NC State Wolfpack wrestling took fourth place this weekend in Cincinnati at the Regional Training Center (RTC) Cup.

For those not familiar, the top college wrestling programs have RTCs, which is where their best college wrestlers and graduated ones train for international competitions (World Championships, Olympics, etc.). NC State’s RTC, the Wolfpack Wrestling Club, has quickly grown and followed a similar upward trajectory as the college program in Raleigh, headlined by two-time world medalist heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski.

At the RTC Cup, held Friday and Saturday, six of the best RTCs from across the country competed in a two-day team tournament. NC State’s squad was led by Gwiazdowski and fellow former Wolfpack standouts Michael Macchiavello and Tommy Gantt, as well as current NC State wrestlers Hayden Hidlay, Trent Hidlay, Jakob Camacho and Tariq Wilson.

Some thoughts and observations from an NC State wrestling perspective:

Even without the unprecedented circumstances Trent Hidlay, the redshirt sophomore 184-pounder, faced just to be able to wrestle this weekend, he had a head-turning performance, going undefeated in five matches against elite competition and celebrating each win with his trademark "raise the roof" celebration.

Only six wrestlers finished the two-day event undefeated, and Hidlay was the only one to do so while competing in five matches.

Among his hit list were a former NCAA champion — Drew Foster, whom Hidlay has now beaten twice in less than three months — and another competitor that took fifth place at the last World Championships and is already guaranteed a spot in the next Olympics, among other former college All-Americans and standouts.

He outscored opponents by a combined 19 points in his five matches.

But back to those special circumstances.

As recently as Wednesday, Hidlay was thought to be unavailable due to being in contact with somebody who had tested positive for COVID-19. However, according to brother Hayden in an interview he did with FloWrestling, when the CDC announced its suggested self-quarantine after such an event be reduced to 7-10 days, that opened up the possibility of Trent getting to wrestle in Cincinnati, if he were to record two negative tests.

The Hidlays had been in their hometown in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving with their family when it happened, so Trent had been quarantining there. In order to get a second test done in time, Hidlay’s father drove him through the night earlier this week to Raleigh, got the test done and then piled immediately back into the car for Cincinnati.

According to Mapquest — with no traffic — the 449-mile drive from the Hidlay's hometown in Lewistown, Pa., to Raleigh would take seven hours, then up to Cincinnati is another 516 miles, or 8.5 more hours.

He also was presumably out of practice for at least a few days — I don't think he was exaggerating much when he tweeted that his preparations consisted of working out with a punching bag hanging from a basketball hoop and riding a "rusty" bike around his hometown — but Hidlay performed like an elite athlete at his peak in ideal circumstances (not that such a thing exists in 2020).

When the FloWrestling broadcast was winding down, the announcers began discussing who would win the Most Outstanding Wrestler (MOW) award if they awarded one. Trent Hidlay was the name that announcer Christian Pyles landed on.

An MOW typically comes from the winning team. However, Hidlay’s performance was so good that it could not be ignored.

Hidlay’s roof-raising celebration was not the only thing visibly elevated during the event. It is clear that he has taken his wrestling to a higher level.

He enjoyed a successful debut in the NC State lineup last year as a redshirt freshman and went 23-4 to earn the No. 5 seed for the NCAA Championships. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see him make a deep run at the canceled event — Hidlay owned wins over the two higher seeds on his half of the bracket, after all.

But he is an even better wrestler now. His attacks are more diverse. He’s able to get to his offense out of multiple situations and set-ups. He still has his bread-and-butter underhook, but showed so much more this weekend.

Given what he’s shown over the last three months at October’s U.S. Senior Nationals (where he placed third and lost to the eventual champ by only one point) and this weekend, he will be one of the most dangerous grapplers in college wrestling when the season begins in January — not at just his weight, but overall.

Last year Hidlay was considered a darkhorse national title contender. It might be hard to pick against him going into the season now.

Heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski — a two-time NCAA champion and two-time world bronze medalist — is almost always the headliner whenever he steps on the mat. This weekend was no different. He was the biggest name at the marquee weight class in the event.

His challenge was a pair of Big Ten collegians who have won world championships on the junior level and are angling to show they belong on the senior level.

