In his first year as a member of the N.C. State wrestling team, redshirt sophomore Nick Gwiazdowski (285) defeated Minnesota’s two-time defending NCAA champion redshirt senior Tony Nelson, 4-2, Saturday to claim the 2014 NCAA Heavyweight Championship.
“At first it was crazy, a whole set of emotions, all positive,” Gwiazdowski
said. “I can’t put it into words because it’s so good.”
Gwiazdowski and Nelson are familiar foes: Saturday’s match marked the fourth time the two have faced off in the past year. Gwiazdowski defeated Nelson twice during the summer at the U.S. World Team Trials, but Nelson got the upper hand in the finals of the annual Southern Scuffle tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn. Nelson earned the only
point of the match on an escape en route to a 1-0 victory.
Gwiazdowski said he wasn’t at all surprised when he found himself
slated against Nelson in the championship match.
“He won a very good Big Ten tournament, and he’s been wrestling
pretty well,” Gwiazdowski said. “We are very familiar with each other, I just had to go out and face him for the National title.”
Both wrestlers entered the championship ready to strike. However, neither could earn a takedown in the first period, keeping the match scoreless heading into the second. Nelson, opting to start the second period on top, rode Gwiazdowski for all two minutes of the second period, giving him a distinct advantage heading into the third.
Nelson quickly escaped Gwiazdowski’s hold to start the final period, but Gwiazdowski responded almost instantly with a takedown, bringing the score to 2-1 in Gwiazdowski’s favor.
An injury timeout was then taken by Nelson for an apparent ankle injury. When the two met back at the center of the mat, Gwiazdowski opted to start in the neutral position, even though Nelson still possessed during a minute of riding time, giving him a bonus point.
“I was pretty confident I could take him down after I got that first takedown,” Gwiazdowski said. “He also had a stalling warning, so if I pushed the pace and attacked then I might have gotten a stall point. There were 45 seconds on the clock, which is a decent amount of time to get a score. I just had to go after him and get it.”
With only 21 seconds left, Gwiazdowski managed to earn the match-sealing takedown in an amazing fashion. Although Nelson’s entire body was off the mat, Gwiazdowski managed to keep one toe inbounds, allowing him to successfully score the two points.
“That’s huge mat awareness right there,” head coach Pat Popolizio said. “Knowing where you’re at in that position in that kind of atmosphere is unbelievable. That’s the difference sometimes in winning a national title and not.”
With two more years of eligibility, Gwiazdowski said he has his eyes set on two more titles.
“Once you win one, I think if you think there’s anyone still better than you, you’re just holding yourself back,” Gwiazdowski said. “I only plan on getting better in the future.”
With the victory, Gwiazdowski became the sixth Wolfpack wrestler to win a national title, the first since Darrion Caldwell (141) in 2009. With his final record of 42-2, Gwiazdowski also set a new N.C. State record for most wins in a single season.
As a team, State finished 19th in the team portion of the Championships, the second-highest score of ACC teams behind conference-champion Virginia Tech. Popolizio said the title helped the future of the Pack wrestling program.
“He’s shown that we can win here,” Popolizio said. “For recruiting, he’s instilled some confidence in our program. Anyone that we bring in, we can say, ‘Hey, you can win at this level and you can beat anyone that you face.’”
