The NCAA's dead period for recruiting was recently extended through Jan. 1, but that has not slowed down the NC State Wolfpack wrestling program.

Ninth-year NC State head coach Pat Popolizio added another top-50 ranked commitment Thursday night, although Georgia stud Chase Horne waited until Friday morning to announce his pledge via social media. The two-time state champion is one of the top heavyweight prospects nationally and is currently rated second nationally at the weight overall on the high school level (and first for his age) by FloWrestling.

He'll actually be wrestling for the top ranking in the country, taking on senior Kyonte Hamilton, a Rutgers commit, at Flo's Who's #1 event Oct. 3.

Horne is the Pack's second top-50 pledge from the class of 2022 in under two weeks, joining Dylan Fishback of Ohio, who is ranked No. 29 on FloWrestling's big board of the top 100 prospects in the class regardless of weight. Horne checks in at No. 36, while fellow 2022 pledge Finn Solomon of Pennsylvania was on an older version of the big board but dropped out in the latest updates.

According to InterMat, another long-time wrestling media outlet, Horne is ranked 14th nationally in the junior class and Fishback checks in at No. 20, making NC State and Lehigh the only two programs with multiple top-50 pledges, according to InterMat, in 2022 at this point.

The group of elite high school juniors should pair nicely with a class of 2021 that is shaping up to be one of the best assemblies of talent nationally in the current recruiting cycle and is headlined by No. 8 on the big board, Stevo Poulin of New York. It boasts a total of five grapplers ranked among on Flo's top 100 big board.

Under Popolizio, the Wolfpack has signed FloWrestling top-20 classes in 2013 (14th nationally), 2014 (19th), 2016 (first), 2018 (sixth), 2019 (17th) and 2020 (eighth). The 2021 class will certainly join that group, and the 2022 edition is also on that path early in the process.

The NC State wrestling team is coming off its second straight ACC championship and finished last year ranked third nationally after an undefeated campaign, before the NCAA Championships were canceled. The squad was able to return to practice Aug. 31, and is currently working out at PNC Arena, where they have four mats spread out to work out while following social distancing guidelines.

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