Sara Robertson
N.C. State’s bid for two conference victories started out promising Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum, but ultimately ended in disappointment.
State began the day by knocking off Virginia 22-12 in a match that saw the Wolfpack win six of ten bouts and never trail.
“Our effort gets better every match,” coach Carter Jordan said. “We wrestled great against [Virginia].”
Juniors Jeremy Hartrum and Garrett Cummings gave State an early six-point lead with victories in the 125-pound and 133-pound bouts against Virginia’s Anthony Burke and Eric Albright, respectively.
The Pack won two more in the middle of the match with 149-pound freshman Joe Caramanica scoring a major decision, 13-2, against Drew DiPasquale and 157-pound sophomore Kody Hamrah pinning Mike Sewell just 30 seconds into the bout.
Redshirt freshman Ryan Goodman, who is ranked No.13 in the country, finished off the scoring for State with a 5-2 decision over Brent Jones in the 197-pound bout.
But State’s second match of the day did not start as well as the first.
Leading in the third period of the 125-pound bout, North Carolina’s Bobby Shaw pinned Hartrum to give the Tarheels a six-point advantage and the early momentum.
“It was a nine-point swing at the beginning of the match,” Hamrah said. “Hartrum would’ve come away with three points, but [the referee] called a defensive pin that gave them six. That really put us in a hole.”
State, however did not let the Tarheels’ early lead stop them from climbing back into the match and creating some drama that would go down to the wire.
Trailing 11-3 following freshman Jalil Dozier’s 19-3 loss in the 141-pound bout, the Pack got back-to-back victories from Caramanica and Hamrah in the 149-pound and 157-pound bouts to cut the lead to one.
Hamrah, who picked up his fourth consecutive victory, said he is happy with where he is at this point in the season.
“I feel good. I feel real good,” Hamrah said. “I’m excited about the next couple of weeks. We’ll see what happens.”
North Carolina would take the next two bouts to extend the lead to seven, but State came back once again.
Freshman Jeremy Colbert knocked off Justin Dobies 12-7 in the 184-pound bout to get the Pack to within four and sealed the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.
“[Colbert] put us in a position to win the ACC championship by getting the No. 1 seed,” Jordan said. “That’s a big help and something nobody would’ve expected at the beginning of the year.”
Goodman got State within one with an 8-4 win in the 197-pound bout against David Daschiell who beat Goodman earlier in the year.
“He beat me pretty good last time,” Goodman said. “Losing to an ACC opponent puts fear in your mind, so the win definitely boosts my confidence.”
With the score 17-16, the match hinged on the outcome at heavyweight, which pitted junior Jainor Palma (22-8) against No.12 Spencer Nadolsky (36-4) for the Tarheels.
The bout went down to the last second as Palma failed to score a two-point takedown and lost a heartbreaker 3-2 giving the win to North Carolina.
The Pack suffered two one-point losses and one two-point loss in the match, something Jordan said was important, but not the reason for the 20-16 loss.
“[The close losses] were not really the reason we lost,” Jordan said. “When we wrestle each other, different people win who lost last time and vice versa. That’s just the way it goes.”
State closes out the conference regular season Saturday at Virginia Tech.