Mat Returns: Reviewing opening weekend, recruiting news for NC State wrestling

The NC State wrestling team opened its season last weekend at The Citadel Open and action continues this weekend at Cary Academy for Sunday’s Wolfpack Wrestling Club Open. Here’s the latest on the nation’s No. 5 squad per the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll:

Opening weekend takeaways

There were two major results to note from last weekend’s Citadel Open, where the Wolfpack claimed six titles, and the most significant actually came in NC State-on-NC Sate matches.

At 157 pounds, in a finals battle between former top-100 recruits, second-year freshman AJ Kovacs upended classmate and last year’s Wolfpack starter at 149 pounds Ed Scott, 9-8. A four-point near-fall to start the scoring in the second period helped Kovacs hang on for a win despite two Scott takedowns in the final frame.

In five matches, Kovacs allowed only 11 points. He also beat former Duke starter Will Unger, 3-1, and the tournament’s No. 1 seed Dazjon Casto, a product of The Citadel who has wrestled some really close matches with quality competition in the past and had a win last year over App State NCAA qualifier Will Formato, 10-3. Scott, meanwhile scored bonus points in each of his victories, including three first-period pins.

Kovacs and Scott are both registered for this weekend’s Wolfpack Open, and could be on a collision course for a rematch. It’s also worth noting Scott had beaten Kovacs, 6-1, during wrestle-offs, so the next meeting could really be considered a rubber match.

The bigger news, literally, happened at heavyweight, where redshirt freshman Owen Trephan notched a pair of ranked wins. He started to heat up with a 3-1 overtime victory over Duke’s starter, then pulled away for a 5-2 triumph over No. 30 Michael McAleavey, a sixth-year senior and former NCAA qualifier from The Citadel, in the semifinals to set up a wrestle-off rematch with teammate, NC State returning starter and defending ACC champion Deonte Wilson.

After prevailing with a late takedown in the unofficial wrestle-off, Trephan posted an impressive scoring margin in the official bout. He wasted no time, tallying a trio of first-period takedowns and adding another at the end of the second. There aren’t many heavyweights who have ever put up 10 points on Wilson, a two-time NCAA qualifier. In fact, Wilson has given up 10 points in a match only twice in his career, and not since his true freshman season in 2018-19.

Trephan rightfully earned ACC Wrestler of the Week honors for the performance, and Wilson and Trephan could rematch again this weekend. However, Virginia Tech NCAA qualifier Hunter Catka, who Wilson topped for his ACC title last season in overtime but still qualified for NCAAs, is registered to compete in Cary, as is Campbell starter and NCAA qualifier Taye Ghadiali.

Others who won tournament titles for the Wolfpack on opening weekend include 125-pound true freshman Stevo Poulin, 141-pound second-year freshman Ryan Jack, 184-pound true freshman Joey Milano and 197-pound second-year freshman Isaac Trumble.

But back to this weekend — based on early entries, heavyweight could be the deepest weight class at the Wolfpack Open.

Another weight class of high interest this weekend for Wolfpack fans will be 133. Returning starter Jarrett Trombley entered The Citadel Open as the No. 1 seed, but went 3-1 to finish third. Redshirt freshman teammate Kai Orine went 6-1 last year up at 141 pounds and had a strong showing at the 2019 Southern Scuffle (fourth place). He’s expected to make his season debut at 133 this weekend. Also registered is Joe Heilmann, North Carolina’s starter last year who has wins like one over UVA All-American Louie Hayes on his résumé.

Top junior commits to NC State

This week was signing day for wrestling, and the team announced a six-man recruiting class (more on them later). However, those recruits were all known to have pledged to the Pack.

NC State actually made bigger news in the 2023 recruiting class, nabbing top junior Koy Buesgens, who is listed the No. 21 overall prospect in his class by MatScouts.

The Minnesota state champ (126 pounds in 2021) and Fargo Greco-Roman All-American had a breakthrough performance at Super 32 in October, making a finals run at the prestigious tournament and losing only to a senior who is ranked as a consensus national top-five prospect.

Buesgens wasn’t ranked nationally at his 132-pound weight class coming into Super 32, held close to his future home in Greensboro, but upset those that are currently ranked (after the tournament) as the nation’s No. 6, 10 and 14-ranked grapplers at his weight before falling 6-4 to No. 1 in a competitive championship match. FloWrestling called him “the guy everybody is surprised to see” in the finals on their broadcast.

Buesgen’s opponent in the Super 32 finals is known for his power and explosion, but the future Wolfpacker went toe to toe with him, never got overpowered, showed a few impressive attacks from neutral (he very nearly had a takedown at the end of the second period) and boasted some even more impressive scrambles.

His pledge is reminiscent of so many Pack commits under head coach Pat Popolizio. NC State unearthed a hidden gem, put in the work when he was still under most coaches’ radars and basically had him sealed up by the time he had his national breakout performance.

Senior signee Jackson Arrington is a great example from the recent past. When he committed in late January, he was No. 91 on FloWrestling’s big board and No. 48 in his class per MatScouts. When the Pennsylvania state champ signed Wednesday, he was listed No. 20 by Flo and 21 by MatScouts. In many other sports, that would be like a guy rising from solid four-star status to a five-star level.

2022 class signs, is one of nation’s best groups

One of the best 2022 recruiting classes in the country became official Wednesday. The school announced six signees (listed with their big board national rankings):

• 125 Troy Hohman

• 141/149 Finn Solomon (No. 72 per FloWrestling, No. 86 per MatScouts)

• 149 Jackson Arrington (No. 20 FloWrestling, No. 21 MatScouts)

• 174 Matty Singleton (No. 14 FloWrestling, No. 11 MatScouts)

• 184/197 Dylan Fishback (No. 5 FloWrestling, No. 9 MatScouts)

• 285 Chase Horne (No. 22 FloWrestling, No. 23 MatScouts)

Three are included in the two outlets’ respective pound-for-pound rankings of all prep grapplers regardless of weight class. MatScouts lists Horne No. 14, Singleton No. 15 and Fishback No. 16 in those rankings, with Horne No. 14 and Fishback No. 16 in Flo’s pound-for-pound listing.

It seems like a pretty safe bet that it’s the No. 2 recruiting class in the country currently, behind Ohio State, who has inked the No. 1, 2 and 3 prospects in the land per both FloWrestling and MatScouts.

According to MatScouts’ big board, the Pack is the only team with four top-25 signees, and one of just five programs with multiple signees ranked that high. Ohio State is the only other squad that signed more than two such recruits.

Flo’s rankings also point to NC State a clear second. Again, only five schools boast multiple top-25 prospects, and NC State and Ohio State are the only ones with more than two. The Buckeyes and Wolfpack are represented by the first and second bars, respectively, in the graph below.

Quick and dirty recruiting class of 2022 analysis. Will discuss it in detail on the next Who's Number One the Show! pic.twitter.com/hp30xVzY1H

— Andrew Spey (@SpeyWrestle) November 3, 2021