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North Carolina State Wrestling News

NC State Carrying Momentum From Record ACC Showing Into NCAA Championships
North Carolina State is rolling into the NCAA Wrestling Championships after a record-setting performance last weekend at the ACC Championships.
Mar 16, 2024 by Brian Reinhardt
March Matness is upon us, every college wrestling fan’s favorite time of the year. The NC State wrestling team closed out one tournament with another ACC trophy, and now the Wolfpack focuses on earning more hardware at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
The Pack is coming off an ACC Championships performance to remember. NC State captured its sixth straight ACC title, with seven individual championships – both school records. The Pack also scored 116 team points, the most in school history and the most at the conference meet since Virginia had 117 points in 1974, and the 29.5 margin of victory over second-place Virginia Tech (116-86.5) was the most at the ACC Championship since 2017. “It was not an easy task by any means with the development and improvement of this conference,” NC State coach Pat Popolizio said. “Those accomplishments are a reflection of everybody involved with our program. Everybody was on the same page, everybody showed up and met those high expectations going in. We attacked the plan that we had laid out dating back to the end of last year.”
NC State won conference titles at 125 pounds (Jakob Camacho — the third of his career), 133 (Kai Orine — for the second straight year), 141 (Ryan Jack), 149 (Jackson Arrington), 157 (Ed Scott — the second of his career), 197 (Trent Hidlay — the fourth of his career), and heavyweight (Owen Trephan — for the second straight year). “Good momentum for all of those guys,” Popolizio said. “The field that they competed against was really good competition. I think as we get to this time of the year, you want to see that tough competition to know that you are ready, in shape and technically sound for the NCAAs.”
Since the 2017-18 campaign, NC State has claimed at least a share of 12 of the last 14 ACC Wrestling trophies (six ACC Championships and six ACC Dual/Regular Season Championships). “I love the fact that our guys love to compete,” Popolizio said. “They embrace the challenges of wrestling tough competition and that is what makes this group special. When the stakes get high, they elevate their game. That was the case at ACCs.
Onto Kansas City
NC State will head to Kansas City on Monday to avoid any travel hiccups, or as the team encountered last year, early 3 a.m. wakeup calls to get one of those early morning flights out of RDU Airport. “We were able to get some good recovery in after ACCs,” Popolizio said. … story at … Flowrestling.org/NC-state-carrying-momentum-from-record-acc-showing-into-ncaa-championships
And …

Esposito Named Associate Head Coach
RALEIGH – NC State head wrestling coach Pat Popolizio has announced that Zack Esposito will join his staff and serve as an associate head coach. The veteran coach comes to the Wolfpack after a stint with USA Wrestling.  “Zack is a big impact hire”, said Popolizio. “He comes from an elite background of wrestling, has produced at all levels and is a proven winner. His values mirror everything that our program stands for and I am confident that we will continue to build on the momentum that has continued to grow in the past several seasons. He shares the same goals as the rest of us, to win a national title.”
After previously holding the associate head coach position at Oklahoma State for seven years, he was most recently the National Freestyle Development and Resident Coach for USA Wrestling, the national governing body for wrestling in the United States.
In his position, Esposito coordinated the U.S. Pan American and World Teams at the U15, U17 and U20 levels. He also managed USA Wrestling’s Elite U20 Resident Program, which trains at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. He worked directly with National Freestyle Coach Bill Zadick and Manager of Freestyle Programs Joe Russell on many other projects as part of USA Wrestling’s professional national freestyle coaching staff. “This is bittersweet, because I really respect Zack and his family,” said National Freestyle Coach Bill Zadick. “We wish him great success in his new opportunity. We know he will continue to be a longtime contributor to USA Wrestling in his new position. We value our Developmental position as one of our most important roles, and will look for another great coach to influence our future.”
Esposito is a familiar face to Popolizio, as they both wrestled for John Smith, … story at … GOpack.com/Esposito-named-associate-head-coach

March 20, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized