Former NC State standout and two-time NCAA champion wrestler Nick Gwiazdowski and recent Michigan graduate Adam Coon, a two-time NCAA finalist, had met three times during their college careers. Coon won the first one, followed by a pair of one-point Gwiazdowski victories, including in the 2015 NCAA championship bout.
The combined score of the three matchups was 11-11, but they had not wrestled since the NCAA semifinals in 2016.
That made their best-of-three finals Saturday night at Final X, where the winner would earn the starting spot for Team USA at the 2018 World Championships, highly anticipated.
On Saturday night, Gwiazdowski — who won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships and still trains full-time at the Wolfpack's Regional Training Center (RTC) — punched his ticket to return to the sport's biggest stage (in an Olympic year, he would be representing his country in the Olympics). The Delanson, N.Y., native not only did that, he also showed how much he has improved since graduating by leaving no doubt that he was the country's best 125-kilogram wrestler with a pair of dominant 6-1 victories over Coon, who has established himself as a clear-cut No. 2.
"That was a very impressive showing," NCSU head coach Pat Popolizio said. "His adjustments that he made technically, physically and mentally were really big for him. He just controlled every position of the match — and that was something that in the past when those two competed, [it showed] there were holes in his game.
"He totally adjusted those to his advantage and it showed tonight."
Going in, Popolizio was adamant that Gwiazdowski had looked better than ever, and anybody who saw the match tonight would have to agree.
"He's not just working on the mat, you can see the strength and speed stuff he's been working on," the coach said. "It's all showing now. That's what we've been seeing in the room and Obe [Blanc, who is in charge of the Wolfpack's Regional Training Center] has done an unbelievable job spearheading the workouts and technically putting him in position to make sure his game is A-plus right now."
Gwiazdowski will compete in the 2018 UWW World Championships Oct. 20-28 in Budapest, Hungary. He helped the US win the team title at Worlds last year — just the country's third-ever team championship — and individually won the Pan American Championships earlier this spring.
He was one of two with ties to the Wolfpack to make Final X, along with rising redshirt sophomore Nick Reenan, who was easily the most surprising of the 20 male grapplers who competed for the US starting spots and was one of just four with college eligibility remaining. However, he was swept in two matches by four-time NCAA finalist David Taylor, who is 27 and currently ranked No. 2 in the world … but he'll still be on the US world team as one of Taylor's training partners.
NC State was one of only four schools nationally that had at least two from its RTC qualify for Final X, along with wrestling powerhouses Cornell, Ohio State and Nebraska.
The program also has a pair of grapplers from this past year's team — 2018 NCAA Champion Michael Macchiavello, who was a fifth-year senior, and rising redshirt sophomore Hayden Hidlay — that will represent the U.S. at the Under-23 World Championships in Romania in November.
"We've got three guys now that are going to get a chance to wrestle in the world championships out of our RTC,” Popolizio said. "I'm not sure how many other programs are in position to do that, but that's going to be very beneficial for experience.
"It's a very motivated group of kids that aren't just trying to make national teams, they want to win world medals, whatever level it's at."
Jjust like he has for all of NC State's climb during its six years under Popolizio into a team that tied an ACC record by finishing fourth at this past year's NCAA Championships, Gwiazdowski is once again leading the Pack.
——
• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
