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ACC Championship News

Virginia Tech Aiming To Break NC State’s Grip On ACC Wrestling
Virginia Tech is looking to pry the ACC wrestling title away from NC State and the Hokies appear to be assembling a lineup that can challenge the Pack.
Mar 5, 2024 by Jim Carlson
Virginia Tech fell eight points short of North Carolina State in the Feb. 23 dual meet season finale, but the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference Championships provides the Hokies with an opportunity to put an end to the Wolfpack’s five-year tournament reign. Tech took four of the first five bouts against State, but the #3 Wolfpack rang up five straight wins to earn a 20-12 win and hand the #8 Hokies just their fourth loss in 13 matches this season. VT’s March 10 trip to the University of North Carolina for the ACCs/NCAA qualifier can’t come soon enough. The Hokies’ last ACC tournament titles came in 2017 and 2018. “I think it’s been deeper in the recent past than it is this year, to be quite honest with you, but it’s really solid, and we’re gonna have to wrestle really well,” Virginia Tech coach Tony Robie said about the ACC. “There’s a lot of good guys, a lot of good teams and a lot of well-coached kids. “(The ACC) lost two NCAA champs with (UNC’s Austin) O’Connor and (Pitt’s Nino) Boniccorsi, so whenever you lose an NCAA champ out of your lineup, that’s gonna affect your team. But overall, I think if you look at recruiting and if you look at trajectory, it’s pretty solid. I feel it’s gonna be really competitive for a long time.”
The NCAA allotted the ACC 28 automatic qualifiers, 14 over the first six weights and 14 more over the final four. Final dual-meet rankings point toward a two-team race between Tech and State, with Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Virginia. chipping in with enough stars to shake things up.
The Hokies will hit Chapel Hill with five top-10 wrestlers, including a pair of #2s in Caleb Henson at 149 and Mekhi Lewis at 174. The expected return of All-American and #8 Bryce Andonian at 157 would boost the Hokies’ chances, and high-placing finishes from #13 Sam Latona at 133, #16 Connor Brady at 165 and new #10 TJ Stewart at 184 also would expand VT’s title prospects. … story at … Flowrestling.org/Virginia-tech-aiming-to-break-nc-states-grip-on-acc-wrestling
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Pre-Seeds and Brackets Set for the 2024 ACC Wrestling Championship
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) — The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced the pre-seeds and brackets for the 2024 ACC Wrestling Championship, which will be held this Sunday, March 10, at Carmichael Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
NC State, the 2024 ACC regular-season dual meet champion and five-time defending ACC champion, leads with five No. 1 seeds in their respective weight class brackets, including defending champions Kai Orine at 133 pounds and Owen Trephan at 285 pounds. NC State’s Trent Hidlay, the three-time defending champion at 184 pounds, earned the No. 1 seed at 197 pounds this year, while fellow three-time champion Mekhi Lewis (2019 – 165 pounds; 2022 and 2023 – 174 pounds) garnered the top seed at 174 pounds.
Two-time defending champion Cole Matthews of Pitt (141) and 2023 champion Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (149) received the No. 1 seed at their respective weight classes, while two-time champion Jakob Camacho of NC State (2020 and 2022) received the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds.
The defending 165-pound champion Justin McCoy of Virginia is the No. 2 seed in the 174-pound weight class, moving up a weight class this season, while Sam Latona of Virginia Tech, the 2021 ACC Champion at 125 pounds, received the No. 3 seed at 133 pounds. Fellow 2022 champion Ed Scott of NC State (157) is the No. 2 seed in his weight class for this year’s championship.
ACC pre-seeds for this year’s tournament were generated by WrestleStat.com and the six head coaches’ votes. Complete 2024 ACC Wrestling Brackets may be found at https://theacc.co/24wrestbrackets. … story at … ACC.com/Brackets-set-for-the-2024-acc-wrestling-championship¹
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2024 ACC Championships Preview
The postseason is upon us and the ACC will be taking center stage on Sunday in Chapel Hill. Brackets were just released so let’s take a look at what we will see on Sunday. 
125: 2 Automatic Qualifiers
Jakob Camacho gets the top seed via his victory over Cooper Flynn in the dual. Spencer Moore earns the 3 seed and will look to avenge his only ACC loss against Cooper Flynn in the semifinals. … story at … Intermatwrestle.com/ACC-championships-preview
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“I love to put it on the line all the time:” Q&A with NC State All-American wrestler Trent Hidlay
The N.C. State Wolfpack will take the mat this weekend at the 2024 ACC championship with the goal of winning their sixth conference title as a team. This is a team full of personality and potential, headlined by one of the most popular college wrestlers in recent program history: three-time All-American Trent Hidlay. 🤼 MORE COLLEGE WRESTLING 🤼 🚨 Alerts and updates on Bleacher Report
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We talked with Hidlay ahead of this year’s conference tournament about his legacy in the ACC, his final, special season as a college wrestler and what it will take for him to end his career in Kansas City on top of the podium. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve had so many memorable moments with NC State nationally and at the conference level. Is there one moment in particular that comes to mind when you think about what has defined your experience at NC State?
One match that I think I go back to a lot was the first time I won ACCs against Hunter Bolen from Virginia Tech. That was really special for me because he was someone who had beaten me three times in a row in my first two years here, and it was getting to the point where I was like ‘man, I feel like I’m better than this guy, and I’m working extremely hard, and I keep falling short.’ … story at … NCAA.com/Love-put-it-line-all-time-qa-nc-state-all-american-wrestler-trent-hidlay

March 10, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized