Overall it was a good weekend for NC State's non-revenue sports, though it wasn't without a little disappointment. The NC State wrestling team entered the NCAAs with big aspirations after a dominant season in duals, but ended up falling well short of contending for the team national title. They finished 11th.
That's still very good! It's a testament to what Pat Popolizio has done with the program that this feels even the slightest bit disappointing. State has improved its finish at nationals in each of the last three seasons. Three wrestlers earned All-America honors this year.
The most notable event of the weekend for wrestling was the heavyweight title match between two-time champ Nick Gwiazdowski and Ohio State's Kyle Snyder. It was a tremendous bout (even to this layman's eyes), and Gwiz had the edge in the late stages before a last-minute takedown by Snyder tied the score and forced overtime. Snyder scored a takedown in OT to win the title.
Gwiz was less than a minute from a third consecutive national championship, but he'll have to settle for just two of them, and three ACC titles. His streak of 88 consecutive victories will go down as one of the greatest runs by any athlete in any sport at NC State. What an insane career that dude had.
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The general tenor was a bit different for women's swimming, which finished ninth at NCAAs. That's the ladies' highest finish since 1982. It's also a significant improvement over their 17th-place finish in 2015. They broke a half-dozen school records on the way to that top-10 finish.
While they haven't quite been the breakthrough success of the men's swimming team, the rise of the women's team to challenge at the top of the ACC and compete nationally has been every bit as impressive. Five years ago this all would have been a pipe dream.
The back-to-back ACC champion men's team will begin competition at NCAAs on March 23.
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