When juniors Wes Smith, Bobby Mack and sophomore Gavin Coombs decided to commit to N.C. State, they knew the program had redshirted a lot of its runners.
But they didn’t know the three of them would get redshirted all in one season — only a year after each was an All-ACC performer. Not only that, but they were the only returning All-ACC performers to the team.
“Coming into N.C. State’s program, we knew a lot of kids had redshirted along the line,” Smith said.
“So, when we signed with N.C. State, we knew there was a really good possibility that somewhere along the line, we would be redshirting. It just happened to fall last year.”
But there was plenty of good reason for the move, according to Smith and his teammates.
Smith said the three talked about maturing together and having the opportunity to get an extra year of practice under their belt.
“We had a real good class coming in my first year,” Smith said.
“We all wanted to finish off at the same time, and some guys didn’t quite make the team freshman year. We figured we would redshirt, we’d all graduate together and it would give everyone another year to mature and develop.”
Mack said with the three of them getting redshirted, this would allow them to stick around longer and have the younger runners all go out together.
“We usually have older runners who fill those top seven slots,” Mack said.
“We wanted to be here five years because we do have such a strong team and a younger team. Instead of racing us straight through in four years, we decided to redshirt after our sophomore season.”
Even though the team didn’t want to give up on last season, the move allowed the program to prepare for the upcoming two seasons. And with only one senior on this year’s team in Bryce Ruiz, the Wolfpack should have nearly the same team suit up again next season.
“Our upside is looking pretty good for the next two years,” Smith said.
State had finished in first place four consecutive years in the ACC Championships until last season, when they took third place.
It was the first time the Pack and coach Rollie Geiger, who has been the ACC Coach of the Year in 24 seasons and has won 29 ACC Championships, had finished that low since 1989.
But after the team’s first-place finish in the Notre Dame Invitational, which was stacked with nationally ranked teams, State is excited about what they can do this year.
“Coming into this year, there are a lot of expectations,” Coombs said. “This year, with me, Bobby and Wes back, everyone is in great shape.”
Next year won’t be too much different. Ruiz will have graduated, but every other runner will be back in uniform.
“We will definitely see some major payoffs,” Mack said. “It should be exciting.”
Even though this has the runners excited about the future of the program, they said the year they had to sit out was tough.
Smith said he thinks the move worked out for the best, but said it was hard watching everyone compete.
“It was real tough,” Smith said. “Because every time you are healthy, you want to be in uniform. It probably worked out better than planned because Bobby was banged up and this way everyone is on the same page.”
Coombs, who was redshirted because of a shoulder surgery the summer before last season, said it was difficult not being able to help the team, but interesting to be able to watch his teammates race.
“I was excited to see them race and really see it from a different angle,” Coombs said.
Coming into the season, the team was unranked. But after this weekend’s performance and the return of the three redshirts, Mack said teams will start looking at the Pack differently.
“We are definitely under-ranked,” Mack said. “But it’s a good thing because sometimes you start out the season ranked high, but this is a year where we will definitely be moving up.”
Mack said with the three of them back, the team has set an even higher level of expectation than in the past.
“We always set a team goal to finish top 10 in nationals,” Mack said. “We are looking beyond that this year, maybe a top-five finish. We are just going to play it week-by-week.”