Brandon Lang
Junior 184 pounder Pete Renda finishes a double leg against his Virginia Tech opponent. Renda would actually go on to lose the match by a score of 9-5, and the Hokies would win the dual meet by a score of 19-14 in the Holshouser Building on Friday, Feb 12, 2016.
The No. 3 NC State wrestling team completed its regular season on senior day with a clutch victory over the No. 5 Missouri Tigers 18-17 Sunday afternoon at the Holshouser Building of the NC State Fairgrounds.
The win came just two days after the Wolfpack was defeated by the Virginia Tech Hokies Friday night, giving the team its first loss of the season. Head coach Pat Popolizio was extremely proud of his team’s ability to move on from the loss and get the win.
“It was huge,” Popolizio said. “We took some tough losses Friday night, and these guys came out and didn’t hold back one bit.”
Before the match with the Tigers, redshirt seniors Tommy Gantt and Nick Gwiazdowski were honored at center mat for their career accomplishments with the team. Gantt was ecstatic to finish the regular season as an undefeated winner.
“It’s great,” Gantt said. “It’s been a long journey for me, and I’ve honestly enjoyed every second of it. I wouldn’t be any other place. I love it here.”
The match got started with redshirt freshman Sean Fausz going against Barlow McGhee at the 125-pound weight class. Despite both wrestlers trading shots in the first two periods, McGhee got an escape and a counter to win the match 5-2 to put the Wolfpack in an early 0-3 hole.
Sophomore No. 30 Jamal Morris and sophomore No. 3 Kevin Jack were up next at 133 pounds and 141 pounds. Both made quick work of their opponents to get 3-0 and 3-2 decisions respectively to give the Wolfpack a 6-3 lead.
Redshirt sophomore Beau Donahue challenged undefeated No. 3 Lavion Mayes at 149 pounds to attempt to capitalize on the lead. Donahue was overmatched from the start, falling behind 6-1 to start the match and eventually falling to Mayes 14-4 major decision after ride time to give the Tigers a 7-6 lead with Gantt on tap.
No. 4 Gantt faced off against No. 29 Le’Roy Barnes at 157 pounds. Gantt would get an escape, a takedown and a near-fall to get a commanding 5-0 lead going into the third. He finished his regular season undefeated with a 5-2 decision, giving the lead back to the Wolfpack 9-7.
Despite the questionable calls toward the end of his match, Gantt didn’t seem to be bothered by them.
“I’m pretty good at keeping my composure,” Gantt said. “I feel like I reacted the right way. You’re going to have some good calls and bad calls, but you’ve got to keep it going.”
Junior No. 6 Max Rohskopf and sophomore Nicky Hall wrestled at 165 pounds and 174 pounds, respectively, but neither could capitalize on the momentum acquired by Gantt. They fell 6-1 and 14-6, respectively, to put the Wolfpack behind 9-14 with junior No. 17 Pete Renda needing to win his match.
Renda came out swinging at 184 pounds against No. 11 Willie Miklus, scoring four near-fall points and two takedowns for an 8-0 lead after one. Renda tacked on four more points for an 11-0 major decision after riding time to bring the Wolfpack within one, 13-14.
Gwiazdowski recognized Renda’s major decision made the win possible for NC State on Sunday.
“Pete’s capable of doing that to almost anyone in the country,” Gwiazdowski said. “He wanted to be the hero today and stepped up and made big things possible for us today.”
After a loss by redshirt freshman Malik McDonald, Gwiz battled James Romero and got to work getting 10 points in the first 45 seconds of the match. Gwiazdowski got the win before the first round was over, completing an undefeated season as an individual wrestler and securing the Pack’s second top-five win of the season 18-17.
With the win, the Wolfpack finished with a school-best 22-1 and will now have to wait to hear if they will be selected for the National Duals coming up. Popolizio is looking forward to the opportunity to be selected and beginning the postseason.
“Hopefully we get notice here,” Popolizio said. “We hope to find out soon whether we are going to Iowa or Penn State to close out the season.”
The National Duals will begin Sunday, with the Wolfpack looking to continue its historic season.