Male Co-Athletes of the Year: Darrion Caldwell and Matt Hill
For the second year in a row, Darrion Caldwell is one of N.C. State’s Male Athletes of the Year. Caldwell was even more dominant this year than he was last year, going 38-1 en route to a national title, with his lone loss coming on a medical forfeit.
Caldwell dominated the field at 149 pounds, recording three major decisions and a pin on his way to the nationally-televised championship showdown with heavy favorite and defending national champion Brent Metcalf of Iowa. And despite pinning him in Metcalf’s last loss prior to the 69-match win streak with which he entered the championship bout, many gave Caldwell no chance. But Caldwell took control of the match immediately, recording a takedown just two seconds in and another one, this one on a headlock, to take a 4-2 lead going into the second period. Caldwell continued to abuse the “heavy favorite” as he led 9-3 late in the third before holding on to win 11-6 after an inconsequential takedown and escape by Metcalf.
Caldwell’s beat-down of Metcalf on ESPN has Olympic coaches Zeke Jones and Bobby Douglas very interested. With this in mind, Caldwell will likely redshirt next season to wrestle internationally and prepare for the 2012 London Olympics.
Meanwhile, sophomore Matt Hill has had the single greatest season any N.C. State golfer has ever compiled. Hill has won five tournaments this year, including the ACC Tournament, in which he tied for first. With Hill winning the ACC tournament, he became only the sixth golfer in school history to win the tournament and the first since 1995. Hill has won four out of the last five tournaments he played in and has been the best player for the men’s golf team the entire year. Hill has set N.C. State records for most tournaments won in a career with six, and also most tournaments won in a single season with five. Four of those came in the spring season.
Hill was named ACC Golfer of the month and Southern Golf Association’s National Amateur of the Month, both for March. Including Hill’s five wins this season, he has finished in the top-15 in all nine tournaments that he has played in. Hill is one of the top golfers in the nation and is in contention for the Ben Hogan award, which is awarded to the best golfer of the year. Many of his teammates believe that, even at Hill’s age, he is good enough to turn pro.
“The level he is at right now is good enough, in my opinion to play on tour,” sophomore teammate Brandon Detweiler said. “He has to be in contention for the Ben Hogan award and he deserves it. He is the best.”
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Female Athlete of the Year: Kristen Davies
In the final meet of her career, senior Kristen Davies won the NCAA national championship in the platform dive. Davies became the first diver to win a national championship at N.C. State and the first woman to win a national title in swimming or diving at State.
Davies posted a career best 339.65 to win the national title on the platform. The national title win capped a storybook ending starting with Davies being named to the All ACC team for the second straight year. After that, she went on to take a second place finish in the ACC Championships, then went to the NCAA Diving zones where she took first place and finished at the NCAA championships at College Station, Texas. At first the chances of Davies winning the NCAA title looked dim, as she was the last diver to make it into the finals. But with a clean slate in the finals, she managed to nail all five of her dives to near perfection and cement her name into N.C. State record books.
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Coach of the Year: Tom O’Brien
Looking at the statistics, coach Tom O’Brien’s tenure as the football team’s head coach has been mediocre. An 11-14 overall record and one trip to a bowl game in two years doesn’t scream excellence. In fact, at no point since O’Brien has taken over as head coach has the Wolfpack carried a winning record.
But beyond the records and results, there is something else brewing. Wolfpack nation is experiencing a level of optimism that has been missing since the days of Philip Rivers after finishing the 2008 regular season with four consecutive wins and the team’s first bowl birth since 2005. The driving force behind this movement has been O’Brien, who is a living, breathing archetype of the old school coach—always understated, focusing on disciplined, tough football.
Following a 27-24 loss to Maryland Oct. 25, the Wolfpack found itself at 2-6 overall and in last place in the Atlantic Division. Rather than making excuses of the team’s injury woes or letting frustration set in after another close loss, O’Brien’s response was measured and forward looking.
O’Brien and his staff found a spark in the form of quarterback Russell Wilson and linebacker Nate Irving, who led State to a 4-1 record to end the season.
Keeping the team together and believing after beginning the season 2-6 was an extraordinary coaching job that opened eyes around the nation.
