Regular-Season Awards: NC State Wolfpack wrestling

After an undefeated campaign, the NC State wrestling team wrapped up the regular season listed No. 3 nationally in the coaches' poll, its second-best finish ever in the ranking.

We break down some of the team's top performers heading into Sunday's ACC Championships below:

This is an easy one here. Not only did Hidlay go 26-1 on the season and is ranked highest nationally at his weight entering the postseason — at No. 2 — but he's the Wolfpack's unquestioned leader off the mat as well.

Head coach Pat Popolizio called Hidlay the "driving force" of an ultra-competitiveness that has permeated his roster since the preseason, and even with the one loss he has lived up to all the preseason hype that goes alongside entering the season as a consensus No. 1 nationally.

The redshirt junior has been downright dominant amongst a loaded weight class within the ACC — it was one of three to earn five automatic NCAA bids in the six-team league, and is the strongest from 1-5 — and outscored the four foes he didn't pin by a combined 45-6; he pinned the other conference rival in 1:32.

Hidlay wrapped up the season tied for eighth in the NCAA's most dominant wrestler rankings, averaging better than a major decision per outing. He led the Pack with 26 overall wins and eight against ranked foes, was the team's only starter to finish undefeated in duals (12-0) and scored bonus points in 19 of his 27 matches. Hidlay tied for eighth nationally in technical falls (six) and was three falls away from tying for ninth nationally in pins (he had six).

This was another easy call and another award to the Hidlay brothers, who filled the family trophy case with ACC Wrestler of the Week awards this season. The honor was given out 15 times this season and shared once — and the Hidlays combined for the award five times, more than any other team in the ACC. The Wolfpack earned it seven times as a team this year.

It's unfortunate Hidlay won't be considered for the league's Rookie of the Year award in the sport (which only considers true freshmen … is there any other sport in the league that handles their rookie award like this?).

However, we digress because Hidlay is one of the highest-ranked freshmen (redshirt or true) in the nation and will be considered for a slew of national rookie awards. According to FloWrestling, he is one of four wrestlers in his first year of eligibility ranked third nationally at his weight — the only rookie ranked higher is No. 1 Sammy Sasso (Ohio State) at 149 pounds.

Hidlay lost just one dual match — to No. 2 Hunter Bolen of Virginia Tech, who he is likely to face in this weekend's ACC finals — and dropped two more in tournaments. However, they came against the since-suspended Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) and Lou DePrez (Binghamton), the latter of whom Hidlay beat earlier in the year.

Not only did Hidlay go 22-3 overall in his debut, he recorded bonus points for the team in 13 of them. With the suspension of the two-time champion Valencia, Hidlay is a legitimate national title contender.

The Bullard twins were top-50 recruits nationally coming out of high school and enjoyed solid starts to their careers by each qualifying for the NCAA Championships in their first two years of eligibility, but they were not able to break through on a national level yet entering the season.

Thomas started the season slow — he actually was upset 3-2 in the season opener against Old Dominion — but heated up quickly, winning his next nine matches. He then lost, by one point again (4-3), to Ohio State's Ethan Smith, ranked 12th nationally at the time, in the third round at the Cliff Keen Invitational. After falling to the consolation bracket, Bullard beat a top-10 foe by major decision to force a rematch with Smith and pinned him in the third period.

He has dropped a few matches since then, but they have been mostly "good" losses (all but one against foes listed in the top 10 nationally in the final coaches' panel rankings). He hasn't lost since a surprising defeat against Princeton (again by one point) and during that time he has topped Virginia Tech three-time All-American David McFadden (No. 7 in the coaches' poll) and Pittsburgh's Jake Wentzel (No. 11).

That has allowed Bullard to rise to No. 10 in the coaches' poll, but he'll be tested mightily again at ACCs — the league boasts four grapplers ranked among the nation's top 12. Any of the four can win it and earn a ton of momentum heading into the NCAA Championships, held March 19-21 in Minneapolis.

Wilson has made major strides following a 22-12 campaign as a true freshman heavyweight, where he just missed NCAA qualification by one place at the ACCs. He has upped his win percentage from 64.7 to 69.2 percent and has also emerged as perhaps the team's most clutch wrestler as well.

The exciting dual against UNC in front of a packed house at Reynolds Coliseum Feb. 7 came down to him, and he answered the call in a big way, posting a 5-2 decision over a wrestler who at the time was ranked higher than him.

The big man from Amityville, N.Y. — a town on Long Island — has emerged into not only the ACC's second-best heavyweight, but he has become the Pack's version of Mariano Rivera.

In addition to closing out the UNC win, he came up huge in the back-and-forth victory over Virginia Tech Feb. 14, upsetting his opponent (who was ranked 18th nationally to Wilson's No. 26 standing) after Virginia Tech had won two matches in a row and had just posted an 18-second pin that seemed to swing everything in favor of the Hokies.

Wilson is going to have to prove it again at ACCs, but in the regular season he was clearly the ACC's second-best heavyweight.

This award goes to the guy that might not appear that high in the rankings, is not a No. 1 seed at ACCs and is a likely double-digit seed at the NCAA Championships. He is still a competitor foes wouldn't want to face (although redshirt junior Tariq Wilson is listed No. 12 nationally by the coaches, he's the ACC's top seed and established as a former All-American, so was not considered for this award).

Camacho came into the season with a good amount of hype following a solid redshirt season (26-3 in open tournaments). Popolizio didn't shy away this preseason from including him amongst the group of five that he thought would compete for a national title this year.

Not everything has gone according to that plan, but the youngster is wrestling at his best right now. Since a disappointing 3-2 showing at the Southern Scuffle Jan. 1-2, his only loss has been a 5-2 decision to national No. 2 Jack Mueller of Virginia.

Like most freshmen, Camacho has been up and down. He actually hasn't performed that great in tournaments so far this year. However, the interesting twist about postseason wrestling is everything from the regular season gets thrown out the window, and Camacho should be a dangerous double-digit seed at NCAAs. We're not calling for him to make the podium as an All-American, but a few wins would not be all that surprising.

With how wide open 174 is (both nationally and within the ACC), Daniel Bullard will also be a dangerous double-digit seed at NCAAs, but as a redshirt junior he is definitely more known at this point.

One of the great things about wrestling is that while taking the mat for one dual burns a redshirt, youngsters can still compete in college open tournaments without jeopardizing their fifth year of eligibility.

Orine has been one of the most active Wolfpackers on the redshirt circuit, going 18-6 overall, with one of those losses to teammate and starter Jarrett Trombley (8-4). He was also limited to just two matches before getting hurt at the Wolfpack Open in mid-November.

After returning from a month and a half off away competition, Orine turned heads at the toughest tournament he entered, the Southern Scuffle. He nearly made the semifinals, falling to Rutgers' Sammy Alvarez in the quarterfinals by a score of 4-2 (after that, Alvarez beat ACC favorite Micky Phillippi of Pittsburgh, 6-3, en route to his title). Orine wrestled his way back through the consolation bracket to the third-place match, where he fell to Phillippi 10-1.

Both Phillippi (No. 5) and Alvarez (No. 8) are ranked in the top 10 nationally by the coaches, while Orine posted victories over current No. 13 Devan Turner (Oregon State) and No. 32 Casey Cobb (Navy) at the Southern Scuffle.

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