Final recap
We do no have anyone wrestling in tonight’s session as all the Wolfpack action was in the consolation wrestle backs.
The scoreboard: The performance at this years’ tournament was disappointing, but I would not classify it a setback. Currently, we are in 9th place with 49 pts and are 3.5 points ahead of two schools who have one more scoring potential, Missouri, and Minnesota. I am confident that Minnesota’s Gable Stevenson is a strong favorite to win over Schultz of ASU, who is undefeated at 26-0 but also a freshman. Missouri’s O’Toole who is 28-0 will also be the favorite at 165 against Stanford’s Griffith who has quite a story. O’Toole has been dominating with a pin fall and three decisions without giving up even one point. My guess is we will finish 11th as I would not bet against either of those guys.
Here is a comparison of the previous three tournaments and how teams have finished. Our average finish in the past three tournaments is 9th with 62 points. In my opinion anything under 60 points was underachieving after last year’s 6th place performance with 68.0 and our one-time 4th place finish with 80 points. I thought we would need north of 70pts to finish in the top 4 this year. The 2022 points do not reflect the final match in each bracket. The winner scores four more placement points plus any bonus points.
So how did we wrestle and how did it impact our score:
I think H Hidlay wrestled great. Even though he came up short against Starocci in the semi-finals he wrestled so well for the entire tournament. He won by a fall in round one, major decision in round two, handled an exceptional wrestler from Iowa in round three, and then had an 8-2 decision and then major decisioned the same Iowa wrestler for third place. He contributed 17.5 points of our total team points:3.5 advancement pts, 4 bonus points and 10 placement points
T Hidlay was a warrior and was obviously under the weather but made no excuses. It showed in his lower than normal energy late in matches. I think he is in the finals tonight as his SV loss to Brook was because he was gassed. I think this affected him in the wrestles backs as well. He still scored 11 team points: 3.5 advancement points, .5 bonus point 7 placement points.
T Wilson has had better tournaments, but he finished strong. His last match was a major decision to finish 7th. He lost by fall in the third round to the eventual finalist and then lost to Gomez from Wis (who lost twice to VA Tech’s Andonian in the tournament). He scored 7.5 points: 3 advancement points, .5 bonus points and 4 placement points.
These three scored 36 of our 49 points. For the record I expected this group to score 15 more points: H Hidlay (3) 15.5 points, (1) T Hidlay, 20 points and (2) T Wilson 16 points. This computes to 51 points. Now if you want to finish high in the tournament you need over 80 points which means you need to get more than 3 wrestlers scoring.
I was not confident that our lightweights were ready to finish in the top eight and score significant points. Collectively, Camacho, Orine and jack scored only 4 points, but this is how wacky a national Wrestling tournament can be. All three lost to the finalist in their bracket. Jack to Kizhan Clarke on UNC ( someone he just beat two weeks ago). Jack then loses in the consolations in Overtime 4-3. Camacho lost to the finalist Pat Glory, in the second round who scored three MD in the Championship round. Orine lost in a close decision to OK States, who had a major decision and pin in his trek to the finals. Dalton Fix. We needed one of them to break through ( I thought Camacho) and add an additional 4 points to their total.
Ed Scott scored four points but also got hosed by a bad call, plain and simple. I am not sure he would have won that match but if he did, he would added at least four more points. He also lost in the championship round 5-3 to Princeton’s Monday who is in the final.
It was a tough draw for Bullard and Trumble but they still managed to score 4.5 points. . I had Trumble scoring. I thought one of them would end up contributing 6 points to our total.
I thought we would have a tough time scoring points in the 285-weight class and would produce one point. We got .5.
I thought we would get enough points to finish 5th or higher.
The future:
Coach POP has built a culture and a top ten team that we as fans think should be in contention for top 4 every year. That culture was on display at the tournament when you watched the post-match interviews with Hayden Hidlay and Tariq Wilson.
We are losing 25-40 tournament points for next year. We are going to be Top ten but how do we get to top five when we are losing 25-40 tournament points for next year. We lose three starters next year and no one else in the ACC loses more than one. Myers is gone from VT, Clarke is gone from UNC, and Aiello from Virginia. We are young, Camacho is an old man next years as he and Trent Hidlay will be Juniors. Orine, Jack, Trumble are just sophomores.
Notwithstanding a few guys changing weight classes, it leaves open 149, 165, 174. So, how do we get to 70+ points and continue to dominate the ACC. There are a couple of ways to do it and once the kids get a few weeks off and talk about next years weight classes I think you will see another strong team with 2/3 incoming freshman that will surprise you.
We do no have anyone wrestling in tonight’s session as all the Wolfpack action was in the consolation wrestle backs.
The scoreboard: The performance at this years’ tournament was disappointing, but I would not classify it a setback. Currently, we are in 9th place with 49 pts and are 3.5 points ahead of two schools who have one more scoring potential, Missouri, and Minnesota. I am confident that Minnesota’s Gable Stevenson is a strong favorite to win over Schultz of ASU, who is undefeated at 26-0 but also a freshman. Missouri’s O’Toole who is 28-0 will also be the favorite at 165 against Stanford’s Griffith who has quite a story. O’Toole has been dominating with a pin fall and three decisions without giving up even one point. My guess is we will finish 11th as I would not bet against either of those guys.
