competition 30-16. His only loss was to the three-time defending champion going for his fourth straight world title.
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