The NC State wrestling team defeated Old Dominion (25-15) at Reynolds Coliseum on Thursday night, winning five of the last six contests.
“Our depth is really good; it’s now figuring out our starters,” head coach Pat Popolizio said. “I think that became more clear to me tonight, what we need to do. I didn’t like the way we finished out a couple of those matches, obviously not having Bowler here in the lineup tonight, that mattered. But 133, 149 and 125, the way they lost was not really what we would like to see, but those guys will learn from it and get better.”
In the first match of the night Old Dominion’s (1-2) Michael Mcgee defeated sophomore Tommy Cox of NC State (7-0) 15-0 for a technical fall to give Old Dominion a 5-0 lead in team score as he kept Cox under his control for the majority of the three rounds.
Redshirt junior Jamel Morris gave NC State its first points of the night in the first round against the Monarchs’ Caleb Richardson with a takedown. In the third round Richardson took down Morris to tie the match at 3-3 with about two minutes to go in the third round. At the end of the round Richardson recorded a near fall to take the round 7-3. After the first two weight classes, Old Dominion had an 8-0 lead in team points
Senior Kevin Jack got off to an early lead with a takedown but only took a 2-1 lead after the first round. Jack would go on to have three escapes for the remainder of the match, as he took a 6-1lead after also having nearly two minutes of time advantage to gain the extra point against the 15th ranked Alex Madrigal. Jack brought NC State three points, cutting Old Dominion’s lead to 8-3.
In the fourth round, at the 149-pound weight class, No.17 redshirt junior Jamal Morris got a takedown on Kenan Carter to take an early 2-0 lead. Carter would get an escape to bring the score to 2-1 after one round. Carter would tie the match up at two as he got another escape on Morris. Carter would then take the contest 3-2 to make it 11-3 in team points.
Redshirt freshman Hayden Hidlay took an early 4-0 lead with two takedowns against Larry Early; Hidlay dominated early, holding a time advantage of 2:50 in the three-minute first round. Hidlay would continue his domination of Early as he got both an escape and a takedown. Early would get a takedown late in the second round as well as an escape for both wrestlers to give him an 8-3 advantage. Hidlay would finish five takedowns and the time advantage to take the round 13-5.
“It was great, you’ve got a guy like Kevin Jack going out there and securing the win like you know he will,” redshirt senior Michael Macchiavello said. “Hayden coming out and putting a dominant performance against a guy ranked, to put a dominant performance on someone like that not only was huge but it gives us momentum on top of that. It fires us up to go out there and dominate our guy too; that was exciting.”
At the halfway point of the dual, Old Dominion had an 11-7 lead over the Wolfpack.
Redshirt senior Brian Hamann and Ben Schram traded takedowns in the first minute of the first round. Hamann got another takedown, an escape and then two near falls, one worth two points and the other four to take an 11-2 lead after the first round. After two rounds Hamann had a 13-3 lead and had amassed over two minutes of time advantage. Hamann would take the major decision to even the total team score.
Redshirt Junior Sam Melikian did not fare well against Seldon Wright. getting a takedown and near fall to find himself in a 6-0 hole; after two periods, Melikian was down 11-4. The 174=pound match would go to Old Dominion by major decision 15-5 to give the Monarchs a 15-11 lead in team points.
Third-ranked redshirt senior Pete Renda took the early lead with a takedown. He then took the match 16-1 and gave the Wolfpack a 16-15 lead in team points.
No.8 Macchiavello took an early 2-0 lead over John D’Agostino; Macchiavello also got two four-point pinfalls to take a 10-0 lead after the first period. Macchiavello would win the match 17-2 for a technical fall which gave NC State a five-point technical fall and 21-15 team points lead with just one contest to go.
“It felt good; we got down a little early,” Macchiavello said. “My main focus was to get us back in there and get our lead back to where we knew it should have been, so that was my focus and I was excited to go out there and compete.”
Redshirt junior Malik Mcdonald would have several takedowns on Ali Wahab to take a 9-1 lead after the second period of the final match. McDonald kept Wahab down for the vast majority of the match, finishing the bout with 4:35 of time advantage and a 11-1 win.
“It wasn’t our best performance that we’ve had as far as the team aspect goes,” Popolizio said. “I was excited about some key individual matchups that we were able to, with Haydn getting that win and the way he dominated, that really set the tone. I was looking forward to see him really go out and compete like that.”
NC State will face Chattanooga on Saturday, December 2nd in Charlotte.
