An unprecedented duals season is in the books. Spoiler alert: Nobody beats The Gwiz.
NC State's historic season on the mat continued Monday night with a 21-17 victory at previously unbeaten Iowa at the national duals. The teams split the 10 matches five to five, but the Hawkeyes couldn't overcome the bonus points scored by Pack top guns Kevin Jack and Nick Gwiazdowski. Jack scored a win by technical fall and "The Gwiz" moved to 55-0 in his duals career at State when he finished his opponent due to injury.
The Wolfpack (23-1) became the first program to ever record duals wins at Oklahoma State and Iowa (16-1) in the same season while extending their school-record win total yet again. The Pack concluded duals season with a 9-1 mark against ranked opponents that featured three wins over top five teams. State will likely finish the season ranked second in the nation behind Penn State.
In addition to the bonus points accrued by Jack and Gwiazdowski, Pete Renda was instrumental in State's success. He avenged an early season, 8-7 loss from the Midlands tournament against Sammy Brooks with a 7-3 decision in the pivotal match at 184 pounds. Brooks entered the bout at 20-2 and was ranked 10th in his weight class.
Renda's win put the Pack ahead 15-14 and meant that no matter what happened at 197, The Gwiz could win it in the finale, and win it he did.
Wrestling is so big at Iowa that their SBN site liveblogged this puppy in addition to writing multiple previews. Said previews did not give Jack enough respect. In addition to the unfortunate "We Must Break You" headline, Black Heart Gold Pants predicted unranked Brody Grothus as being a possible candidate to surprise Jack, who finished fifth at the nationals as a freshman and is ranked third this year. Uh. No. Jack dismantled Grothus to the tune of an 18-3 technical fall.
The Gwiz has scored bonus points in nearly four out of five matches this season; he was stomping a mudhole in his opponent, seventh-ranked heavyweight Sam Stoll, when the Hawkeye redshirt freshman was injured and unable to continue. The score was 11-1 at the time.
Thomas Gantt also earned a bonus point with a major decision over ranked opponent Edwin Cooper at 157 pounds.
Here's the complete rundown of results:
|
125 |
#2 Thomas Gilman (I) |
15 |
Sean Fausz (N) |
5 |
4-0 |
|
133 |
#3 Cory Clark (I) |
9 |
Jamal Morris (N) |
3 |
7-0 |
|
141 |
#3 Kevin Jack (N) |
18 |
Brody Grothus (I) |
3 |
7-5 |
|
149 |
#2 Brandon Sorensen (I) |
13 |
Beau Donahue (N) |
4 |
11-5 |
|
157 |
#4 Thomas Gantt (N) |
13 |
#17 Edwin Cooper (N) |
5 |
11-9 |
|
165 |
#6 Max Rohskopf (N) |
6 |
Patrick Rhoades (I) |
3 |
11-12 |
|
174 |
#10 Alex Meyer (I) |
4 |
Nicky Hall (N) |
2 |
14-12 |
|
184 |
#16 Pete Renda (N) |
7 |
#10 Sammy Brooks (I) |
3 |
14-15 |
|
197 |
#4 Nathan Burak (I) |
9 |
#19 Michael Boykin (N) |
4 |
17-15 |
|
HWT |
#1 The Gwiz (N) |
Inj. |
#7 Sam Stoll (I) |
17-21 |
NC State now turns its attention to the ACC Championships, held Sunday, March 6th in Charlottesville.
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