The NCAA Wrestling Championships start Thursday, with the first round of action beginning at 12 p.m. ET. NC State qualified all 10 starters to nationals, a first in school history and they were one of just two schools to do so this year, so there will be plenty of Wolfpack action on day one in the double-elimination tournament.
“It speaks volumes for the guys — they are committed to building the program, getting better, and the resources from the top down have played a big role in that,” fifth-year head coach Pat Popolizio said. “But it’s just a culture that’s getting created and expectations that are starting to be developed. At the end of the day, that’s just the start of it — getting there. Ultimately, we want guys that can win national titles and be All-Americans.
“The last couple of weeks have been some of our better wrestling across the board. We haven’t hit from all cylinders as a team, but there’s been some high-level wrestling from different individuals every week. That part has been a key factor to getting everybody there. One week, one guy looks really good, the next week, two guys; what you want is at the national tournament all 10 guys are at their best. There’s no guarantee, but that’s what we’re working on.”
LISTEN: Two-time NCAA champion Nick Gwiazdowski talks NCAAs and the 2017 Pack
NCSU will be vying for its fourth straight top-20 finish at the year’s final tournament — the Pack has only had one string of more than three straight such finishes in its history, when it did so five years in a row from 1980-84 (8th, 20th, 11th, 16th and 12th). Popolizio has led his squad to a 19th-place showing in 2014, 16th in 2015 and 11th last year.
A weight-by-weight breakdown of the Pack lineup:
No. 12 seed 125-pound redshirt sophomore Sean Fausz
Since dropping from 133 pounds for the second semester, he made the NCSU lineup significantly stronger and went 9-2, with his only losses coming to No. 2 seed Joey Dance of Virginia Tech. In the regular-season dual match, Dance prevailed 12-3, but it was much closer at the ACC Championships, where Dance needed overtime to win 3-1. Fausz is big for his weight class and even has had success against bigger foes this year — he had four wins over national qualifiers at 133 during the regular season, including an overtime victory over teammate Jamal Morris. At 125, he beat Virginia’s Jack Mueller, the No. 10 national seed, at ACCs, 8-5, and two-time All-American Conor Youtsey of Michigan in the National Duals. Fausz went 1-2 at nationals last year and should be even better in his second try. If the top seeds both win their first match, he’ll face fifth-seeded Tim Lambert of Nebraska in round two — but that’s a match he’s capable of winning.
No. 15 seed 133-pound redshirt sophomore Jamal Morris
After competing in only tournaments before the new year — including a fifth-place finish at the prestigious Midlands in late December — Morris returned to his starting spot from last year. He won his first four duals, but then dropped three in a row before finishing 2-1 over his final three, all of which were against ranked foes. Fifth-year head coach Pat Popolizio likes to call Morris a postseason wrestler, and he looked like exactly that while placing second at ACCs after entering as the third seed, beating a pair of grapplers who defeated him in the regular season. He is 20-9 overall, 4-6 against fellow national qualifiers and looking to build off last year’s 2-2 performance at NCAAs.
No. 2 seed 141-pound junior Kevin Jack
Jack is a legitimate national title qualifier, capably stepping into the big shoes left behind by two-time heavyweight champion Nick Gwiazdowski. He has won 27 matches in a row entering nationals and has previously beaten the only competitor seeded ahead of him, Oklahoma State’s Dean Heil (although they have both beaten each other). He is 7-4 all time at the tournament, and is more mature and confident — a huge key in the sport — than ever before. He’s using last year as a learning experience and revenge could be on the table early against the two he lost to at nationals last year — if the higher seeds play out he’ll face the winner of No. 10 seed Bryce Meredith, a former teammate now at Wyoming, and No. 7 seed Joey Ward of UNC in the quarterfinals. He is 7-0 against wrestlers seeded in the top 10 this year, outscoring them 44-11.
No. 12 seed 149-pound redshirt senior Sam Speno
After redshirting last year to prepare for the third different weight class of his college career, Speno had an impressive regular season. After dropping his first two matches of the year, he went 21-4 until the ACC Championships. He had a disappointing showing in the conference tournament, going 1-2 with three- and one-point losses, but still drew an at-large bid to nationals and was even seeded based on his strong body of work. It won’t be an easy path, though — if both win their first match, he’ll face fifth-seeded 2016 runner-up Brandon Sorensen of Iowa in round two. The veteran has previously wrestled in two NCAA tournaments, going 2-4 overall, and is 10-8 against this year’s field. But three of those eight losses occurred way back in November, including a 7-5 overtime loss to first-round foe Andrew Crone of Wisconsin.
