With the season about to start Saturday, the wrestling team will enter the year as the reigning ACC champ.
It returns two starters that are ranked in the top 25, nationally. Sophomore Darrion Caldwell, who was ACC Rookie of the Year last season, is ranked No. 10 at 149 pounds, while redshirt junior Ryan Goodman is ranked No. 14 at 184 pounds. Sophomore Joe Caramanica, the reigning champion at 149 pounds, also returns.
Three starters from the team last year, Garrett Cummings, Jeremy Colbert and Jainor Palma are no longer on the team. Cummings and Palma completed their eligibility last season, while Colbert left the program a year early. Coach Carter Jordan said their loss is felt, but he still has a strong team.
“Obviously when you lose guys like that, it’s disappointing. They move on,” Jordan said. “But we [have] got a great core of talented young kids. We won’t graduate anybody from this team. Nobody will graduate this year. We’ll get everybody back for another year. Some of these kids will be back for two, three years.”
With the returns of Caldwell, Caramanica and Goodman, Jordan said he is excited about the team and believes the wrestlers are capable of competing for a national title. But both Goodman and Caramanica are dropping down a weight class.
“Joe and Ryan are making a severe commitment,” Jordan said. “Joe will be 141 this year, swapping with Darrion Caldwell, who grew some. Ryan Goodman will be dropping down to 184 pounds. We’re returning Taylor Cummings, who is an ACC champ last year, will give us a solid 125-pounder. We feel like he’s going to have a really good year.”
The team has been working a lot during the offseason. It did the usual lifting and running. Every Thursday, the team would go to Carter-Finley Stadium and carry a teammate of equal weight up to the top of the stadium. Redshirt freshman Philip Black said Jordan would also bring in different techniques for the team to work on.
“Coach Jordan has been showing us a lot of techniques that the Russians, Europeans have used,” Black said. “They have been the dominant wrestlers over the past decades. He’s showed us techniques from very upper-level Division I colleges such as Iowa, Iowa State, Oklahoma who use these techniques and dominate their competition at the college level for years now.”
With its youth, the team has a lot of wrestlers to choose from. Jordan said the team has a lot of potential.
“It’s really fortunate that we have a lot of kids on our team that we feel comfortable putting out on the mat,” Jordan said. “They may not break the starting lineup, but if somebody gets hurt, we’ll be in the position to put somebody out there that will be able to help us.”
Caldwell said the incoming freshmen are looking really good and are capable of doing great things.
“We have a lot of tough freshmen that are coming in,” Caldwell said. “It’s up in the air in who is going to start. They all came in showing and proving that they are capable to graze the starting lineup. They’ve made a really good transition from high school to college.”
Darrius Little, a true freshman from Thomasville, N.C., said the upperclassmen, including Darrion Caldwell, have been helping him a lot in getting ready for the season.
“He told me to keep pushing myself and always walk onto the mat thinking that I’m going to win, even if it is against the national champion,” Little said. “Go out there and do what I came to do. And Joe [Caramanica], coach Jordan has been putting me with him because he pushes me. He kills me everyday when we [wrestle] with each other. So he’s been pushing me pretty hard.”
Little already has a goal for this season he wants to accomplish.
“I want to be an All-American, honestly,” Little said. “I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve got some drilling to do, stuff like that. But that’s what I’ve come to do. Wrestle and win, not lose to anybody.”
N.C. State competes in an above-average conference, according to Jordan. The team has looked at the schedule, but for Little, he has two particular schools he is ready to compete.
“Carolina and Virginia,” Little said. “Carolina’s No. 25 beat me as a freshman in high school pretty bad. But I just started off wrestling. And Virginia’s Eric Albright, I’ve seen him wrestle. He’s OK; he’s ranked No. 8 in the nation. I think I can beat him. I’ve got a pretty good shot.”
The team will begin the season as defending conference champion Saturday at the N.C. State Open at Reynolds Coliseum. Jordan said the team will need to mature to remain champs for another year.
“We have some young guys feeling some really solid spots,” Jordan said. “So if we’re going to win the championship again this year, those guys are going to really have to mature throughout the year.”
Little said Jordan has stressed how tough it will be to win the ACC again.
“[Jordan] said we got to earn it this year,” Little said. “It won’t be given to us. If we just came to get the ring, it’s not [going to] happen. We have to work for everything we got. And defend our title yet again.”
Last season at a glance Five individual ACC champions: Taylor Cummings (125), Darrion Caldwell (141), Joe Caramanica (149), Ryan Goodman (197), Jainor Palma (Hwt)
ACC Coach of the Year: Coach Carter Jordan received the award after he led his team to the ACC championship in addition to going 13-7 overall in the regular season.
Caldwell makes history: Darrion Caldwell became the first freshman to be ACC Wrestler of the Year. He was also named Rookie of the Year, becoming N.C. State’s second recipient in three years, following Kody Hamrah (2005).
Source: N.C. State Athletics Compiled by Emily Seck
By the numbers 7 incoming freshmen 7 wrestlers from New Jersey3 seniors 1 set of brothers: senior Randy and redshirt junior Ryan Goodman
Source: N.C. State AthleticsCompiled by Emily Seck