Sports Illustrated called O’Brien the ACC’s third best coach. In the article posted March 24, Tom Dienhart writes, “there are few better coaches in the nation than the perpetually underrated O’Brien, who thrives on running a smart, disciplined program.”
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Game of the Year: Wolfpack dominates UNC in Chapel Hill
The sports year as a whole may not have been filled with many momentous victories for N.C. State, but the Wolfpack’s victory over ACC rival North Carolina Nov. 22 proved just how well the football team could play and served as the culminating moment for the entire season. N.C. State came into its much awaited game against UNC-Chapel Hill at 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the ACC but playing well. The favored Tar Heels entered the game ranked 25th in the country and in position to compete for the Coastal Division title.
It didn’t take long to figure out that records and rankings would have little to do with the outcome. The Wolfpack and Tar Heels battled back and forth throughout much of the first half, but in the third quarter N.C. State exploded offensively. Led by first-team All-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson and a turnover-minded defense, the Pack exploded for 21 third quarter points to put the game out of reach. By the end of the game, State had rolled up 466 total offensive yards and scored a season-high 41 points. The defense held the Tar Heels to just 203 yards and forced four fumbles and three interceptions. The win catapulted the Wolfpack heading into the final game of the season against Miami.
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Special Mention: Kay Yow
The Pack lost a dear friend, mentor and coach Jan. 24, 2009 in longtime women’s basketball coach Kay Yow. Yow led the Wolfpack women for 33 years and to 20 NCAA berths, one Elite Eight and one Final Four. Yow bowed out from behind the bench in December to continue her fight with breast cancer, which she battled for two decades. Hundreds attended Yow’s funeral, and her legacy will be felt for years to come. Kay, you will be missed.
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Wrestling: C+
While a record of 4-15-1 would typically garner a grade closer to an “F,” this team faced as much adversity as a team could possibly go through and still produced a national champion (Caldwell), an ACC champ (redshirt senior 157 pounder Kody Hamrah), and sent four wrestlers to the NCAA championships (Caldwell, Hamrah, senior 141 pounder Joe Caramanica and sophomore 133 pounder Darius Little). The team dealt with the loss of two-time ACC champion 197 pounder Ryan Goodman, whose decision to quit wrestling and prepare for the NFL Draft left the team without a 197 pounder for nearly the entire season. Nine matches were forfeited until Joe Trotto, a sophomore cheerleader and high school wrestler with no college experience, joined the team in late January and wrestled the final six matches at 197.
The predicament at 197 wasn’t the team’s only obstacle. Nearly every starter missed significant time with injury, including Caramanica. Carmanica came back early from a knee injury and never wrestled the way he did during his junior year, during which he was ranked in the top 10 nationally and went 30-6. All that being said, the team finished 19th at the NCAA National Championships and its efforts have already attracted one of the top recruiting classes in the nation for 2009.
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Baseball: C
A year after the team was just one win away from making it to the College World Series, the baseball team digressed greatly. The Pack lost multiple key players from the Super Regional team of 2008 due to graduation or the draft, including all three weekend starters and leading hitters Marcus Jones and Ryan Pond. However the team drastically underperformed, failing to meet the expectations set before the season began.
Barring a miracle in the last few weekends, the team will not make it into the ACC tournament, much less make it into a regional tournament. The team has been hurt by inconstant pitching and lack of offensive production. Coming into the season that Pack had high expectations for the season, thinking about nothing less than a trip to Omaha, and was lead by All-Americans Jimmy Gillheeny and Dallas Poulk . However, the Pack never really managed to get things going, managing only one winning streak of three games or more the entire season.
The low points in the season include being swept by ECU in two weekday games and being blown out by Liberty and George Mason at home, 17-5 and 11-4.
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Softball: C-
Unfortunately for the young softball team, their first game of the season, a win over then-No. 7 Oklahoma, was probably the season’s high point.
With seven upperclassmen, only two of which are seniors, the team competed hard but has taken its lumps this season, particularly in conference play. The team currently holds a record of 20-23, 3-12 in the ACC. The softball team has done well in non-conference play, posting a 17-11 record in those games. The team played a tough schedule, both in and outside of the conference, and its record of 2-14 in games against nationally ranked teams speaks to the difficulty of the schedule it has played. And that 2-14 record against top 25 teams does not show hotly contested many of those games were, as four of those 14 losses came by a margin of one run or fewer.
