On Friday, the No. 6 NC State wrestling team will travel to Boone, N.C. to face Appalachian State at 7 p.m. with hopes to stay undefeated.
NC State is coming off the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas where it finished in eighth of 32 teams, slightly below where its national rankings would suggest. Redshirt junior Hayden Hidlay and redshirt freshman Trent Hidlay led the way, both finishing second in their weight class.
The Pack is 6-0 in duals this season, beating No. 18 Cornell and an Old Dominion team receiving national votes, along with Belmont Abbey, UNC-Pembroke, Reinhardt and Binghamton.
Despite Appalachian State’s 0-1 record, its one loss was 19-13 at the hand of UNC-Chapel Hill, which is ranked at 17 nationally. The match will not be a pushover by any means with the Mountaineers boasting three ranked wrestlers by InterMat. Jonathan Millner is ranked at No. 20 in the 149-pound division, Matt Zovistoski is No. 20 at 157 pounds and Cary Miller is ranked at No. 19 in the heavyweight match.
The 157-pound match shouldn’t be much of a problem for the Pack for as long as No. 2 Hayden Hidlay still represents NC State, but the other two matches could be more of a challenge. Neither of redshirt sophomore A.J. Leitten or sophomore Deonte Wilson are ranked, but both have put up decent seasons so these should be the matches to watch if NC State was to run away with the dual.
The Pack is also the Mountaineers’ toughest opponent of the year so they will be fired up with the opportunity, especially after the loss to the Tar Heels.
NC State still matches up against Appalachian State pretty well and should secure a solid nonconference win. The Pack stayed at the No. 6 ranking despite a couple of underperforming wrestlers at the Cliff Keen Invitational and should be able to stay there at least until nonconference is over.
With a challenging ACC schedule starting at the end of January, it is vital for the team to collect this win and power through the rest of the nonconference schedule, because waiting on the other side are No. 23 Virginia, No. 10 Pittsburgh, No. 17 UNC and No. 5 Virginia Tech.
This will be the last competition until after the new year when the NC State squad takes on the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Jan.1-2. Then, duals start up again with a matchup against Princeton in Reynolds Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 1 p.m.
