The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/790572
22 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK "We've got four games left, we've got the ACC Tournament, where anything can happen. Then after that, NC State is going to move on. Hopefully they're going to find a phenomenal basketball coach that is going to come in here and do a great, great job." ■ Mark Gottfried on his radio show Feb. 16, the day it was announced he would not coach past this season "… Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski just turned 70, and North Carolina's Roy Wil- liams will be 67 in August. … We do not know how many seasons remain for either, but can surmise that the next NC State coach should have an opportunity to be coaching through the transition at one or both schools. … That is a selling point for the Wolfpack. It is not their only one. There is not a large collection of schools with championships won under multiple coaches. It can be done at State, but only if State gets the right guy." — Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy on the NC State coaching search in an article titled "NC State's opportunity to get a coach hire right has never been better than this" "Fans insulted about being ranked after NC State's D-line simply haven't watched NC State's D-line. Looked better vs. Clem than Bama did." — Tweet from ESPN.com reporter David Hale after the website ranked the Wolfpack's defensive front third in the conference, behind only perennial powerhouses Clemson and Florida State "Congrats to my former college roommate/teammate, KP. Intense & smart. Great ad- dition to the Wolfpack. #DLineFam." — Tweet from former WWE wrestler and current movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who played college football at Miami with new NCSU defensive line coach Kevin Patrick "His position is listed as tight end, but that's merely a small piece of what Jaylen Samuels does. … NC State was 6-2 [in 2016] when Samuels scored and just 1-4 when he failed to reach the end zone." — Bleacher Report on picking the rising junior as the Pack's most important returning player for 2017 "Hidlay has been competitive right off the bat with the best wrestlers in the country. … He has dispatched every unranked opponent he has come across. Hidlay's only losses are to No. 11 Josh Shields (Arizona State), 3-1, second-ranked Michael Kemerer (Iowa), 9-6, and No. 15 Dylan Cottrell (West Virginia), 5-3. Look for the Lewistown, Pennsylvania, native to step into the lineup next season and compete for All-America honors right away." — TheOpenMat.com on ranking Wolfpack true freshman wrestler Hayden Hidlay among the top 10 naitonally that are redshirting this year; FloWrestling ranked him as the No. 6 overall recruit in the 2016 class PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN QUOTING THE PACK Martina Frantova, Women's Tennis After being named second-team All-ACC last year as a junior and earning a NCAA Singles Championship bid, the former Mis- sissippi State transfer was ranked No. 31 nationally as of Feb. 19 this spring. She started duals play with a 7-1 record, including victories over fellow ranked opponents Anastasia Rychagova (No. 65) of Kansas and Io - anna Markesini of East Tennessee State (No. 105). She has also teamed with Anna Rogers to go 5-0 in doubles play. Alexis Galarneau, Men's Tennis The freshman from Laval, Canada, appears to have a bright future at NC State. Since the opening of dual play, while compet- ing at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, he won seven of his first nine matches. All of his seven victories came in straight sets, including wins over No. 30 Lu- kas Finzelberg of Oklahoma State and No. 51 Matic Spec of Minnesota. Galarnaeu has gone from unranked in the fall to No. 67 as of Feb. 19, and he was named the ACC Men's Tennis Player of the Week Feb. 7 after his win over Finzelberg. Rachel Koon, Women's Track While competing at the Camel City Invitational Feb. 4 in Winston-Salem, N.C., Koon won the indoor 3,000-meter race with a time of 9:05.32 in a new personal best that was the sixth fastest time in school history. It also likely qualified her for the NCAA Indoor Champion - ships and earned her ACC Women's Track Performer of the Week honors. In the fall, the native of Asheville, N.C., was an All-Amer- ican in cross country after finishing 25th at the NCAA Championships. Andreas Vazaios, Men's Swimming In one of his first meets since joining the team, Vazaios made an instant impact. The junior from Athens, Greece, won the 200 individual medley and the 200 butterfly at the Carolina College Nike Invitational, which was held at both Chapel Hill and Durham from Feb. 3-5. He also was second in the 100 butterfly and led off the 400 freestyle relay with a split (43.51 seconds) that was a pool record at Duke's Taishoff Aquatics Pa- vilion. As a result, he was named the CollegeSwimming.com's National Swimmer of the Week. Will Wilson, Baseball It would have taken a dynamic bat to break into a lineup that returned six regulars from the team that nearly beat eventual national champion Coastal Carolina in the Raleigh Regional. Wilson, a freshman from Kings Mountain, N.C., proved to be just that. He started as the designated hitter in the season- opening three-game series against Hawai'i. He went 3 for 4 at the plate with two doubles, a run scored and three runs batted in during his first col - lege game, and added another hit and run scored in the next two contests. ■ PACK PERFORMERS