The offensive struggles in ACC play have been the Pack’s biggest problem. It has not scored multiple runs in a conference game since a 6-7 loss to Maryland in late March. Despite the team’s struggles this season, the outlook for next season is bright, as the team will only lose senior pitcher Mendy Mckenzie and senior first baseman Mackenzie Mangum and will return 20 players, several of whom gained valuable experience this spring.
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Men’s Tennis: C+
The men’s tennis team started the season with high expectations, sporting a No. 49 rank in the preseason. The Pack finished with a record of 10-15 overall and 3-8 in the ACC, and was ranked No. 50 at the end of the season.
During the season, the Pack had difficulty playing as a team, which led to the downward spiral of blow-outs to teams such as Georgia Tech, losing 6-1 March 29. In addition, the Pack lost close contests to teams such as Miami, dropping the match, 4-3, April 3 as well as in the quarterfinals of the ACC Championships April 17. The Wolfpack also suffered a seven-game losing streak toward the conclusion of the season and ended its season in the second round of the ACC Championships, falling to Miami, 4-3.
The Pack amassed some major accomplishments this season, with many of them coming from senior Jay Weinacker. This season he broke the record for career singles wins as well as career doubles wins. Weinacker finished the season with 104 career wins and 87 career doubles wins. He was also recognized as All-ACC for the second year in a row. The season is most likely over, though the team is still awaiting news on whether it will be selected for the NCAA Tournament as a team as well as individual championships.
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Women’s Tennis: D-
The women’s team started the season ranked No. 36 and later dropped to No. 75 before becoming unranked. The Pack finished the season 4-10 overall and 1-10 in the ACC. Despite high preseason expectations, the Pack quickly dropped off the mat, losing its last nine matches of the season. The Pack lost in the first round of the ACC Championships to No. 17 Florida State and lost all hope of a post-season.
The only saving graces for the Wolfpack were junior Berkley Brock and sophomore Lenka Hojckova. Brock was ranked No.118 nationally with a record of 17-16 and Hojckova was ranked No. 94, with a record of 15-17 at the end of the season.
“Berkley and Lenka are both ranked nationally in singles and doubles,” coach Hans Olsen said. “A year ago they were both un-ranked players. At the end of the year it shows a full year of improvement for them.”
The season as a whole was not anywhere close to a success, as it was a building season. The Pack looks to grow and learn from this season’s losses.
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Men’s Golf: A –
The men’s golf team has spent extensive time in GolfStat.com’s Top 25 rankings, including stints in the 16 spot and a season-high No. 13. The team captured second place in three tournaments, including the River Landing Intercollegiate, where sophomore Matt Hill took first place.
As a whole, the Pack averaged a third or fourth place finish by season’s end. Senior Darren Blair finished in the top five over three rounds of play at the Schenkel E-Z-Go tournament in late March and earned a fourth place finish overall, not far behind Hill, who placed first. Blair is also the top Division I golfer in par-5 play.
The golf team deserves a great deal of praise for a well-played season and for being one of the few sports to represent the university in national rankings. However, something seems to be missing. With a great deal of athleticism and talent, the team was still unable to put the pieces together for a first place finish in the spring segment of play. The team needs to be consistent across the board without reliance on Hill, who is currently ranked third in the nation and has won a record six titles in his time at State. The team is certainly well above average, but falls just short of an “A+.”
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Women’s Golf: B+
The women’s golf team had a solid season in 2009 and is currently ranked No. 33 in the nation according to Golfweek magazine. The team finished in the top-5 in four out of nine tournaments this year, including a fourth place finish in the ACC tournament, which was its highest finish since 2005. The Pack’s highest finish of the year came in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships in Knoxville, TN, where it took a second place finish, shooting 10-over as a team. This score set a school record, breaking the previous record by 10 strokes in a 54-hole tournament.
The team is expecting to land a berth into the NCAA Regionals this year and hopes to make an appearance in the tournament for its eighth straight year. On the season, the Pack was lead by senior Laruen Doughtie and junior Emily Street, who each had multiple top-10 finishes, including Doughtie’s win at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships and her fifth place finish in the ACC Tournament.
