The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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TRACKING THE PACK MARCH/APRIL 2024 ■ 15 Trent Hidlay is one of the most decorated wrestlers on NC State's roster this season. The redshirt senior from Lew- istown, Pa., has won three consecutive ACC titles at 184 pounds and is a four-time All-American. This season, Hidlay decided to move up to 197 pounds for his final year of collegiate eligibility, and he has not skipped a beat. Hidlay is the No. 2 wrestler in the weight class this season, having dominated the new set of competitors. Hidlay is looking to win his fourth conference title, and his first at 197 pounds, when the Pack travels to Chapel Hill on March 10 for the ACC Tournament. After that, his sights are set on win- ning individual and team titles at the NCAA Championships March 21-23 in Kansas City, Mo. Here are the highlights of a recent conversation with NC State's stand- out wrestler: W hat has the move to 197 pounds been like for you this season? "It's been a really enjoyable sea- son, probably more enjoyable than my previous seasons, just because I really haven't had to grind as much, in terms of making weight and do- ing extra workouts. I've been able to train a little bit smaller, and I think that's helped my body recover a lot easier. "It's kept me excited for matches, instead of dreading having to pre- pare for it. It's just been a lot more enjoyable. I've been able to have a lot more fun with my teammates and I've tried to help them out as much as I can. I'm in my sixth year, I have a lot of experience and I've been through a lot with the program, so I know what's expected. I'm just trying to use my experi- ence as much as I can to help those guys out along the way. "It's been a lot more enjoyable this year, and I'm wrestling really well." Does having a more enjoyable experience help you perform better on the mat? "Anytime that you can mentally feel refreshed and feel really good, I've noticed my performance is way better when I'm like that. In the past, I always got myself hyped up to compete, but if your body is not feeling that great, it's really hard to perform at a high level. Just being able to focus on mentally and physically feeling refreshed, my conditioning has been really good and I haven't had any injuries. "Just being in that mental frame of being excited and en- joying it really allows you to compete better, to be more free and not be stressed out about anything. I think this being my last year, I'm trying to soak it all up as much as I can. I'm re- ally not competing with a whole lot of stress or fear, and just trying to enjoy every match that I get." Being in a different weight class this year, do you enjoy facing new wrestlers in each meet? "It's been cool, especially in the ACC, where in the past few years I felt like I wrestled the same person over and over again. It would get hard, because the more you wrestle someone, the harder it is to do the same stuff to them. "Being able to wrestle new peo- ple has made it a fun challenge. Not having wrestled someone I think favors me a little bit because I've got a hard style to go against if you haven't felt it before, so that's just made it easier for me to get to my stuff and have some success this year." What has it been like wres- tling in Reynolds Coliseum this season? "Reynolds has been awesome. It was kind of a frustrating start of the season because we were traveling so much, and I know some of the fans were getting antsy because we've built up a really strong follow- ing. Our fans are super passionate, which makes it one of the best envi- ronments in the country to wrestle. "Even when we wrestled Virginia, it wasn't a huge dual, but there was still a good crowd there. It's so loud, so it makes it really fun to compete there. I'm just really lucky to be able to represent NC State at a time when our fans are super passionate and super supportive. It gets you excited when you're training and you're going through the week, because you can always look forward to Friday night when we have a home dual. "I think the cool thing about our crowd and our fans is that some of them are relatively new, and they really appreciate us showing our personality. You see that with guys like Kai [Orine, 133-pound redshirt junior] and Ed [Scott, 157-pound junior] and me. I think our fans love that, and it allows you to feed off that energy. I'm definitely going to miss competing in Reynolds, for sure." — Noah Fleischman SITTING DOWN WITH: Redshirt Senior Wrestler Trent Hidlay Heading into NC State's dual meet against Cornell on Feb. 16, Hidlay was 19-0 this season, with 4 falls, 10 tech falls and 3 major decisions. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS