The NC State Wolfpack has been busy since their season opened on November 1. The Pack has started out a perfect 7-0 in duals, outscoring its foes 287-30. In those duals, NC State’s current 10 starters went a combined 48-3 in their matches.

Starting the season at #3 in the preseason NWCA Coaches Poll, the Pack has moved up to #2

behind only Penn State.

While it has been a very busy three weeks for NC State — all the duals have been on the road and the first home dual is not until January — one Wolfpack wrestler will be looking forward to some well-deserved time off over the Thanksgiving weekend.

“We’ve got a lot of miles in the last few weeks,” head coach Pat Popolizio said. “This month of

November was really for getting everybody settled into their weight class and getting guys a lot of minutes on the mat. It was good, and it was healthy, but a couple of days away are much needed.”

“No doubt, everybody needs a bit of a break right now. It wasn’t all the matches, it was the travel the last few weekends.”

Folkstyle Thursday To Freestyle Saturday

It was a busy past week for Trent Hidlay.

“He was on a warrior-tour this past weekend, and he did a phenomenal job,” Popolizio said. “It’s not an easy task to switch styles in a matter of just a couple of days. His results just speak to the level that he is at right now.”

Last Wednesday Hidlay traveled up to West Point with his NC State teammates, and on Thursday he wrestled at 197 pounds in a dual versus Army. In the Pack’s 34-6 win over the Black Knights, he secured a pin to improve his record to 7-0 this season, all bonus-point wins.

Then on Friday, he traveled to New York City, missing NC State’s wins over Binghamton (35-9) and Sacred Heart.

Saturday turned to freestyle at the 2023 Bill Farrell Memorial International and a different weight class. Hidlay had to make the cut down to the 86 kg weight class.

“It had been about two months since I last wrestled a freestyle match,” Hidlay said afterwards.

The 86 kg bracket was loaded, including a previous World medalist (Avtandil Kentchadze of Georgia) and past NCAA champions Alex Dieringer and Mark Hall. 

Hidlay was given the #3 seed at the Bill Farrell, a Senior-level tournament with the highest-placing American qualifying for the next spring’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials. He finished the long weekend with a gold medal, claiming five wins and most importantly, doesn’t have to worry about missing anymore of the current collegiate season qualifying for the trials.

“It was a long day, a long week juggling folkstyle (and freestyle) wrestling,” Hidlay said. “I was really proud of myself, something I really haven’t been able to say for a long time. That is important to me.

“I opened with a lot of foreign guys, which I really wasn’t expecting. I wrestled a lot of really, really good guys.”

After three wins, including 4-1 over former NCAA champion Lujan in the quarterfinals, Hidlay and Kentchadze had the match of the tournament in the semifinals in an epic back-and-forth battle.

A 2018 World Silver medalist, Kentchadze scored a pair of takedowns in the first period to take a 4-2 lead into the break.

After a pair of step-out points in the first, Hidlay got a takedown, then a takedown-to-back, and another push out for the 9-4 lead with 2:00 left.

Three straight takedowns by Kentachadze put the score at 10-9 with Hidlay down and just 13 seconds left. Hidlay got behind Kentachadze with seven seconds, but there was no knee, elbow, or head down on the mat. So, Hidlay worked him to the edge, and with just one second left, lifted him and got the four points with a throw.

“I don’t think I’ve ever hit a gut-wrench or a throw to (somebody’s) left side,” Hidlay said.

That four-point move with about a second left moved Hidlay into the final versus three-time NCAA champion Dieringer.

While not the offensive display as his semifinal bout, Hidlay and Dieringer slugged it out in a low-scoring 2-1 affair. Both earned a step out, and a passivity point in the second period was the difference in Hidlay claiming top honors.

“I felt like I was wrestling both myself and my brother a bit (in the final),” Hidlay said. “We both

underhook the same side and I knew it was going to be a struggle. I just tried to stay offensive, even if I didn’t score a takedown. But I did control the center and get him to the edge. That got me that passivity point, and sometimes you just have to win different ways.

“That is something I haven’t been able to do in recent years, win in different ways. So that is what I’m really proud of to beat such a really good guy.”

Hidlay chose to compete at the Bill Farrell, because the upcoming U.S. Open is scheduled for the same weekend NC State is slated to compete at the Collegiate Dulas in Nashville against Lock Haven, Northern Iowa, and Ohio State.

“It was a tough weekend, but I’m a competitor and I love doing this,” Hidlay said. “I try to wrestle as much as I can. I’ve been training my body to compete really, really hard, and I was able to do that.”

Hidlay is the second current NC State wrestler to have already qualified for the Olympic Trials. Back in October, Isaac Trumble traveled to Albania and brought home the 97-kilogram title at the U23 World Championships, qualifying him for the Olympic Trials.

In his first international tournament, Trumble blitzed the field at the U23s, going 4-0 and outscoring his foes 47-6. His last three bouts were all tech falls, including 12-2 in the final over Moldova.

“Leading up to it, our coaches put in a lot of time getting Isaac prepared for that tournament,” Popolizio said. “His focus during that run was impressive. The results matched the preparation. His style is hard for people to wrestle against, he is tough to wrestle.”

Trumble is currently redshirting this season with the Wolfpack, and will have two years of eligibility left. In addition to Hidlay and Trumble, a pair of national champions who wrestled at NC State also qualified for the Olympic Trials. Both Michael Macchiavello (97 kg) and Nick Gwiazdowski (125 kg) matched Hidlay and won their brackets at the Bill Farrell this past weekend, bringing the total up to four wrestlers that wrestled collegiately at NC State vying for a spot in Paris.

Up Next

After competing in seven duals and one round-robin event over the first three weeks of the 2023-23 season, NC State will not be in action over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The Pack will return to action, traveling to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational Dec. 1-2.

Expect to see nine of the 10 Wolfpack starters at the Cliff Keen. Jakob Camacho will get the weekend off.

NC State also recently held another wrestle-off at 165 pounds, and for the second time this year, A.J. Kovacs came out victorious and will get the spot next weekend.

“Look across the country and you are not going to find another tournament that has this many ranked teams competing until the NCAAs,” Popolizio said. “It will be a good, true test for us.”

This marks the second straight year the Pack will be in action at the Cliff Keen. Last year, Trent Hidlay (184 pounds) and Isaac Trumble (197) both claimed first-place finishes and NC State finished second in the team race as seven wrestlers reached the podium with a top-eight showing.