Wrestling

ACC Wrestling Seeks Even Greater Success as 2021-22 Season Opens

TAKEDOWNS
• All six ACC teams will be in action this weekend as the 2021-22 college wrestling season gets into full swing. The slate includes North Carolina, ranked No. 12 in the NWCA preseason poll, traveling to No. 10 Ohio State. Virginia travels to American on Saturday night, then joins No. 6 Virginia Tech for in-state action at the Southeast Duals in Salem, Virginia. No. 5 NC State and Duke are set for The Battle at The Citadel, while No. 15 Pitt competes in the Clarion Open.

• Four ACC teams were ranked among the top 15 of the NWCA Preseason Poll released Monday with NC State at No. 5, followed by No.6 Virginia Tech, No.12 North Carolina and No. 15 Pitt.

• The ACC also has four teams ranked in the latest InterMat rankings, including two among the top 10 (No. 5 NC State and No. 10 Virginia Tech), along with No. 14 North Carolina and No. 20 Pitt.

• Individually, nine ACC wrestlers are nationally ranked in the top five of their respective weight classes by InterMat, including 2021 NCAA 149-pound Champion Austin O’Connor who enters the season ranked No. 2 in the 157-pound weight class.

• Additionally, NC State’s Tariq Wilson (149) and Pitt’s Nino Bonaccorsi (197) are also ranked No. 2 nationally, while NC State’s Trent Hidlay (184) is ranked third. Pitt’s Jake Wentzel (165) and Virginia Tech’s Mekhi Lewis (174) are ranked fourth, and Virginia Tech’s Korbin Myers (133), North Carolina’s Zach Sherman (149) and NC State’s Hayden Hidlay (174) are ranked fifth. Lewis won a 2019 individual NCAA title at the 165-pound weight class. Overall, a total of 35 ACC wrestlers hold top-30 weight class rankings entering the 2021-22 season.

• A national title by North Carolina junior Austin O’Connor capped a historic night and a historic season for Atlantic Coast Conference wrestling last March in St. Louis. The second-seeded O’Connor’s 3-2 win over No. 1 seed Sammy Sasso of Ohio State in the 149-pound final secured North Carolina’s first NCAA gold medal since 1995 and the 20th all-time by an ACC wrestler.
 
• With 68 team points, three-time NC State’s sixth-place finish was the second-best in school history, the sixth top-10 finish for the program overall and the second top-10 finish in the last three NCAA Championships (a program-best fourth in 2018). Eleventh-place Pitt recorded its best NCAA finish since 1970 – when it took eighth – and tallied the Panthers’ best points haul in the NCAA’s current team scoring format (40.5 points).