North Carolina State University Athletics
Wrestling To Host Duals Saturday
1/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Jan. 7, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — The NC State wrestling team begins the home portion of the dual-match season on Saturday with a day-long extravaganza of wrestling at the NC State Duals.
The five-team event — which also includes the wrestling teams from Anderson, Campbell, Mercyhurst and North Dakota State — begins at 1 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum and will run through five rounds of matches. Admission is free of charge.
NC State will be looking to build on this past Wednesday’s 21-14 victory at Rider. The Wolfpack, 2-2 in dual matches, wrestles seven of its next nine matches at Reynolds Coliseum and is aiming to build some momentum heading into that stretch, which includes a pair of home Atlantic Coast Conference bouts.
“This is an important point in our schedule,” head coach Carter Jordan said. “We start conference competition in a week, so it would be nice to build up a head of steam coming out of Saturday’s duals. It’s certainly a great chance for fans in the area to come out and see an afternoon and evening of good college wrestling.”
Individually for NC State, junior 141-pounder Darrius Little needs one more win to break his previous career high for victories. He currently stands at 17-6. He went 17-17 two years ago at 133 pounds.
Little and junior 157-pounder Colton Palmer, who enters action Saturday at 16-8, will be looking to become the first NC State wrestlers this season to reach the 20-win plateau. With 16 wins already to his credit, Palmer aleady has surpassed the 12 career wins he had coming into the 2010-11 season.
Senior 149-pounder Darrion Caldwell is within hailing distance of several significant career milestones, and could begin reaching those this weekend. The 2009 national champion at 149 and Most Outstanding Wrestler of the 2009 NCAA Championships, Caldwell sat out 16 months following shoulder surgery in September 2009. He missed the entire 2009-10 season and the fall of 2010.
Caldwell made his return with a pair of victories earlier this week at Bloomsburg and Rider. Currently at 96-12 for his career, Caldwell needs a sweep on Saturday to become just the second NC State wrestler to win 100 or more bouts in a career. Sylvester Terkay went 122-14 from 1990-93 and is the only Wolfpack wrestler ever to win 100 or more bouts.
Caldwell currently is tied with Mike Lombardo for second-most wins in NC State annals with 96, so his next victory will move him into second place by himself.
Four wins this weekend would lift Caldwell’s career winning percentage to .893, which would put him in second place in the school record books. Caldwell’s current winning percentage is .8889. Tab Thacker (92-11-1 from 1981-84) is second at .8894. Terkay is the career leader at .897.
Caldwell currently has 51 career pins, which is third in school history behind Terkay’s 64 and Thacker’s 54.
Following is the schedule for the NC State Duals:
1 p.m.
NC State vs. Anderson
Mercyhurst vs. North Dakota State
2:30 p.m.
NC State vs. Mercyhurst
North Dakota State vs. Campbell
4 p.m.
NC State vs. Campbell
Mercyhurst vs. Anderson
5:30 p.m.
Campbell vs. Mercyhurst
North Dakota State vs. Anderson
7 p.m.
NC State vs. North Dakota State
Anderson vs. Campbell
