North Carolina State University Athletics
Wrestling Opens Season At The Citadel
11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
The Wolfpack is coming off a year that was a tale of two seasons. Injuries ravaged the team during the dual-match portion of the regular season, leaving head coach Carter Jordan’s squad with a 4-15-1 overall record. Then, junior pounder Darrion Caldwell electrified the NCAA Championships with his run to the national championship at 149 pounds, lifting the Pack an 18th-place national finish.
The good news for this year is that last season is over and a young returning nucleus is back along with a nationally heralded recruiting class. The bad news is that Caldwell is out for the season with a shoulder injury, and seniors Joe Caramanica and Kody Hamrah are gone.
“We’ll certainly miss Darrion, Joe and Kody,” Jordan said. “Joe and Kody were seniors so we’d planned for them leaving. They’ll be missed, but we feel we have quality kids ready to step into the lineup. As for Darrion’s injury, what can you say? You lose the defending national champion for a year and you’re going to miss him. But we will not dwell on that. All we can do is turn the page and go into the season with the guys we have, and I like our team. It’s a young team and it’s going to take a little time to get them ready, but come January this should be a pretty nice team. We’ve got wrestlers who will fight you for the full seven minutes.”
Unlike a year ago, this year’s team has depth at most weight classes. By season’s end a year ago, the Wolfpack was forfeiting as many as three individual matches every dual match, with injuries especially debilitating at 197 and heavyweight.
Thanks to a strong recruiting class, this year’s team should have the most depth of any team since Jordan took over in 2004-05, and should be better equipped to withstand injuries. The Wolfpack’s recruiting class includes three high school national champions, a junior college national runner-up, and a number of other highly regarded, national-caliber recruits.
“The new kids have been great, tough kids who really get after it,” Jordan says. “They’ve really made for a competitive [practice] room. The returning guys have been pushed, and competition is a good thing.”
NC State will feature four true freshmen and just one senior in the starting lineup for the match at The Citadel. The Wolfpack has five returning starters from a year ago, but only one, senior 125-pounder Taylor Cummings, with more than two years of starting experience.
A former ACC champion who suffered through an injury-plagued junior year and finished 9-5, Cummings has a 40-35 career mark. He missed time last year and was replaced in the lineup by current sophomore Mike Moreno.
“Taylor Cummings gives us some experience in a very young lineup,” Jordan said. “He and Mike Moreno give us leadship in addition to a great 1-2 punch at 125 pounds.”
Junior 133-pounder Darrius Little has been a starter for the Wolfpack since his freshman campaign two years ago. An NCAA qualifier in 2009, Little finished with a 17-17 record that included seven bouts vs. ranked opponents.
After Little, freshman Dale Shull, one of three 2009 high school national champions on the roster, will start at 141. Shull made an impact the moment he stepped into the practice room. He, Cummings and Little should give the Wolfpack a solid threesome at the lightweight classifications.
“Taylor, Darrius and Dale are all really tough kids,” Jordan said. “Darrius came to us two years ago as something of an unknown and has worked hard to become a very solid college wrestler. I expect great things out of him this year. And Dale Shull is every bit as good as advertised. There are things he still needs to learn as far as technique and match situations, but he’s really tough and very talented. He’s a pinner like Darrion. He’ll score us a lot of points.”
Sophomore Colton Palmer started for the Wolfpack at 157 two years ago. After redshirting 2008-09, Palmer moves down a weight and will take Caldwell’s spot in the lineup. Those would seem to be big shoes to fill, but no one is asking Palmer to replace Caldwell, just to be himself. Palmer was highly recruited out of Durham’s Riverside High School and should more than hold his own at 149.
“Colton was a two-time state champion in high school who set national records for wins in a season (95) and in a career (289),” Jordan said. “He won’t be Darrion, but no one expects him to be. We just want him to give us the best he’s got, and if he does that, he’ll win a lot of matches.”
Bobby Ward, who was a national junior college runner-up at 149 pounds a year ago, will start at 157, with freshman Kasey Young at 165 and sophomore Quinton Godley at 174. Young finished third in the state of North Carolina, and Godley was a starter as a true freshman at 165 in 2009.
“Bobby Ward is a really good wrestler, a four-time state qualifier in Pennsylvania,” Jordan said. “He’s really good. Kasey Young is one of our recruits who kind of flew under the radar, but he comes from a good program at Mooresville High School and has been well-coached. He’s been really good in preseason. And Quinton Godley came to us last year and was really inexperienced as a wrestler, but with great athleticism and strength. We were kind of forced to throw him into the lineup because of injuries, and he struggled at times but got better and better.”
Freshmen John Becker and Christian McClean will get the starting nods at 184 and 197, with junior Bobby Isola starting at heavyweight.
Becker is a former state runner-up in New Jersey and was working toward a possible state championship a year ago when he was forced out of the state tournament in the semifinals because of an injury. McClean finished first and third in the state the last two years, and won 89 of his final 91 high school bouts.
Isola emerged as starter over Eloheim Palma, the 2009 high school national champion, but Jordan indicated that the competition between those two could go on for a while.
“Eloheim is so good for a freshman,” Jordan said. “He and Bobby give us great depth at heavyweight, unbelievable depth. They’re both really good.”
The Citadel returns nine starters from last year’s 9-6-1 squad, which finished third in the Southern Conference in the regular season and fourth in the league’s postseason tournament. The Bulldogs feature four wrestlers who were 20-match winners a year ago. Sophomore 197-pounder Odie Delaney was 25-16 and junior 165-pounder Derek Sickel was 24-18. Sophomore 125-pounder Richard Alarcon was 22-19 at 133 last season, but moves down a weight this year, and junior 174-pounder J.C. Oddo was 21-16.
