The Wolfpack hosted Maryland on Saturday night and lost 35-5, but the story of the night was the departure of one of the best wrestlers in N.C. State history, 149-pound redshirt senior Darrion Caldwell.

Maryland jumped out to an early 13-0 lead following losses by 125-pound redshirt junior Mike Moreno, 133-pound freshman Conor Hovis and 141-pound redshirt junior Darrius Little. While the matches all concluded in losses for the Pack, Little led for much of his match before taking a fall to lose by a decision in the final seconds.

Little’s loss was just his second conference loss of the season. After losing to Virginia Tech last weekend, Little will have to face both wrestlers in the ACC Championships starting in less than two weeks.

Then it was time for Caldwell to take the mat. Caldwell came out and dominated his opponent, much like he has all season, and won the match with a technical fall, 15-0, to finish off his regular season college career.

Caldwell said while the team may not have performed as well as it had hoped, he was happy to go out a winner.

“It meant a lot to me to get a win in my final match at Reynolds,” Caldwell said. “To go out there and wrestle the way I did, it felt good. It let me know that the fans support me and I can make this last stride towards nationals and hopefully be a champion again.”

Caldwell was honored at intermission for his record-setting career with the Pack in his final home match. While State could not send the redshirt senior off with a team win, Caldwell captured his twelfth win of the season and continued his torrid pace towards the ACC tournament.

While it is yet to be seen if Caldwell will win the most matches in State history, which is held by Sylvester Terkay at 122, he now owns the best winning percentage at .898 for his career thus far.

Coach Carter Jordan said that while some might not see Caldwell as the best ever at State, he is the best that he has ever laid eyes on.

“I guess we’ll have to wait until the season is completely over to see if he is statistically the best wrestler in State history,” Jordan said. “But he is the best I have ever seen, ever in my career. He is the most instinctive and athletic wrestler I’ve every seen.”

Caldwell said while Jordan’s words meant a lot to him, he hoped that what he has done here at State will have a lasting effect for the program.

“To hear him say that about me means a lot to me,” Caldwell said. “Coach [Jordan] knows a lot about the sport, and he has been around it for a long time. For him to say that feels good. I just hope that someone can come into the program and do better than me. I know that coach wants to build a tradition here and I don’t want it to end with me.”

Following Caldwell’s match was redshirt junior 157-pounder Colton Palmer, who wrestled another close match but came up just short, losing 8-4 to the No. 14 overall wrestler in his weight class.

Both freshman 165-pounder Nijel Jones and sophomore 174-pounder Colin Genthert lost by technical falls to ranked opponents in the two matches following Palmer.

Junior 174-pounder Quinton Godley wrestled up in the 184-pound weight division and fought hard to earn the Pack some points, but points were difficult to come by for State on Saturday night. Godley was trailing the entire match and eventually lost by a final score of 10-4.

However, Jordan said he was happy with Godley’s performance, but that he still has a lot to work on.

“We were really pleased with Quinton [Godley’s] effort but his execution just was not there tonight,” Jordan said. “He just has to put it all together to beat the guys at this level on a consistent basis.”

The dual match ended with close losses from sophomores Karonne Jones and Eloheim Palma in the 197-pound and heavyweight weight classes, respectively. But the big story of the night was the departure of Caldwell.

Jordan said that while he still has time to coach Caldwell in the postseason this year, he was quite emotional on Saturday.

“It’s been an emotional day for me having to think about this being the final time Darrion will compete here in Reynolds,” Jordan said. “We’ve got a couple more weeks with him. But honestly, you might have the chance to coach a guy like Darrion once in a lifetime, so we have to appreciate what time we have left with him.”