Last weekend’s matches both ended in losses for N.C. State, as the team fell to North Carolina and also a ranked Navy team by just nine combined team points.
The losses dropped the Wolfpack’s record to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in ACC competition and magnified this weekend’s match against a Maryland team that boasts four ranked wrestlers.
At the end of the day, State’s loss to No. 22 Navy had more positives than negatives, and coach Carter Jordan said he wanted a similar performance from his team, which will be at full strength with the return of senior Rick Brownlee against the Terrapins.
“If we wrestle like we did against Navy, we’ll be OK,” Jordan said. “It’s conference — [rankings] don’t matter. We’ll have a shot of winning against some of their ranked opponents.”
Perhaps the Pack was too consistent in last weekend’s matches. Three wrestlers won both of their matches, and four wrestlers lost twice in a three-day span — including defending ACC champion at the 184 class Jeremy Colbert, who is 4-8 this year.
“They’ve got to prepare better — and they know that,” Jordan said. “We’ve had some very intimate conversations about how they need to prepare for these upcoming matches, and I think they’re committed to doing that.”
Junior Kody Hamrah said Navy was, as a team, in the best physical shape as anyone in the country, and that the close performance should give the Pack — especially the younger wrestlers — a confidence boost.
“Hopefully we can get some of these kids’ confidence up and realize where we stand as team on the national level. We can carry that over into this Maryland match and make some noise with this,” Hamrah said.
One of those who sported a weekend sweep was redshirt sophomore Ryan Goodman, now ranked No. 12 nationally and is 13-1 on the year.
Riding a career best 11-match winning streak into the Maryland match, Goodman said he wouldn’t change the way he has approached previous matches.
Goodman will face No. 18, Hudson Taylor — a familiar face since the two have squared off twice before in the Southern Scuffle tournament.
“The first time I wrestled him I lost 8-6, then the second time I beat him 7-3. I was up-and-down that tournament. It was my first tournament back [from football],” Goodman said. “I’m sure he has also [improved]. But for myself I feel a lot further along than I was there.”
Hamrah is on his own seven-match winning spree and is now ranked No. 19. At 13-5 on the year, Hamrah said this match with the Terps has conference tournament ramifications for the team.
“There’s a lot of big match-ups. We match up really well with them; they’re strong where we’re strong,” Hamrah said. “This is definitely going to affect the individual [ACC] tournament with seedings because we only meet Maryland once.”
In recent matches, like a win that was too close for comfort against Duke, the Pack hasn’t always wrestled consistently. Jordan said the younger players on the team were now moving in the right direction after the early struggles.
“It’s about maturity and effort and being smart. We still have a lot of young guys in the lineup,” Jordan said. “We haven’t given ourselves permission to belong at the top of the conference, but I feel we righted the ship against Navy.”
