Published Jan 29, 2021
Notes & Observations: NC State wrestling wins record 8th straight vs. UNC
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Ryan Tice  •  TheWolfpackCentral
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Notes and observations from No. 3 NC State wrestling’s 28-10 win at No. 14 North Carolina Friday night:

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Record-Setting Win

The win marked extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 22 in a row.

And not only did Friday night set a new school record with eight straight wins over the rival Tar Heels, it was the team's second dominant victory in a row over a top-15 team nationally — following last week’s 27-6 triumph over No. 12 Pitt.

Pat Popolizio’s Wolfpack has taken 15 of the 20 individual bouts in those duals, and scored bonus points — outscoring the opponent by eight or more points, or pinning them — in five of those possible matches. Which leads us to our next point …

Bonus Point Bonanza 

Three of the matches Friday night ended with the Pack scoring bonus points — No. 4 125-pounder Jakob Camacho notched a 21-4 technical fall, No. 2 157-pounder Hayden Hidlay scored a 20-5 technical fall and No. 17 197-pounder Isaac Trumble pinned Max Shaw with one second left in the second period.

In what many expected to be a close match, tallying bonus-point wins in two of the first five matches gave the Pack a wide margin of error … which they didn’t wind up needing, but they were impressive nonetheless. Most weren't expecting anything more than maybe a major decision or two in this dual.

Especially notable about Camacho’s dominant effort was the fact that UNC freshman Julian Tagg had actually won the last time they met — at the 2019 U.S. Open. That was freestyle wrestling, which is different than the folkstyle grappling done in college, but it just shows how much Camacho has improved since then to so drastically flip the result.

For Hidlay, he just continues his ACC domination. A bonus-point win for him isn’t even news now. Nor an ACC triumph. He is now 26-0 against conference foes, and has posted bonus-point victories in 13 of them, including seven of the last 10 over the past two seasons.

Isaac Trumble With One Of The Most Impressive Starts To A Freshman Season

NC State has had true freshmen exceed expectations and impress before, in the rare opportunities they’ve been thrown into the Wolfpack lineup immediately under Popolizio.

Current recruiting director Kevin Jack, for example, got pulled out of redshirt midway through his true freshman year at 141, then finished fourth at the ACC Championships before he shocked the world and placed fifth at the national tournament.

However, Trumble’s domination early in his first collegiate season is head-turning and unique. He’s the most dominant true freshman this observer has seen since for NC State since at least former national champion Darrion Caldwell in 2006-07. Caldwell dominated from day one, and tallied a program rookie record 10 pins … but it required 26 matches (20-6 final record).

It’s a weird season, but that probably makes this accomplishment even more impressive — Trumble has notched pins in four of his first matches. And the other was last week’s dual debut, when he upset No. 5 Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt, via a dominant 6-1 decision to win several national Wrestler of the Week honors.

Plenty Of Other Ranked Wins

We've gotten this far and still not talked about some of the biggest wins:

• 133-pound fifth-year senior Tariq Wilson took the drivers’ seat in the ACC with a 9-6 win in a conference championship rematch against No. 10 Zach Sherman. Sherman was ranked higher in most national polls, but this should push Wilson ahead in each of them.

• 174-pound fifth-year senior Daniel Bullard had one of the best wins of his career with a 7-4 win over No. 9 Devin Kane. Kane was rated higher in four of the five major national rankings that update weekly, and this victory should push Bullard into the top 10 of all.

• 184-pound redshirt sophomore Trent Hidlay was the favorite on paper, but a 5-1 win over Clay Lautt, who was ranked in the top 15 nationally by four of the five major polls, is still a quality victory. Next Friday, he'll face No. 2 Hunter Bolen of Virginia Tech in a top-five showdown. Get your popcorn ready.

• Similar to Hidlay, junior heavyweight Deonte Wilson was the favorite on paper, but 6-1 is still a good win over Andrew Gunning, who entered the match ranked among the nation’s top 24 in four of the five major weekly polls. Wilson is another established ACC favorite for his weight at this point.

Bonus Points

• NC State returned all 10 starters from last year’s undefeated and ACC-winning team – but in a show of how talented the recruiting was, and maybe also thanks to the NCAA rule allowing a free year of eligibility, three rookies got the nod in tonight’s important dual.

Trumble’s effort was detailed above, but 133-pounder Ryan Jack got the start and lost a competitive 3-2 match to No. 11 Jamie Hernandez, while 149-pounder Ed Scott fell by 11-3 major decision to No. 1 Austin O’Connor.

• Speaking of standout freshmen — redshirt freshman heavyweight Owen Trephan moved to 4-0 this year and had the most impressive showing in the extra matches, with a 9-5 win over junior Brandon Whitman, a former NCAA qualifier at 197 pounds who has moved up to 285.

• Combining the 10 individual bouts in the dual and the 16 extra matches, the Wolfpack won 20 of the 26 possible matches. They scored bonus points in 11 of them while giving up just two such score differences.

• One big win for the Pack came Friday, though it happened before the match even started — the Pack nabbed a big 2022 commit from Jackson Arrington. The middleweight (likely 141 or 149 in college) put his decision on social media Friday and is the rare high school freshman to win a Pennsylvania state championship.

He's ranked as a consensus top-100 recruit by FloWrestling and InterMat, the Pack's third such prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, joining heavyweight Chase Horne of Georgia and Dylan Fishback of Ohio. They also have another Pennsylvanian committed in Finn Solomon.

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