Brandon Lang
Redshirt senior and two time national champion Nick Gwaizdowski hand fights with his opponent during the Virginia Tech dual meet. By the end of the meet, the Hokies were declared the winners by a score of 19-14 in the Holshouser Building Feb. 12.
With a takedown at the hands of Kyle Snyder of Ohio State in the heavyweight championship bout of the NCAA wrestling championships, senior Nick Gwiazdowski’s illustrious career came to an end. The runner-up finish only tells part of the story of someone that should be considered the best student-athlete in NC State history.
Gwiz sits with an imposing record of 110-3 during his tenure at NC State, which puts him second behind former Wolfpack and WWE wrestler Sylvester Terkay for the most wins in program history.
Despite the impressive resume in such a short amount of time with the school, Gwiazdowski remains an afterthought in the discussion of who is the greatest athlete to ever walk the campus of NC State? Most people will throw Philip Rivers, Russell WIlson, Jim Valvano or David Thompson on the Mount Rushmore of Wolfpack sports icons
With the wrestler’s third-consecutive ACC Wrestler of the Year title, it’s time to consider if Gwiz is the best student-athlete in NC State’s history. To begin, let’s stack him up against one of, if not the most famous coach in the history of the Wolfpack, Jim Valvano.
Valvano won 209 games as head coach for the Wolfpack in his 10-year tenure with the Wolfpack, including a national championship against the Houston Cougars.
In three years’ time, Gwiazdowski amassed 110 wins for the Wolfpack. Valvano didn’t reach 110 wins at NC State as head coach until early in his sixth season with the team, almost double the time it took Gwiz to do the same feat.
It took Valvano until his third season in 1983 to win the most improbable national championship outside of Villanova in 1985. By the end of Gwiazdowski’s third season, he had already won two national titles and was seconds away from winning his third straight.
The New York native also stacks up well against some of NC State’s best football prospects, one in particular is Rivers, who holds many of the passing records at NC State.
Despite being one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in program history, the Alabama native was only one game above .500 against the ACC and only garnered 17 wins against conference opponents.
Gwiazdowski was a cut above the rest of the conference, and it’s not even close. In his three years at NC State, Gwiz went unblemished against conference opponents, with a remarkable 28-0 record against other opponents in the ACC.
Finally, we can stack up Gwiz’s resume against Wilson, who had a modest career with the Wolfpack before exploding onto the scene with the Wisconsin Badgers and the Seattle Seahawks.
I’m willing to say that Gwiz’s college career was as dominant, if not more, than what Wilson accomplished his first three years in the NFL. In postseason play, Wilson went 6-2 including a victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Over the last three seasons, Gwiazdowski has shown even greater dominance, with an impressive 14-1 in the NCAA Championships. While the numbers are a bit inflated because of the matches that wrestlers have in comparison to football players, the dominance is still astounding.
In the end, when I tell my kids and even my grandkids about the greatest athlete whom I ever had the pleasure to witness in my sports writing career, Gwiazdowski will no doubt be right at the top of that list.