NC State Wolfpack wrestling adds another blue-chip recruit

The NC State Wolfpack wrestling team has routinely brought in nationally ranked recruiting classes under head coach Pat Popolizio, who enters his ninth season at the helm in 2020-21.

It looks like when the Wolfpack brings in the class of 2022 — made up of current high school juniors — the tradition will continue in Raleigh.

The class kicked off Aug. 26 with a pledge from Pennsylvanian Finn Solomon, a former second-place state finisher (as a freshman) in traditionally the toughest prep wrestling state in the land. As recently as February, Solomon was ranked as a top-100 prospect in the 2022 class by FloWrestling, and while he is not currently included on the most recent edition of big board, he is still tabbed 20th nationally at 132 pounds in the outlet's weight class rankings.

The Pack grew even stronger Tuesday night with the pledge of top-30 overall recruit Dylan Fishback of Aurora High in Ohio. Flo lists him No. 29 on its current big board for the 2022 class and 13th at 170 pounds in its overall high school rankings, which is fifth among non-seniors at the weight.

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Fishback ranked high atop the program's wishlist for the recruiting cycle, so it's a phenomenal start for the high school junior class, which should pair nicely with what looks like one of the nation's top groups of newcomers in the 2021 cycle — a group that boasts five top-100 commits so far per Flo, including No. 8 overall recruit Stevo Poulin, who pulled the trigger in June.

Under Popolizio, the Wolfpack has signed FloWrestling top-20 classes in 2013 (14th nationally), 2014 (19th), 2016 (first), 2018 (sixth), 2019 (17th) and 2020 (eighth). Both 2021 and 2022 will almost certainly join that group; the only question about the 2021 class will be how highly they are ranked nationally.

That 2016 collection that was rated as the best recruiting class in the country helped lead the way for NC State to claim its second straight ACC championship in March and finish an undefeated regular season to allow it to be ranked third nationally before COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Championships. All of the major players in that 2016 class have redshirted so will be fifth-year seniors this upcoming winter.

With the current slate of verbal commits in 2021 and 2022, the wrestling talent well in Raleigh doesn't look like it will be drying up anytime soon.