157-pound freshman Thomas Bullard
The consensus top-50 recruit was pulled out of his redshirt early in the year, after No. 4 Max Rohskopf was lost for the season with an injury in December. His first match was a 6-5 loss to No. 4 seed Tyler Berger of Nebraska. He’s gained more seasoning since then, going 21-10 overall. He’s had several other close matches against ranked foes, including an overtime victory over eventual ACC Champion Taleb Rahmani of Pittsburgh, and is 3-6 against the NCAA field. His style is unique and he’s hard to score on, but he has perhaps the team’s toughest first-round draw, facing top-seeded and undefeated Jason Nolf of Penn State, last year’s national runner-up as a redshirt frosh.
165-pound redshirt junior Brian Hamann
The New Jersey native wrestled all the way down at 149 pounds in 2014 and 2015, before redshirting and bulking up last season. After going 20-11, making the ACC finals and earning his first NCAA bid, he draws 14th-seeded Branson Ashworth of Wyoming in round one. He’s got a handful of ranked wins on the year and is 2-5 against this year’s NCAA field.
174-pound freshman Nick Reenan
Reenan has one of the most intriguing first-round matchups in the entire tournament. He pushed fourth-seeded Zach Epperly to the brink in the dual match before losing 5-3. Showing it wasn’t a fluke, he fell to him in another close one at ACCs, 4-1. Epperly is 19-1 and a good bet to go deep in the tourney, but there aren’t many that competed as closely with him as the Pack’s headlining freshman. The consensus top-10 recruit has gone 0-8 against NCAA qualifiers this season, but five of those were against grapplers seeded ninth or better, and it wouldn’t surprise to see him pick up a win or two.
NC State and Penn State are the only programs that qualified multiple true freshmen to nationals, there are just 18 in the entire tournament.
No. 10 seed 184-pound redshirt junior Michael Macchiavello
The 184-pound weight class is arguably the deepest in the entire tournament, boasting both finalists from a year ago, a total of five NCAA finals appearances and 11 All-America honors among the top 10 seeds, who boast a combined winning percentage of .888 (254-32) this year, better than any other weight. Despite it being his first NCAA appearance, Macchiavello is a legitimate All-American candidate and trying to become the second straight Wolfpacker to overachieve, relative to his seed, on the big stage at the weight (senior Pete Renda, who is redshirting this year, placed third last season after entering at No. 13). He is 7-6 against NCAA qualifiers on the year, including wins over the competitors seeded fifth, 11th and 14th.
197-pound redshirt sophomore Malik McDonald
The first-time starter is 20-9 on the year with some close losses to top-15 foes. His record against grapplers seeded at nationals is 1-7, but the lone win was against 12th-seeded Frank Mattiace, so he’s capable of grabbing some victories on the big stage. He does draw the No. 3 seed in round one, while McDonald and Macchiavello represent two of the three North Carolina natives who punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament this year.
“When we came here to NC State as a staff, we wanted to get the best kids in this state,” Popolizio said. “We feel like we had two of the better kids this year that are in our lineup, they’ve bought in and put a lot of time in. They’ve probably exceeded expectations from a lot of people with where they’re at in their careers, but it’s not surprising to us when you see their work ethic behind the scenes.
“When you’re recruiting, obviously you want talent but more a mentality — and those guys mirror our mentality and philosophy as a program. It makes for easy success in that aspect. Give me more in-state kids that think and operate like those two, and we can go really far with in-state kids.”
285-pound redshirt senior Mike Kosoy
After backing up the two-time champion and four-time All-American Gwiazdowski for the last three years, Kosoy stepped back into the starting lineup for the first time since his true freshman season and nabbed his first NCAA bid. He went 1-10 against the NCAA field this season and his first bout is a rematch with Nebraska’s Collin Jensen, a 7-4 loss for Kosoy at Midlands.