In the first match Friday night, Gwiazdowski fell behind Michigan’s Mason Parris 8-0, two points shy of the match ending via technical fall. All Gwiazdowski did from there was score 18 straight points to end the bout.

He doesn’t often face adversity like that and showed incredible composure in the comeback victory.

An hour later, he was matched up with Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, the best collegiate heavyweight in the country and a three-time age-level world champion who nearly upset Gwiazdowski in their last meeting in June 2019. Competing to represent the U.S. at the World Championships, Gwiazdowski swept the best-of-three series on criteria (a system used to break a tie at the end of regulation).

Steveson, who did not wrestle Parris in his team's opening match, posted a 4-1 win over Gwiazdowski in the most-anticipated match Friday night. Then, on Saturday, Gwiazdowski posted a 10-0 tech fall win before he rematched with Parris and fell in a wild 10-7 decision.

The biggest takeaway is that all three are right there with each other, meaning they are among the best heavyweights in the world. The wrestling community was buzzing when the RTCs of those three heavyweights were put in the same Friday pool, and they did not disappoint with exciting matches.

Outside of the World Championships, Gwiazdowski probably has not lost twice at the same event since his freshman year of college in 2012. Whichever big man represents the U.S. at the Olympics will be the most battled-tested American heavyweight, arguably, ever — and this writer can’t wait to see the version of Gwiz that shows up at the Olympic trials in April after these two losses.

The wrestling world, including two-time world medalist James Green, certainly noticed Gwiazdowski did not back down from any of his younger competitors and laid it all on the line.

We’ve detailed the weekends of Trent Hidlay and Gwiazdowski, but what about the rest of the team?

Some of the other Wolfpack performances worth highlighting:

• Outside of Hidlay, alum Tommy Gantt posted the next most impressive wins — handing Logan Massa, who has won the last two U.S. Senior Nationals, his only loss by a 7-3 final, and also posting a comfortable 7-2 margin of victory over All-American Evan Wick.

• Fellow alum Michael Macchiavello also topped the 2020 U.S. Senior Nationals champion at his weight class, pulling out a 6-6 criteria victory over Kollin Moore. He also had a key 5-4 win over T.J. Dudley in the first matchup with Cliff Keen.

• Redshirt sophomore Jakob Camacho also had his moments, including a 12-6 win over former All-American Sean Russell, who graduated in 2019, and not backing down from NCAA champion Seth Gross, who he came out firing against and even tallied the first takedown in their match.

NC State pushed every RTC it faced to the brink. The matchups could not have been more even. Literally.

In each of its four matches, prior to the third-place bout, NC State evenly split the six matches with its opponent and forced it to be decided by criteria. It’s also worth noting Gwiazdowski did not wrestle in the final match, but if he had it’s highly likely that he would've won to make that the case in all five duals.

In the first two matches of pool play, NC State lost by the fourth criteria, whichever team had more totaled more points in the individual matches.

It’s also worth noting that NC State only had one non-RTC member on its team, Darian Cruz, who wrestled in only three of the five matches. One squad was two RTCs combined, while the others relied more on non-RTC members (each team was allowed two).

Regardless, Wolfpack Wrestling Club was the only one to force their match with the eventual champion Cliff Keen to criteria by splitting the six matches — and they did so twice, showing it was no fluke. In its other two matches, Cliff Keen won nine of the 12 individual bouts.

This one isn’t exactly from the RTC Cup, but it’s significant recent news for NC State wrestling nonetheless — and that’s the college schedule is out.

It’s a lean slate, as expected, due to the ongoing pandemic, but nobody will complain if wrestling gets to hold a full postseason.

There are only two non-conference opponents — at Gardner-Webb Jan. 3 in the opener and home against Appalachian State Jan. 8. After that, it’s an ACC dual every Friday, in order: at Virginia, versus Pitt, at North Carolina, at Virginia Tech and home against Duke.

The ACC Championships will be held in Raleigh, Feb. 28, and then the NCAAs are set for March 18-20 in St. Louis.

Head coach Pat Popolizio has also cryptically teased on Twitter the date of Dec. 22. The head coach of the current wrestling dynasty at Penn State, Cael Sanderson, has also tweeted out that date, and in the past that has been his covert way of initially announcing a wrestling card involving his RTC and team.

Christmas may be coming three days early for NC State wrestling fans.

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