North Carolina State collected three individual titles and a team crown Sunday at the Reno Tournament of Champions and surged into the top five in the latest Trackwrestling Division I rankings presented by Resilite.
Thanks to freshman Hayden Hidlay, who toppled two returning All-Americans and vaulted up nine spots to No. 3 at 157 pounds, the Wolfpack gained eight points in the team race and hurdled Michigan to check in this week at No. 5. It’s the highest ranking for North Carolina State in the two-year history of the Trackwrestling Division I rankings.
Ohio State remains No. 1 with a projected total of 128.5 advancement and placement points for the NCAA Championships. The Buckeyes continue to be followed by Penn State, Oklahoma State and Missouri.
Hidlay’s rise helped shuffle the rest of the top five with North Carolina State making its move to fifth with 60 points, Michigan dropping to sixth with 59, Lehigh falling to seventh with 52, Iowa climbing to eighth with 46, Rutgers dropping to ninth with 42.5 and Arizona State sliding to 10th with 41.5.
Results from Monday night’s Northern Iowa-North Carolina dual were not taken into consideration for this week’s rankings.
The Trackwrestling team rankings are based off the number of advancement and placement points each squad would accumulate if its wrestlers finished in those ranking slots at the NCAA Championships.
Top-ranked wrestlers earn 20 points, followed by 16 for second, 13.5 for third, 12.5 for fourth, 10 for fifth, 9 for sixth, 6.5 for seventh, 5.5 for eighth, 2 for spots 9-12, 1.5 for spots 13-16 and 1 for 17-25.