The third time was a charm for NC State junior 141-pounder Kevin Jack. After getting knocked to the consolation bracket at the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row by former Wolfpack teammate Bryce Meredith, now at Wyoming, he wanted a third chance at Meredith, who reached the NCAA finals after upsetting Jack last year.

“It was my turn to get revenge,” the Connecticut native stated.

Jack got his wish and beat Meredith for the first time in the duo’s rubber match with a third-period pin to place third nationally. Jack was trailing 5-2 at the time of the fall.

“It feels good,” he said. “Me and him have a lot of history behind us, definitely every match we wrestle is a close one. Falling behind, I knew I just had to keep attacking and keep going in that third period. It went my way — I ended up getting in one of those scrambles, kept moving and got the pin.”

It obviously wasn’t a perfect tournament for the Pack or Jack — Virginia’s George DiCamillo, who he beat twice this season by a combined score of 20-5, is wrestling for the national title, something Jack expected to be doing — but he clinched his second All-America honor after placing fifth as a true freshman to become just the ninth multiple-time All-American in program history.

“I thought it showed character, heart and the will to win — that’s what it’s about for guys that get knocked off in the quarterfinals,” fifth-year head coach Pat Popolizio said. “It was the same thing last year — losing early, being disappointed, and how you respond says a lot. It speaks volumes for him, it speaks volumes for the program itself that you have that will to come back.

“It’s one of the hardest things, I don’t know if people realize that … it’s never fun [wrestling an opponent you know so well]. Knowing Bryce and what he’s about, his family — they’re such good people. Being here at NC State for a year, it’s a matchup we don’t really enjoy doing, but when you get out there for seven minutes, you have to throw all of that to the side and compete.”

That’s exactly what Jack did, and not only did he pick up placement points for finishing third, he tallied bonus points with his pin to help the Pack finish 17th in the final team standings.

“It’s huge,” Popolizio said. “Two points [how much a pin is worth] springboards you a lot. Obviously, we’re still building so to keep getting points and jump some teams, that’s always a positive.”

Since Popolizio’s squad placed 63rd in his first year at the helm, they have finished 19th, 16th, 11th and 17th. It is just the program’s second streak of more than three straight such finishes (the first came in the five years from 1980-84 — eighth, 20th, 11th, 16th and 12th)

“It’s a little disappointing this year, we always want to be higher and better,” Popolizio admitted. “But I think we create expectations sometimes that have to push us to continue to do better. As we build this program, just to say every year we're going to be in the hunt at that level, it shows growth. It shows guys are working, but we’ve got to continue to come here and develop, put guys on the podium and compete for national titles.”

There were plenty of other positives — NC State, despite boasting just two seniors in the lineup, was one of only two schools to qualify all 10 starters to nationals. They were also one of just two programs who had multiple true freshmen in the field.

In addition to eight of those 10 returning for next year with that valuable experience under their belt, the team will have two others — senior 184-pounder Pete Renda, who redshirted this year, and heavyweight Michael Boykin — on the roster that have won matches at NCAAs.

“We’ve got a lot of guys coming back,” Jack said. “We’ve got our 184 Pete Renda, who took third last year, coming back; we’ve got a couple of freshmen that are redshirting right now and are going to be very tough. Just with the guys in our lineup right now, they might not have had the best tournament, but they’ll definitely be back and we’ll be stronger next year. I definitely feel we can get a trophy [top-four finish at NCAAs] next year.”