NC State 141-pound junior Kevin Jack ended last year with a disappointing NCAA performance. It has followed him like a shadow every day since.
The Connecticut native — who surprisingly placed fifth at nationals as a true freshman after being pulled out of a redshirt late in his first year — won the 2016 ACC Championship and earned the No. 3 seed at the NCAA Tournament. Following a sparkling regular season, he went 3-2 on the big stage and failed to open his career with consecutive All-America (top-eight finish) honors.
He thinks about that weekend daily — it’s still fresh in his mind after he wakes up and before he goes to bed. Most importantly he remembers it when he’s training.
“It still hurts right now,” he admitted days before leaving for this year’s tournament in St. Louis, which he enters as the No. 2 seed. “As much as it sucks, I can’t live with the past anymore. I just have to try to move on. I never want to have that feeling again, that’s why I’ve made myself work so hard.
"It’s definitely pushed me throughout the past year.”
After that “learning experience,” which is what fifth-year head coach Pat Popolizio termed it, Jack has been working all year to make sure he doesn’t fall short again. He’s improved in every aspect, according to his head coach, and is even FloWrestling’s pick to win the national title. The NCAA Championships — which Jack admits he might not have taken seriously enough last year after his outstanding rookie performance — start Thursday, culminating in the finals Saturday night on ESPN.
“I think it’s more individual pride and making sure he doesn’t have those relapses that he had last year,” Popolizio explained. “It’s staying focused and not forgetting, but at the same time moving forward. I think he’s done that.
"It’s a maturity factor for him as far as the sport goes. He’s taken it to a different level mentality wise. He’s done the little things this year — not just shown up and tried to rely on talent, which makes him dangerous.”
After an overtime loss to No. 11 Randy Cruz of Lehigh on opening weekend, he has won all 27 matches since. But he hasn’t just been victorious — he’s taken the place of graduated two-time NCAA Champion Nick Gwiazdowski as the sledge hammer on a top-10 Wolfpack squad.
Gwiazdowski, the first multiple-time national champ in program history and a three-time finalist, never lost an ACC match in his NCSU career, scoring bonus points in most of those contests — and not because he was in a weak weight class (he wasn’t) but because he was that good.
Jack, who similarly is undefeated in his 12 career league dual matches, outscored his conference foes 109-27 this year including tournament matches. The ACC features three of the top seven seeds at the NCAA Championships to form arguably the league’s best weight class, but even those high-level foes couldn’t take Jack down in eight matches. He posted bonus points (winning by eight or more) in five of those bouts, allowing his opponents to merely muster mostly escapes — a decision he usually made, so that he could take them down again and secure more team points for the Pack.
“He made it look like those guys weren’t at the level they’re at,” Popolizio explained. “He makes things look real easy out there. … Now he’s just got to go out and continue to do what he’s been doing. He doesn’t need to change anything; he just need to stay aggressive, go out and compete, that will put him in position to win a national title.”
The overall body of work is not flawless, but it is impressive. Jack went 29-1 and capped his campaign with a Most Outstanding Wrestler performance at the ACC Championships in Raleigh, winning his two matches by a combined score of 27-8. In seven outings this year against wrestlers seeded in the top 10 at nationals, he is undefeated by a margin of 44-11.
Much like it has been ever since he surprised everyone as a true freshman, the target on Jack’s back is noticeable. Finishing among the nation's top eight puts a wrestler in the crosshairs of every other grappler in the country.
However, it didn’t affect Jack as much as last year, a sign of maturity according to both him and his coach. After racking up just eight bonus-point wins a year ago (five major decisions), he has two pins, eight tech falls (beating an opponent by 15 points) and eight major decisions this time around.
“That’s probably the hardest thing for guys to do — Nick went through it [after his first All-America honor], then won the national title,” Popolizio said. “Guys come at you, throwing everything they have; they’ve got nothing to lose.
“How you handle that and manage that, that’s maturity. Last year was a little bit of a struggle for [Jack], this year he’s taken it on. He knows, he sees that. When you’re still able to major guys and tech them, that just shows where you’re at mentally. That’s the difference with him this year. He’s been able to handle everybody’s strategy, he knows now that everybody is going to come at him with a game plan.”
At the NCAA Championships, a high seed guarantees nothing — and Jack knows that better than anybody, having been on both ends of the surprises. After sneaking into nationals as a true freshman, he knocked off four-time ACC Champion Devin Carter of Virginia Tech en route to a miracle run to the semifinals as an unseeded competitor, beating Carter and another foe who beat him weeks earlier at the ACC Championships.
Last year, he was the favorite that was upset — getting knocked to the consolation bracket after former teammate Bryce Meredith, the 14th seed who transferred from NCSU to Wyoming, beat him by one point. He was then eliminated by UNC’s Joey Ward, who he beat at NCAAs the year earlier and in the 2015-16 regular season. Again the margin was a single point.
If Jack wins his first two bouts this year, he’s likely to face the winner of Ward, the seven seed, and Meredith, the 10th seed, in the quarterfinals. He beat Ward, the ACC’s third-place finisher, 10-4 on Jan. 23 — one of just two dual matches where he failed to register bonus points.
He’s looking forward to trying to rectify those painful losses by showing how far he has come in the last 12 months.
“I think I have physically and mentally grown a lot throughout the last year,” he said. “Just mentally believing in myself every match and staying focused — when the match is close, when it isn’t close.
“Last year, I had it, but I doubted it every now and then. This year, I don’t think I’ve doubted it once … I'm just completely believing in myself with every ounce I have.”
In addition to that confidence, there’s no doubt that when Jack goes for the 2017 national title in St. Louis, last year’s experience will still be in the back of his mind — there’s no forgetting what happened. But it’s only one of the many reasons he’s more prepared than ever to win on college wrestling’s biggest stage.
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