The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/672211
16 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK A Season To Remember NC State wrestling posted the best regular season in school history and followed it up by winning the ACC team title (its first since 2007) and posting an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Championships (its best showing since 1993). We look back at a memorable year for the Wolfpack: Gwiz The Great Wolfpack heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski is the most accomplished grappler in program history and one of NC State's best athletes of all time, regardless of sport, despite officially competing for just three years in Raleigh. He placed eighth at the NCAA Championships as a true freshman at Binghamton and then followed fourth-year head coach Pat Popo- lizio to NCSU, where he redshirted before completing his eligibility. Here is where some of the fifth-year senior's accomplishments stand in school annals: Category Total Rank in NCSU history NCAA championships 2 1st NCAA finals appearances 3 1st All-America honors 3 T-1st with three others ACC Wrestler of the Year awards 3 T-1st with Sylvester Terkay ACC championships 3 T-5th with five others Winning percentage 110-3 (.974) 1st Career victories 110 2nd Single-season victories 42 (2014) 1st Longest winning streak 88 1st Career pins 40 4th Single-season pins 16 (2014) T-5th * Counting only his three years of official competition at NC State. In his four years of college eligibility, his record was 140-12 (.921) — that win total and percentage would rank first in school history. "I think it's easily one of the best heavyweight matches of all time, and I think regardless of weight it was one of the best finals I've ever seen in my life. … It's almost a shame that somebody had to lose." — FloWrestling.org's Willie Saylor on the NC AA heavyweight finals between Gwiazdowski and Ohio State's Kyle Snyder, the youngest world champion in U.S. history and 2016 Olympian who prevailed in overtime. ■ NC State's Results Under Head Coach Pat Popolizio Year Overall Regular-season ACC Tournament NCAA finish Record (ACC) finish (ACC) finish 2013 5-6 (0-5) 6th 5th 63rd 2014 14-7 (2-4) 5th 6th 19th 2015 16-6 (3-2) 2nd 6th 16th 2016 23-1 (4-1) 2nd 1st 11th "In just four years, Popolizio transformed North Carolina State from the ACC's doormat to a budding monster. He didn't accomplish this with blue chip recruits or the inheritance of a talented roster. "In fact, the culture was so bad at Raleigh when Coach Pop arrived, that only Tommy Gantt made it through the transition. He did it with belief in a system and an unwavering adherence to a set of standards. "Apart from the Gwiazdowski transfer, this was a team that should not have been con- tending with, let alone beating, Iowa, Missouri or Oklahoma State in any sort of competitive sense." — FloWrestling.org on naming Popolizio its National Coach of the Year "He's preaching success and making guys believe it; he's the new-day Jimmy V." ■ Fifth-year senior 157-pounder Tommy Gantt comparing Popolizio to legendary NCSU basketball coach Jim Valvano. Gantt was the only athlete remaining who wrestled for the previous coaching staff, going 12-13 as a true freshman in 2012. He went 28-3 this season and finished eighth nationally, earning All-America honors. PHOTOS BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP 1 Team that has ever won on the road at Oklahoma State and Iowa in the same season — NC State posted a 19-15 victory at Oklahoma State, Popolizio's alma mater, on Dec. 6 and concluded the campaign Feb. 22 with a 21-17 win at Iowa. The two schools have won 57 of the sport's 87 NCAA championships and are a combined 708-62-6 (.912) at their current homes. 2 Was where NCSU finished in the final coaches' poll (dual-meet rankings) after leading the country with 23 victories, setting an ACC and school record. It marked the highest ranking in program annals. 3 All-Americans in 2016 — fifth-year seniors Gwiazdowski (second at heavyweight) and Tommy Gantt (eighth at 157 pounds), plus junior Pete Renda (third at 184) — tied a school record. 8 Of the team's 10 starters were ranked among the nation's top 20 in FloWrestling.org's final national rankings. Six will return next year, and the Wolfpack will also add fifth-year senior Sam Speno, a two-time NCAA qualifier, back into the lineup after he redshirted this year. All seven returners have NCAA wins on their résumés. 4, 5, 8, 9 The seeds of wrestlers that Renda, who entered the NCAA Champion- ships as the No. 13 seed, upset en route to a third-place showing. He lost only to the even- tual national champion, who won his second title in a row.