NC State wrestling left the ACC Championships March 3 in Chapel Hill empty-handed, watching Virginia Tech walk away with the team trophy it had set its sights on.
It made sure it wouldn’t return from Cleveland, where the NCAA Championships were held, with a similar feeling.
NC State not only set school records with four All-Americans, which requires a top-eight finish, and two national finalists, but they finished in a tie for fourth to claim just the second NCAA team trophy in ACC history and tied the league’s best-ever national showing. It broke the school’s previous NCAA record of finishing seventh in 1993.
“A lot of things went right this weekend for us, and obviously our ultimate goal as a team was to leave here with a trophy,” sixth-year head coach Pat Popolizio said. “We’ve been saying it, we’ve been preaching it and it finally happened. It’s a reality.
“It’s just very rewarding for these guys because they’ve all bought in and believed in what we are doing. That put us in position for this.”
The team had no problem putting its ACC performance in the past, which was evident in the finals Saturday night. Not only was the Pack the top-finishing team from outside the Big Ten, but ACC runner-up Michael Macchiavello extracted revenge against Virginia Tech’s Jared Haught — who had beaten him in the regular season and conference championship — to claim the national title in the 197-pound weight class.
“It was devastating leaving the ACC Tournament without winning it because we set our goals to do that,” Popolizio said. “That’s what made this team special — they didn’t dwell on it, we didn’t dwell on it as coaches. People were asking about it and we were like, ‘It is what it is, we’re going to move forward. We’ve still got the biggest tournament coming ahead.’
“Our guys showed up and wrestled [at the NCAA Championships]. Everybody did their part because we obviously needed every single point we got this weekend to put us in position for this.”
Macchiavello became just the fourth North Carolina native to wrestle for a national title and the second to win it. His growth mirrored that of the program on almost a nearly identical timeline.
NCSU went 5-6 overall, 0-5 in the ACC and placed sixth at the ACC Championships and 63rd at the NCAA Championships in Popolizio’s first year in 2013.
Macchiavello went 11-14 as a part-time starter during his true freshman year in 2014 and 9-8 a year later while starting just half of the team’s duals. After a redshirt season in 2016, he finished one win shy of All-America honors last year and went a combined 48-11 during his final two campaigns — capped by an incredible 5-0 run when it counted the most at nationals this season.
“From where he started and now where he’s at with a national championship, his picture is going to go on our wall forever,” the coach beamed. “I’m just so happy that he was able to get what he wanted. He didn’t even place last year, and he comes back through and becomes a national champ this year.
“His banner is going to hang in Reynolds for the rest of his life.”
Macchiavello noted he bought in to Popolizio’s deamands with the rest of his teammates, which allowed them to lead the way for the incredible finish. Redshirt freshman Hayden Hidlay finished second at 157 pounds, redshirt freshman Tariq Wilson placed third at 133 pounds and senior Kevin Jack wound up sixth at 141 pounds to finish his career with his third All-America honor.
“Not every team in the country has that culture,” Macchiavello admitted. “And I don’t think it’s the easiest thing to buy in. I think the hardest thing to do is to trust the coaching staff and the culture that they created. Living that lifestyle is going to get you to where you want to be.
“I don’t want to sound cliché, but that’s exactly what I did, I trusted the coaching staff. I’ll tell you right now it’s definitely not easy. There’s a lot of ups and downs. But at the end of the day, you just have to believe you’re going to get there. I don’t know what else to say, just buy in and believe and you’ll get to where you want to be at NC State.”
On the biggest stage, the Wolfpack ended up where it wanted to be all year. It brought home a trophy from Cleveland, and once that is securely placed in a trophy case in Raleigh they’ll work to better the finish.
“Obviously, we want to win a national title, but we’ve never had a fourth-place finish before, so you’ve got to through the stepping-stones of building a program,” Popolizio said. “We went through a lot of those this year. We broke through on a lot of different levels, and it opens the door now to a lot of new opportunities for this program.
“We’ll keep moving forward, we just want to continue momentum, do things right and continue to put guys on the podium and win national titles. Now, the next goal is to finish higher than fourth.”
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