NC State wrestling has enjoyed one of its most successful stretches ever under sixth-year head coach Pat Popolizio. He has led the Wolfpack to four straight top-20 national finishes for only the second time in program history, following its five-year streak from 1980-84. His squad also tied the school record with three All-Americans at the 2016 NCAA Championships.
The success hasn’t been limited to the postseason either. During the last three years, the Pack has gone 51-5 in dual meets for a .911 winning percentage, which ranks second nationally during that stretch.
However, Popolizio made several changes to the schedule and even his own philosophy this year to focus his senior-laden team on the postseason (six of 10 starters are in their final year of eligibility). Simply put, his wrestlers have competed fewer times in the 2017 regular season than the past few years.
In 2016, Popolizio scheduled 24 duals (they went 23-1 and finished the regular season ranked an all-time best of No. 2 nationally) before placing 11th at NCAAs. Last year, his 10 starters entered the ACC Championships with an average of 27.5 matches each before placing second in the conference and 17th nationally.
This year — after a 15-2 regular season which included the school’s first ACC dual championship since 2004 — the 10 starters enter the postseason with an average of just 20.7 matches each. The total number of competitions wrestled was down and nobody started every match, which was all part of Popolizio’s plan.
“I think as a program we have to make that next jump and prove that we can get more than three All-Americans, prove that we can get another national champion, another finalist,” he said. “A top-10 finish [at NCAAs] is very realistic.”
The Pack hasn’t finished among the top 10 nationally since it set an all-time best of seventh in 1993.
If all goes according to plan, NC State should threaten its All-American record and could even contend for a trophy, which requires a top-four finish, at NCAAs thanks to five national title contenders in 125-pound redshirt junior Sean Fausz (No. 5 nationally), 141-pound senior Kevin Jack (No. 4), undefeated 157-pound redshirt freshman Hayden Hidlay (No. 3), 184-pound fifth-year senior Pete Renda (No. 5) and 197-pound redshirt senior Michael Macchiavello (No. 4).
Additionally, each of the other five starters were ranked among the nation’s top 26 in the final coaches’ panel rankings, making NC State one of just five schools to have all 10 starters listed.
“I think we’ve put so much emphasis on the duals and building the program [in the past] that this year we kind of structured it around having really good individuals — as well as a team — so let’s do what’s best for the individual, let it play out and get the team points we’re looking for towards the end of the year,” the coach said. “Obviously, we’ve got to see it all play out and evaluate everything, continue to evolve.
“But we’ve trained a lot harder later in the year, where maybe last year we backed off a couple of weeks too soon. This year, this past week we were still going at a pretty good pace.”
Popolizio and his staff were so strategic about scheduling that all 10 wrestlers still qualified a bid to the NCAA Championships for the ACC, something that requires a minimum number of matches and certain national standing to accomplish. (Although individuals earn the conference allocation bids, they are awarded at Saturday’s ACC Championships based on how high each individual places — for example, if the league earned three bids at a weight class, the top three placers move on to NCAAs regardless of who “earned” the bid during the regular season.)
“That was a huge part of the plan — get our minimum to qualify the spots for the conference,” he admitted. “Every one of our guys qualified the spot for the ACC, and then more than anything every guy got what they needed this season to put themselves in position to be at their best in the postseason.
“Next year we can evaluate where we’re at and we might go back to that 27.5 [average number of matches], but this year having six seniors and high-quality freshmen, we felt we didn’t need that number of matches.”
Despite the success the team and individual wrestlers have enjoyed this year, all but Hidlay lost at least once during the final weekend of the regular season, when NCSU hosted ACC rival Virginia Tech, the league’s other national top-10 squad, and No. 2 Ohio State.
Those late-season defeats have humbled many of Popolizio’s wrestlers, and several are itching to get revenge in Chapel Hill Saturday, when the conference tournament starts at 11 a.m. (ACC Network Extra will have a live stream).
“I think in the years past we haven’t seen that,” the coach said of the late losses. “We’ve won a lot of things and things have gone our way in dual meets — and if we didn’t win the dual meet, the guys that were supposed to win mostly won. It’s a different spot, but these guys have all been through the game — you’ve got six seniors that have been there, done it.
“Our training has been very good, the focus has been phenomenal, and I think more than anything it let guys know that they have to be ready and can’t take anything for granted. … I don’t think it has set anybody back; if anything I think it has motivated them to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The team race between the Pack and Hokies, based on the seeding, is expected to be close, so changing some individual outcomes from the 19-15 win over Virginia Tech will be paramount. If the seeds play out, the two schools could meet in the semifinals at 125, 133, 149 and 174, and in the finals at 141, 184 and 197.
“It’s pretty simple — wrestle to or above your seed and we’ll be in a good spot,” Popolizio said of the key for Saturday. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that.
“I think it is realistic to say it’s a two-team race at the end of the day … and there will be a lot of those key matchups in the semis — at 125, 133, 149, 174. Those are going to be very critical matches for us, and the good news is we won only two of those in the dual meet, so we get a chance to avenge some losses.”
Despite an ACC dual championship and successful regular season, NC State enters the conference tournament with revenge on their minds and a new strategy to test.
It’s uncharted territory that could result in the team ending up in a place they have never been before — coming home with an NCAA trophy.
But the ACC Championships are first and where those national bids are earned. Popolizio and his team have call it the first phase of what they have been focused on all year, so it shouldn’t be hard to zero in on the challenge at the conference tournament Saturday in Chapel Hill.
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