Here is a comparison of the previous three tournaments and how teams have finished. Our average finish in the past three tournaments is 9th with 62 points. In my opinion anything under 60 points was underachieving after last year’s 6th place performance with 68.0 and our one-time 4th place finish with 80 points. I thought we would need north of 70pts to finish in the top 4 this year. The 2022 points do not reflect the final match in each bracket. The winner scores four more placement points plus any bonus points.
School | Pts | Finish | 2022 Current | 2022 | |
1 | PSU | 136.0 | 1.3 | 111.5 | 1st |
2 | Iowa | 95.5 | 2.6 | 74.0 | 3rd |
3 | Ohio State | 92.2 | 4.3 | 45.0 | 13th |
4 | Ok State | 73.7 | 6.3 | 44.0 | 14th |
5 | Michigan | 70.5 | 4.6 | 91.0 | 2nd |
6 | Missouri | 62.5 | 6.3 | 45.5 | 10th |
7 | NC State | 59.8 | 9.0 | 49.0 | 9th |
8 | ASU | 53.0 | 8.6 | 66.5 | 4th |
9 | Minnesota | 48.3 | 10.6 | 44.5 | 10th |
10 | Nebraska | 45.3 | 10.3 | 59.5 | 5th |
11 | VA tech | 44.7 | 11.3 | 52.5 | 7th |
12 | Rutgers | 43.7 | 11.0 | 28.5 | 20th |
13 | Cornell | 35.8 | 7.0 | 50.5 | 8th |
14 | Northwestern | 30.3 | 18.2 | 53.5 | 6th |
15 | UNC | 37.8 | 18.6 | 32.0 | 18th |
So how did we wrestle and how did it impact our score:
I think H Hidlay wrestled great. Even though he came up short against Starocci in the semi-finals he wrestled so well for the entire tournament. He won by a fall in round one, major decision in round two, handled an exceptional wrestler from Iowa in round three, and then had an 8-2 decision and then major decisioned the same Iowa wrestler for third place. He contributed 17.5 points of our total team points:3.5 advancement pts, 4 bonus points and 10 placement points
T Hidlay was a warrior and was obviously under the weather but made no excuses. It showed in his lower than normal energy late in matches. I think he is in the finals tonight as his SV loss to Brook was because he was gassed. I think this affected him in the wrestles backs as well. He still scored 11 team points: 3.5 advancement points, .5 bonus point 7 placement points.
T Wilson has had better tournaments, but he finished strong. His last match was a major decision to finish 7th. He lost by fall in the third round to the eventual finalist and then lost to Gomez from Wis (who lost twice to VA Tech’s Andonian in the tournament). He scored 7.5 points: 3 advancement points, .5 bonus points and 4 placement points.
These three scored 36 of our 49 points. For the record I expected this group to score 15 more points: H Hidlay (3) 15.5 points, (1) T Hidlay, 20 points and (2) T Wilson 16 points. This computes to 51 points. Now if you want to finish high in the tournament you need over 80 points which means you need to get more than 3 wrestlers scoring.
I was not confident that our lightweights were ready to finish in the top eight and score significant points. Collectively, Camacho, Orine and jack scored only 4 points, but this is how wacky a national Wrestling tournament can be. All three lost to the finalist in their bracket. Jack to Kizhan Clarke on UNC ( someone he just beat two weeks ago). Jack then loses in the consolations in Overtime 4-3. Camacho lost to the finalist Pat Glory, in the second round who scored three MD in the Championship round. Orine lost in a close decision to OK States, who had a major decision and pin in his trek to the finals. Dalton Fix. We needed one of them to break through ( I thought Camacho) and add an additional 4 points to their total.
Ed Scott scored four points but also got hosed by a bad call, plain and simple. I am not sure he would have won that match but if he did, he would added at least four more points. He also lost in the championship round 5-3 to Princeton’s Monday who is in the final.
It was a tough draw for Bullard and Trumble but they still managed to score 4.5 points. . I had Trumble scoring. I thought one of them would end up contributing 6 points to our total.
I thought we would have a tough time scoring points in the 285-weight class and would produce one point. We got .5.
I thought we would get enough points to finish 5th or higher.
The future:
Coach POP has built a culture and a top ten team that we as fans think should be in contention for top 4 every year. That culture was on display at the tournament when you watched the post-match interviews with Hayden Hidlay and Tariq Wilson.
We are losing 25-40 tournament points for next year. We are going to be Top ten but how do we get to top five when we are losing 25-40 tournament points for next year. We lose three starters next year and no one else in the ACC loses more than one. Myers is gone from VT, Clarke is gone from UNC, and Aiello from Virginia. We are young, Camacho is an old man next years as he and Trent Hidlay will be Juniors. Orine, Jack, Trumble are just sophomores.
Notwithstanding a few guys changing weight classes, it leaves open 149, 165, 174. So, how do we get to 70+ points and continue to dominate the ACC. There are a couple of ways to do it and once the kids get a few weeks off and talk about next years weight classes I think you will see another strong team with 2/3 incoming freshman that will surprise you.
