North Carolina State University Athletics
Wrestling Season Begins Sunday At The Hokie Open
11/4/2011 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Nov. 4, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — The NC State wrestling program enters a new era on Sunday when the 2011-12 season begins at the Hokie Open at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Va.
The Hokie Open will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday and will run all day. Fans wishing to follow the tournament can access updated brackets throughout the day at the Hokie Open website.
NC State enters the 2011-12 season with a nucleus of tested veterans augmented by one of the top recruiting classes in the country. Seniors Darrius Little (141 pounds), Colton Palmer (157) and Quinton Godley (174) bring 144 career victories to the lineup, and along with junior heavyweight Eloheim Palma will form the core of this year’s squad. Head coach Carter Jordan will look to those four for leadership and for victories.
“The returning guys are right where we want them to be at this time,” Jordan said. “Those four guys are experienced and they’ve achieved some level of success. We need for them to step this season and lead this team.”
Little, a redshirt-senior and three-year starter who went 26-12 a year ago and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the second time, begins the season ranked No. 15 by intermatwrestle.com. Palmer (26-13) and Godley (18-13 at 174 pounds, 20-18 overall) both have started the last two years.
Palma, a former high school national champion, set a school record for wins by a freshman heavyweight when he went 23-16 two years ago. He slumped to 15-12 as a sophomore, but Jordan is enthused about the progress his heavyweight has made in the offseason.
“Eloheim is a very talented and capable wrestler,” Jordan says. “He’s had a great preseason and looks ready to go.”
Add to that quartet sophomore 149-pounder Matt Nereim, who wrestled at 149 and 157 a year ago and went 11-4 overall, 10-3 at 149. The highlight of Nereim’s season was a 12-3 major decision over Virginia’s Derek Valenti, who wound up earning All-America honors just two months later.
The Wolfpack opens the season by wrestling in five tournaments and just one dual match between now and January 2. Many of Jordan’s wrestlers should have 20 or more matches under their belt by the time the dual-match season gets underway in earnest at the Wolfpack Duals on Jan. 7.
“I’d like for each of those guys to be established as front-line performers in their respective weight classes by the time we start wrestling dual matches in January,” Jordan said. “They should have wrestled a lot of bouts by then. We’ll see how many of them get there.”
The remaining five spots in the NC State lineup will come from a combination of returnees and members of the Wolfpack’s nationally ranked recruiting class.
Sophomore 165-pounder Nijel Jones and junior 197-pounder KaRonne Jones will begin the year as incumbent starters, but could be pushed by newcomers.
The other three spots will be manned by freshmen Coltin Fought (125 pounds), Adam Mathews (133) and Robert O’Neill (184). In addition, the Pack will send multiple wrestlers to several of the tournaments it has lined up on the schedule, including numerous newcomers.
“This fall, we’re going to wrestle all of our freshmen unattached and then make a decision come January on who we might redshirt,” Jordan said. “Some of those calls will be easy, and some won’t. With the tournaments we’ll be wrestling in November and December, those guys should all have 15 to 20 bouts under their belts by then. We should know who’s ready.”
One thing is for certain — this freshman class has added a level of talent, athleticism and competitiveness that has made preseason workouts more interesting than they’ve been in years.
“There are so many talented kids in that room,” Jordan said. “It’s a fun room to watch, and it’s going to be fun to coach this team. We haven’t had this much talent top-to-bottom in the lineup since the 2007 team.”
In the middle of the lineup for that 2007 ACC championship team was then-freshman Darrion Caldwell, who went on to win four ACC championships and a national championship, and was a two-time All-American. Caldwell finished his storied career ranked second in school history with 109 career victories, 58 career pins, and an .893 career winning percentage.
This team team probably won’t have anyone approaching the talents or achievements of Caldwell, who could well be a world and/or Olympic champion in the very near future. The 2011-12 Wolfpack instead will feature a talented and much more balanced and deeper lineup than the last several NC State teams.
“Darrion may have been the greatest wrestler in the history of this program and may go down as one of the greatest ever,” Jordan said. “He did everything he could for this program, but he’s gone now and we have to move on.”
Following is a weight-by-weight look at the 2011-12 Wolfpack:
125 pounds. Freshman Coltin Fought was a state champion in Pensylvania and was senior high school national champion at 130 pounds. He had a career record of 150-25.
133 pounds. Recruited as a 125-pounder, freshman Adam Matthews has matured physically and is more suited to wrestle at 133. He was a state runner-up in Pennsylvania and had a record of 42-7 as a senior a year ago and 133-37 for his career.
141 pounds. Darrius Little is a fifth-year senior, a three-year starter and a two-time NCAA qualifier. He brings a 62-45 career record into his senior season and will be looking for a breakout year with a shot at making All-America.
149 pounds. This is the spot in the lineup vacated by Darrion Caldwell, but sophomore Matt Nereim, a state champion in Florida two years ago, is an explosive and exciting wrestler in his own right. After going 10-3 with five pins and a major decision at this weight a year ago, Nereim is ready to step in as the starter.
157 pounds. Colton Palmer is a fifth-year senior who was a part-time starter his first two seasons before coming into his own a year ago and going 26-13. Palmer led the team a year ago with nine pins and three victories vs. ranked opponents.
165 pounds. Nijel Jones got thrown into the fire early as a true freshman last season because of injuries and saw action at 165, 174 and 184 pounds. He won four of his seven matches at 184, but his best weight is 165.
174 pounds. Quinton Godley moved into the starting lineup as a true freshman three years ago and has been a starter ever since. Until last year, he’d never seen action at any weight class other than 174. He got bumped up a weight to 184 for seven matches last season, but he was 18-13 at 174, 20-18 overall.
184 pounds. Freshman Robert O’Neill was a high school teammate of Matt Nereim’s at Winter Springs High School in Winter Springs, Fla., and like Nereim, O’Neill won a state championship as a senior, going 41-3 at 189 pounds. He may be the most athletic of all the talented newcomers on the Wolfpack roster.
197 pounds. Thanks to injuries and attrition, KaRonne Jones got tossed into the starting lineup last November and responded with a solid season, going 10-24 with a pair of technical falls. He’ll be much more prepared to start this season. Talented freshman Harrison Honeycutt may be ready to provide Jones with a challenge come January.
Heavyweight. Eloheim Palma has a 38-28 career record with nine pins after two seasons, but the bulk of that was accomplished two years ago when he was a freshman. Palma is a former high school national champion who should look the part this season as the coaches report that he has made tremendous strides in the offseason.
Players Mentioned
