Junior heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski will seek to repeat as NCAA national champion this week, as he leads the Pack’s five qualified wrestlers to the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, Thursday.
The Pack is fresh off a sixth-place finish in the ACC championships, where it was led by Gwiazdowski, who was able to add yet another ACC championship to his impressive resume. Freshman Kevin Jack (141) and sophomore Pete Renda (174) were also able to perform well enough to secure NCAA Tournament bids as well.
Those three will be accompanied by senior 125-pounder Joe DeAngelo and sophomore 165-pounder Max Rohskopf. This will mark DeAngelo’s second appearance in the NCAA championships, while it is Rohskopf’s first appearance in the tournament.
The Wolfpack had plenty of experience this year, wrestling against some of the top teams in the country including the No. 1 Missouri Tigers, the third-ranked Cornell Big Red, the sixth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys and many more teams ranked in the top 25 nationally.
Despite the team’s disappointing finish in the ACC championships, Gwiazdowski said he feels the Pack’s tough schedule prepared him well individually for the NCAA Tournament.
“I feel confident in the people that I have wrestled this season,” Gwiazdowski said. “I wrestled 16 ranked guys this season, and there are 16 guys in the tournament, and if I go through the tournament there is probably only one or two guys that I haven’t wrestled before in my life.”
Despite being the defending national champion and boasting a perfect 30-0 record heading into the tournament, Gwiazdowski said he still feels there are a few people out there who doubt his ability to repeat as national champion.
This doesn’t seem to bother head coach Pat Popolizio, as he said he believes when the time comes, Gwiazdowski will prove he still has what it takes to be champion.
“Anytime that you have to repeat as defending national champ, you got guys that are targeting in on you and have been scouting you all year,” Popolizio said. “I think that the bigger the stage the better he performs. We saw that last year and I think we will continue to see that.”
Popolizio also feels that Gwiazdowski has been getting everyone’s best performance this year due to the fact they know he is the defending champ.
“He has been getting everyone’s best match all season,” Popolizio said. “So going into the tournament, he is going to be ready for that, there is not going to be many surprises for him and everybody knows what he is capable of doing so he has to use those advantages.”
Matches begin early Thursday morning for the Pack as DeAngelo and Jack start things off. These two will be followed by Renda and Rohskopf who will wrestle their first matches closer to Thursday afternoon followed by Gwiazdowski on Thursday night.
