For the second time in the last three years, NC State wrestling is bringing in one of the nation's top three recruiting classes.
The 2018 signing class — which includes 15 high school signees and one All-American transfer, and has been tracked extensively on The Wolves' Den message board — was ranked third nationally by InterMat Wrestling this morning. It joins the country's top-ranked group from 2016 that helped lead the Wolfpack to a tie for fourth place at the 2018 NCAA Wrestling Championships, which tied for the ACC's highest finish ever and resulted in the program's first NCAA trophy.
The 2016 class has already produced one national finalist (157-pound Hayden Hidlay as a redshirt freshman) and two All-Americans (Hidlay and Tariq Wilson, who placed third this past year at 133 pounds as a redshirt freshman). It also boasts Nick Reenan, who was the class' top-ranked recruit out of high school and started as a true freshman but redshirted this past year and beat several All-Americans while competing in open tournaments during the college season and the U.S. Open in late April.
According to InterMat, NCSU inked five of its top 100 recruits regardless of weight class, led by No. 19 Jakob Camacho of Danbury, Conn. (projected 125/133 pounder), who is supplemented by No. 22 Trent Hidlay (Mifflin County, Pa.; 174), No. 53 Jarrett Trombley (Lake Fenton, Mich.; 141/149), No. 55 Josiah Rider (Grand Junction, Colo.; 149) and No. 84 Tyler Barnes (Ballston Spa, N.Y.; 184/197).
The heavyweight duo of Deonte Wilson (Amityville, N.Y.) and Colin Lawler (Kinkaid School, Texas) were also each ranked at their weight class by the website. Wilson, after placing second at NHSCA Senior Nationals, was ranked 12th at heavyweight, while three-time Texas state champion Lawler checked in at No. 17.
FloWrestling has not released its team recruiting rankings yet, but did update its top-100 big board this week, which also featured five top-100 recruits headed to Raleigh — No. 18 Hidlay, No. 23 Camacho, No. 56 Rider, No. 74 Trombley and No. 81 Barnes. The Wolfpacker's unofficial count had only three schools with more top-100 signees than the Pack's five, while Lawler was also ranked No. 20 at heavyweight by the website.
Meanwhile, Central Michigan 149-pound transfer Justin Oliver was a seventh-place NCAA finisher at the 2016 NCAA Championships before falling just one win shy of All-America honors each of the past two years. He has won over 80 percent of his matches (117-29) during his first four years of college competition, including his redshirt year, and will make an immediate impact as a fifth-year senior.
"This recruiting class fills every single one of our needs and provides much-needed depth at certain weights," Pat Popolizio, the 2018 ACC Coach of the Year, told GoPack.com about the recruiting class earlier this year. "More importantly, each one of these young men know and respect our team culture and mentality. I'm very excited for the Wolfpack's future."
Popolizio's team has tied the program record with five straight top-20 NCAA finishes, but has done much of that with classes that have overachieved based on their recruiting rankings out of high school. For example, 2018 197-pound NCAA Champion Michael Macchiavello was not ranked among any outlet's top 100 coming out of Sun Valley High School in Monroe, N.C., and neither was Kevin Jack, who like Camacho came out of Danbury, Conn., and finished his college career this past year by tying the program record with three All-America honors.
With higher-ranked recruits signing out of high school the last three years, the Pack won't even need to continue its trend of overachieving to add more NCAA hardware to the trophy case.
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