#5 PackWrestle shuts out Duke, 43-0, in ACC Opener

NC State (9-1, 2-0) made the short trip over to Durham for a Friday night dual against Duke (6-7, 0-2) and proceeded to steamroll the Blue Devils. Things started ugly and it pretty much stayed that way until we all drove home. The Pack won all ten bouts, with five for bonus points, for the 43-0 victory.

The dual started at 125 and after a Camacho pin, Orine tech fall, and Jack forfeit we were up 17-0 in what felt like no time. Then came the most competitive match of the night. Tariq Wilson took on #13 Josh Finesilver and used his veteran savvy to leave with the W. After a Finesilver takedown late in the 2nd period, Tariq found himself trailing 3-0. He was able to secure a crucial escape before the period ended and closed the margin to 3-2 with another escape to start the 3rd. With about 15 seconds left, Tariq came out on top of a long scramble and rode out the remainder of the period for the 4-3 victory. This was his first big test at the new weight and it was encouraging to see him dig deep for the win.

At 157, Ed Scott surrendered the first two takedowns and was down 4-1 early. He looked to be too aggressively hunting his patented headlock and just got caught being too impatient. It was almost like a rewind into what he looked like as a freshman last season, but he regrouped and just got back to the basics. From there he rattled off 18 consecutive points to get the tech fall.

Thomas Bullard took care of business at 165 with a pretty dominant decision victory. He wasn’t able to get the turns, but he was punishing on top and rode for a majority of the match. At 174, Hayden Hidlay got another stiff test in #15 Matt Finesilver but he is just on another level from most of these guys. There was never really a point during the match that Hayden looked in trouble at all - he cruised to a 6-3 decision. This also marked Hayden’s 100th career victory. What an achievement for such a valuable piece of our program!

Up next Trent got us back in the bonus points column with a first period pin. He quickly tilted up his opponent looking for near fall points and I guess it was tight enough to get the fall. Tilts aren’t a conventional pinning combination, usually more of a way to get some cheap back points, but when you’re the Hoagie Boy these things seem to just work out.

At 197, Trumble was able to grind out a 2-1 victory for some revenge over Kaden Russell from last year and Tyrie Houghton closed the show with a 4-1 decision at heavyweight.

#5 NC State 43-0 Duke

• 125: #15 Jakob Camacho (NCSU) pin Logan Agin (Duke); 6:16 (6-0 NCSU)
• 133: #17 Kai Orine (NCSU) tech fall Drake Doolittle (Duke); 17-2 (11-0 NCSU)
• 141: #24 Ryan Jack (NCSU) forfeit (17-0 NCSU)
• 149: #3 Tariq Wilson (NCSU) dec. #13 Josh Finesilver (Duke); 4-3 (20-0 NCSU)
• 157: #10 Ed Scott (NCSU) tech fall Wade Unger (Duke); 19-4 (25-0 NCSU)
• 165: #22 Thomas Bullard (NCSU) dec. Gabe Dinette (Duke); 5-0 (28-0 NCSU)
• 174: #4 Hayden Hidlay (NCSU) dec. #15 Matt Finesilver (Duke); 6-3 (31-0 NCSU)
• 184: #3 Trent Hidlay (NCSU) pin Vincent Baker (Duke); 0:24 (37-0 NCSU)
• 197: #20 Isaac Trumble (NCSU) dec. Kaden Russell (Duke); 2-1 (40-0 NCSU)
• 285: Tyrie Houghton (NCSU) dec. Jonah Niesenbaum (Duke); 4-1 (43-0 NCSU)

It felt good to get back a little bit of normalcy. Pack fans flooding into Cameron Indoor and watching our boys dominate an ACC foe. I missed this. Cameron feels so much like Reynolds and with the sea of red Pack fans, if you just close your eyes it almost feels like you’re home. Fortunately things won’t be slowing down from here. We host Virginia in Reynolds Coliseum next Friday at 7PM. Let’s pack it out - we’ve got three more opportunities to send these seniors off in style. And as we saw last week, we can’t take any of these moments for granted.