The NC State wrestling team has gotten off to a hot start, winning all six of its matches so far and climbing to No. 6 in the NWCA rankings. This weekend, a select lineup will be heading to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Thirty-two teams will make the trip. The other ranked teams include No. 2 Nebraska, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 5 Virginia Tech, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 11 Iowa State, No. 14 Northwestern, No. 15 Minnesota, No. 16 Northern Iowa, No. 17 Cornell, No. 22 Michigan and No. 23 Purdue.
“This is probably the tournament of the year here,” said head coach Pat Popolizio on the #PackMentality Pop-Ins Podcast. “… I want to put these guys in very tough situations this year because I know, mentality-wise, we have it, and I want to continue to grow in that aspect, but we have a really good group that’s going to go out there, and I know we are going to compete hard.”
Not only is it a good opportunity to increase the team’s ranking, but each wrestler has a chance to see high-level competition and likely even get a look at some matchups they will see at the NCAA Championships in March.
Ten wrestlers will make the trip to the invitational in Las Vegas, one from each weight class, and will feature seven individuals ranked in the top 15 of their respective class by InterMat. Led by the No. 1 wrestler in the 157-pound class, redshirt junior Hayden Hidlay, NC State has a chance to win it all as no team attending has more ranked wrestlers than the Pack, at seven.
The next highest-ranked competitor for NC State is redshirt freshman Trent Hidlay, who is ranked at No. 4 in the 184-pound class and is coming off a huge week with top-5 wins against Cornell and Binghamton. Another key participant for NC State is No. 12 redshirt junior Tariq Wilson, who has been a rock for this lineup over the last year.
“I knew that being on this team and being at the 184 spot that I was going to have these opportunities throughout the year,” said Trent Hidlay on the #PackMentality Pop-Ins Podcast. “And that was something I was excited about, to see where I was at and to test myself against some of the best guys in the country…”
The Pack has three wrestlers ranked at No. 13 in the country in their respective weight classes: redshirt freshman Jarrett Trombley (133) and redshirt juniors Daniel Bullard (174) and Thomas Bullard (165). The last ranked wrestler is No. 15 redshirt freshman Jakob Camacho at 125 pounds.
Rounding out the competitors heading to Vegas are redshirt sophomore A.J. Leitten at 149 pounds, sophomore Tyrie Houghton at 197 and sophomore Deonte Wilson at the 285-pound class.
Weigh-ins will be on Friday at 7 a.m. and the action will get started at 9 a.m. with the first five rounds. To close out the first day, the championship quarterfinals will be at 6 p.m. Saturday weigh-ins are at 8 a.m. with championship semifinals and consolation finals at 10 a.m., and the championship finals are at 3 p.m.
“I think it’s similar to what you’re going to get maybe day two at the NCAA Tournament moving forward…,” Popolizio said. “That’s what we want, back-to-back weigh-ins. [We] want guys to take notes, get in a rhythm, whatever it is, what they’re going to eat after day one, what they have to do for day two.”
NC State has been ranked in the top 10 of the NWCA rankings for 63 straight weeks and has a chance to improve that with a good showing. The event from Dec. 6-7 will be streamed on FloWrestling.
