The No. 9 NC State wrestling team will kick off the season with its first official match this Friday, Nov. 15, when it hosts Old Dominion at 7 p.m. inside Reynolds Coliseum.
NC State is coming off a season in which it went 16-3 and won the ACC Championships with 93.5 points before placing 17th in the NCAA Championships with 31.5 points.
Returning for the Wolfpack is defending ACC-champion redshirt junior Hayden Hidlay, the lone returner of NC State’s three individual ACC champions last season. Redshirt juniors Tariq Wilson and Thomas Bullard, both of whom placed second in the ACC Championships last season, will both be returning for the Pack. Hidlay and Bullard will continue to wrestle in the 157-pound and 165-pound weight classes respectively, while Wilson moved up to 141 over the offseason.
Redshirt junior Daniel Bullard, Thomas’ twin, will be wrestling in the 174-pound division. With 60 total matches under his belt and a 38-22 record, Bullard is one of the Pack’s most experienced wrestlers.
Redshirt junior Nick Reenan is back for the Wolfpack as well, and despite 20 wins in the 174-pound division and 16 at 184, Reenan moved up in weight over the offseason and will begin the 2019-20 season at 197.
Splitting the duties in the 125-pound division will once again be redshirt sophomore Zurich Storm, who is 16-5 in his NCAA career, and redshirt junior Charlie Lenox, who sits at 19-21.
Redshirt junior Kellen Devlin will be wrestling in the 133-pound weight class, where he came in first place in the preseason Battle at the Citadel tournament. The wrestler Devlin beat in the final to win the tournament, redshirt freshman Jarrett Trombley, went 4-1 in the tournament and will also be wrestling at 133.
The Wolfpack’s schedule will once again be among the toughest in the country, as it faces seven schools that finished in the top 35 at the NCAA Championships last season, including No. 18 Cornell (7th place), No. 11 Virginia Tech (11th place) and No. 16 Princeton (15th place).
In ACC play, the Wolfpack gets No. 23 Virginia, Virginia Tech and No. 17 UNC-Chapel Hill at home in Reynolds Coliseum, while it will have to hit the road against No. 15 Pittsburgh and Duke.
