NC State won its third straight title at the ACC Championships (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)Results: Brackets
RALEIGH, N.C. -- It has been an unusual year for college wrestling, but one thing remained unchanged on Sunday night.
NC State continues to sit atop the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Buoyed by Trent Hidlay's overtime sudden victory over top-ranked Hunter Bolen of Virginia Tech at 184 pounds, plus dominating efforts by four-time ACC champion Hayden Hidlay at 157 and Tariq Wilson at 141, the nationally seventh-ranked Wolfpack captured its 18th ACC team title in convincing fashion Sunday night at Reynolds Coliseum.
With Daniel Bullard (174 pounds) and Deonte Wilson (285) adding overtime wins of their own, NC State led the team scoring with 89.5 points. Virginia Tech held second place 24 points back at 65.5, followed by North Carolina (63), Virginia (55), Pitt (45) and Duke (7.5).
Virginia Tech 133-pound senior Korbin Myers, who continued his streak of wins over ranked opponents with a 3-1 victory over two-time champion Micky Phillippi at 133 pounds, was selected the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler in a vote of the head coaches.
The ACC title is Wolfpack's fourth under the watch of ninth-year head coach Pat Popolizio, and NC State's 18 total ACC titles are the most among current conference programs.
"It's a credit to all the guys on our staff who work around the clock, and it's a tribute to our (wrestlers), because I know all that goes into it with their training and lifestyle they gotta live. And to the support we get here at NC State right now," Popolizio said. "It puts us one step closer to our ultimate goal of winning the national title."
NC State became the first school to claim three consecutive ACC wrestling championships since North Carolina won four in a row from 1997-20.
"It's not an easy thing to do," Popolozio said. "I don't know of any sport you're in - whether you're an individual or a team - getting three wins in a row in a conference is not an easy task. I am really proud of what the guys did today, stepping up to meet the challenge against some of the best teams in the country."
The first match of the championship round saw Virginia Tech's Myers - ranked seventh nationally - scored his decision over Pitt's Phillippi. The No. 4-ranked Phillippi had won 20 consecutive matches and was 8-0 this season, but Myers entered this year's ACC Championship with impressive credentials of his own after defeating three straight fellow ranked conference opponents by major decision.
But after Myers gave the Hokies some hope of coming from behind, NC State closed the door by winning five of the six championship matches in which it had wrestlers competing.
NC State's Tariq Wilson avenged last year's ACC Championship loss to North Carolina's Zach Sherman at 141 pounds, defeating his Tar Heel counterpart by a 10-1 major decision. The win gave Wilson a sweep of the season series following his 9-6 win when the pair faced off at UNC on Jan. 29.
North Carolina's top-ranked Austin O'Connor successfully defended his ACC title at 149 pounds by defeating Virginia Tech's Bryce Andonian for the second consecutive year, but it didn't come easy for the Tar Heel junior. O'Connor spotted Andonian 6-0 lead in the opening period before scrapping back to claim a 10-8 decision. O'Connor upped his career record to 66-7.
The finals of the 157-pound bracket produced a historic win for Hayden Hidlay. With his 12-3 major decision over Virginia's Justin McCoy, the NC State senior became the 10th four-time ACC champion and the first since Virginia Tech's Devin Carter (at 141 pounds in 2011-12 and at 141 pounds in 2014-15). Hidlay is the sixth four-time ACC champion in a single weight class and the first since North Carolina's Matt Kenny (heavyweight) in 1999-02. The Lewistown, Pennsylvania, senior holds a 29-0 career mark versus ACC opponents.
Pitt's 165-pound Jake Wentzel opened the 2021 season by earning National Wrestler of the Week honors, and the junior hasn't let up in the eight weeks since. Wentzel successfully defended his ACC title Sunday night, blanking Virginia's Jake Keating, 4-0.
For the second consecutive year, NC State's Bullard and North Carolina's Clay Lautt waged a competitive battle at 174 pounds. Lautt claimed a one-point win in last year's meeting in Pittsburgh, but Bullard turned the tables with a takedown for a 4-2 sudden victory win on Sunday night.
After coming excruciatingly close versus Virginia Tech's Bolen in last year's ACC final and in this year's regular-season match, the Wolfpack's third-ranked Trent Hidlay finally broke through on Sunday night. Hidlay's takedown in the first extra session netted a 3-1 victory following 2-1 losses in each of the two previous meetings.
Pitt's Nino Bonaccorsi, who moved up a weight class this season to wrestle at 197 pounds, downed defending Jay Aiello of Virginia by a 10-4
Bolen entered the match ranked as the No. 1 184-pound wrestler in the country in each of the InterMat, FloWrestling and TrackWrestling rankings. He has also been the No. 1 choice in both NCAA Coaches Rankings.
The final two matches of evening featured more overtime wrestling. Heavyweight Deonte Wilson outlasted Virginia Tech's Hunter Catka, 2-1, and the Hokies' Sam Latona edged NC State's Jakob Camacho by the same score. The Latona-Camacho bout was a rematch of their regular-season meeting, which Latona won 7-4 with a late takedown to help Virginia Tech claim the ACC dual team championship.
Sunday night's finals featured all nine defending champions from 2020. Fourteen of the 20 wrestlers in this year's final championship round also reached the finals last season, and four of this year's title matches - at 141, 149, 174 and 184 - were rematches from last season.
In addition to determining league champions, this year's ACC Wrestling Championship filled the conference's 33 automatic NCAA berths. The ACC is hopeful of landing additional at-large berths for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which are set for March 18-20 in St. Louis.
The conference earned 38 total NCAA spots in the 2020 NCAA Championships, which were ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACC sent a league record 41 wrestlers to the NCAAs in both 2018 and 2019.
Please see below for the results of Sunday night's championship matches. The winner and runner-up in each weight class earns 2021 All-ACC honors.
Finals Results:
125: Sam Latona (VT) def. Jakob Camacho (NCS), TB 1; 2-1
133: Korbin Myers (VT) dec. Micky Phillippi (UP), 3-1
141: Tariq Wilson (NCS) major dec. Zach Sherman (UNC), 10-1
149: Austin O'Connor (UNC) dec. Bryce Andonian (VT), 10-8
157: Hayden Hidlay (NCS) major dec. Justin McCoy (UVA), 12-3
165: Jake Wentzel (UP) dec. Jake Keating (UVA), 4-0
174: Daniel Bullard (NCS) dec Clay Lautt (UNC), SV-1; 4-2
184: Trent Hidlay (NCS) dec.Hunter Bolen (VT) , SV-1; 3-1
197: Nino Bonaccorsi (UP) vs. Jay Aiello (UVA), 10-4
285: Deonte Wilson (NCS) dec. Hunter Catka (VT), TB-1; 2-1
Final Team Standings:
1. NC State 89.5
2. Virginia Tech 65.5
3. North Carolina 63
4. Virginia 55
5. Pitt 45
6. Duke 7.5
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