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Track & Field: C+
The men’s team finished dead last with a team score of seven and the women finished seventh (52.50) at the 2009 ACC Outdoor Championships in Coral Gables, Fla. Granted, the ACC isn’t the easiest conference to compete in, especially with perennial powers Virginia and Florida State dominating on a national level. Nonetheless, the Wolfpack should provide some level of representation, even if it have a variety of excuses.
Although the men and women finished sixth in the indoor season, there is still plenty of room for improvement. The team already has depth in its distance running corps from the plethora of scholarship athletes on the cross country team and in its consistently improving throwers, such as Brittney McCain and Lawanda Henry. Now, the team must focus on recruiting sprinters, middle-distance runners, jumpers, and other field athletes to increase the team’s breadth.
Bear in mind that the team failed to utilize all of its depth in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. During the ACC Indoor Championships, many of the athletes were unable to lineup due to a string of illnesses or commitment to compete at other events.
“There is going to be a little bit of a trade-off when you are very competitive in cross country as a team and trying to win the conference in track and field,” coach Rollie Geiger said prior to the meet. “You’re just not going to have as many athletes in each event as you’d like to have.”
For having a reasonable excuse for the poor performances this season and receiving national recognition with true freshman Lawanda Henry, the track & field team deserves a “C+.”
Gymnastics: A-
Entering the season, the gymnastics team was bottom heavy with talented yet inexperienced freshmen and sophomores who stepped up to the challenges and performed amazingly. Brooke Barr and Jess Panza came in as freshmen and performed outstandingly for the team and earning well-deserved spots in the starting lineup. Sophomores Brittany Vontz and Brittney Hardiman returned, stepped up and were constants in the lineup, performing meet in and meet out. Junior Taylor Seaman balled out and was on the podium several times a meet. Seaman went all the way to the National Championships in Lincoln, Neb. Under the leadership of coach Mark Stevenson and assistants Todd Henry and Karen Pleasants, the Pack beat UNC three times and won the EAGL championships. With the returning talent, there is no reason to think that the team won’t repeat as EAGL champion and perform better and better next season. This team has the talent to go to the NCAA Championships in the next couple of years.
Basketball
A 6-10 record in the ACC, first round exit from the conference tournament, and no post season tournament play earned the Wolfpack a D – for the 2008-09 season. The only thing keeping this State team from a failing grade is its slight improvement on the previous year’s 15-16 overall record and 4-12 mark in the ACC.
And the disappointment of the season was only enhanced by what could have been. When Ben McCauley, Courtney Fells and Brandon Costner came to N.C. State, they formed a recruiting class that was among the best in the nation. 2008-09 should have been their year. But for the second straight season, Brandon Costner just did not seem like he was hungry for success on the basketball court. Courtney Fells, blessed with the physical tools and shooting stroke required at the next level, never emerged as the go-to scoring threat he could have been.
State did have its moments. Point guard Javi Gonzalez came alive at the end of the season, and the team looked solid in February
when it beat Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Virginia. But the Pack seemed utterly incapable of holding onto a lead in the final moments of the game, getting beat by Virginia Tech and several non conference opponents after second half meltdowns.
Swimming and Diving: B-
The story of the year was the monster success of diver Kristin Davies, but the women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams quietly put together a solid season behind her.
The men’s team performed well early in the season and took first place at the Maryland Invitational in November. The men’s team finished in the middle of the pack in the ACC with a 3-3 conference record and 6-3 overall. The team took 6th at ACC’s, breaking numerous records in the process. Senior diver Austin Hampton broke a school record with 315.95 at ACC’s and served as an alternate at the NCAA Championships.
Davies’s NCAA win was a highlight of a decent season for the women’s team. State finished 2-3 and 5-5 overall, with a few tough losses at the hands of Clemson and Duke. The team placed 9th. At the ACC Championships, Anna Linkenauger broke a school record in the 400 IM and Erica Smith bested her own record in the 100 backstroke.
The men’s and women’s teams were consistently average against tough ACC opponents, earning them an average of a B-.
