Preview: No. 4 NC State wrestling hosts No. 7 Virginia Tech

The most-anticipated match of the year for NC State wrestling, Virginia Tech wrestling and ACC wrestling has arrived (6 p.m., ACC Network). Finally.

The Wolfpack and Hokies were supposed to square off Jan. 21 in Raleigh to kick off the conference wrestling season on ACC Network. However, Virginia Tech forfeited the match, and NC State technically wrapped up another ACC regular-season championship with a win over North Carolina Friday night with its third unbeaten conference campaign in the last five years.

But recent NC State-Virginia Tech matches haven’t been great because of any ACC dual championship. Sure, more often than not the winner of this match goes on to claim that title, which has been won by one of the two programs each of the last eight years, but a rivalry has developed that transcends any trophy.

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The Pack and Hokies’ annual matchup has become must-see TV for even the most casual of wrestling fans because they are routinely some of the best teams in the country, and nobody has walked away from the rivalry disappointed in recent memory either. Virginia Tech became the ACC’s first-ever team to capture a team trophy at the NCAA Championships for a top-four finish in 2016. NC State followed suit by doing so two years later. The Hokies are in the midst of nine consecutive top-15 NCAA finishes, while the Wolfpack boast seven straight top-20 showings.

On top of all that, the last four matches between the programs have been decided by the last bout of the dual. Twice the team scores were tied at the end, so the winner was decided by criteria.

Nine of Sunday night’s 10 individual bouts could feature ranked-on-ranked matchups. Half of them will pit top-20 grapplers against one another.

And emotions will be even higher than usual after the cancellation that became a lightning rod of discussion in the wrestling community and forced this to be a non-conference match.

No matter how many times the winner has gone on to claim the ACC dual championship, NC State-Virginia Tech is about more than a regular-season trophy. It has delivered one of the college wrestling season’s best matches over the last handful-plus of years, and is set to do so once again.

The craziest part about this dual is that the four best individual matchups are what the wrestling world calls ‘toss-up’ matches, where it’s plausible to see either competitor win. Here’s our countdown of the four matches we’re looking forward to the most, starting with No. 1 (NC State wrestlers will always be listed last below):

1. 174: No. 3 Mekhi Lewis (17-0) vs. No. 4 Hayden Hidlay (11-1)

The stakes were always going to be high for this one. Nationally, the top five wrestlers at the weight have combined for two losses. One of them came Friday night, when Hidlay was pinned by a top-10 foe from North Carolina. That was his first loss ever in ACC competition and one of the most shocking results of the entire college wrestling season.

But even if that wasn’t the case, this was a match the wrestling world had circled as soon as it was known Hidlay, the Pack’s first-ever four-time All-American wrestler and a former NCAA finalist, and Lewis, the 2019 NCAA champion at 165 pounds, would be at the same weight. Hidlay made the jump up two weights from 157.

Per WrestleStat, Lewis’ career record is 83-6, while Hidlay’s sits at 124-12 (counting redshirt seasons). Lewis’ last non-injury-related college loss was during the 2018-19 season. Hidlay coming off of his first defeat of the year adds extra intrigue.

2. 149: No. 5 Bryce Andonian (7-1) vs. No. 3 Tariq Wilson (12-0)

It’s tough to predict who will win this one. One prognostication I’m comfortable making is that there will be fireworks in this match. Wilson is a complete wrestler, and has plenty big moves capable of ending any match early. The same can be said of Andonian, who wrestles with a bit of a wild style.

The super senior Wilson is a three-time All-American competing at the third weight class of his college career, while Andonian is a two-time ACC finalist at 149 who is still looking for his breakthrough on the NCAA stage — but everybody in the country knows him because of how dangerous he is and the high-risk, high-reward style he competes with.

This is another that fans have had circled ever since Wilson announced he was moving up from 141 pounds, where he finished third nationally last year.

3. 184: No. 14 Hunter Bolen (19-3) vs. No. 3 Trent Hidlay (14-0)

These next two matches have similar themes. Bolen finished last year with just three losses. All were by two points, and two happened in overtime. He has three losses already this season. Again, all by two points and a pair in overtime. One of those losses was to North Carolina’s Gavin Kane, who Hidlay beat by 13-3 major decision Friday night.

When Hidlay beat Bolen for the ACC title last year in Raleigh, Bolen was ranked No. 1 nationally and it was Hidlay’s first win over Bolen in four chances. They had wrestled more than 28 minutes before Hidlay finally was able to take Bolen down in overtime for the conference crown. The aggregate score of the four matches is 8-6 in favor of Bolen, but the undefeated Hidlay is without a doubt wrestling better this year and has really diversified his neutral attacks.

4. 125: No. 20 Sam Latona (10-6) vs. No. 14 Jakob Camacho (14-2)

Similar to Bolen-Hidlay, Latona holds the edge in the all-time series, though the All-American has struggled at times this year. He had just three losses last season, but has been defeated six times this winter and plummeted in the national rankings as a result. However, he hasn’t had an “unexpected” loss since early December and is 3-0 against Camacho in college.

The most recent matchup was last season’s ACC title bout, which Latona won 2-1 in tiebreakers (essentially double-overtime). The final score of their meeting in the 2021 dual — which decided the team winner — may have been 7-4, but Camacho was winning until the final five seconds, when he gave up not only a takedown but two near-fall points as well.

Several other NC State-Virginia Tech matchups offer intrigue

Here’s a full listing of tonight’s probables:

125: #20 R-So. Sam Latona (10-6) vs. #14 R-So. Jakob Camacho (14-2)

133: #5 Gr. Korbin Myers (15-1) vs. #14 R-Fr. Kai Orine (12-3)

141: #22 R-Jr. Collin Gerardi (10-6) vs. #24 Fr. Ryan Jack (13-6)

149: #5 Jr. Bryce Andonian (7-1) vs. #3 Gr. Tariq Wilson (12-0)

157: #28 R-So. Connor Brady (11-6) vs. #11 Fr. Ed Scott (18-1)

165: So. Clayton Ulrey (15-12) vs. #21 Gr. Thomas Bullard (13-5)

174: #3 R-Jr. Mekhi Lewis (17-0) vs. #4 Gr. Hayden Hidlay (11-1)

184: #14 R-Sr. Hunter Bolen (19-3) vs. #3 R-So. Trent Hidlay (14-0)

197: #30 R-Jr. Dakota Howard (13-7) -OR- So. Andy Smith (7-4) vs. #15 Fr. Isaac Trumble (15-3)

285: #14 Gr. Nathan Traxler (16-2) vs. #26 Jr. Tyrie Houghton (18-7) -OR- R-Fr. Owen Trephan (17-4)