No. 7 Virginia Tech Falls to No. 4 NC State in Regular Season Finale

By Ryan Duvall

Staff Writer

February 21, 2022

No. 3 Mekhi Lewis (174-pounds) was in a power struggle against NC State’s No. 4 Hayden Hidlay. The wrestlers were going blow for blow with nobody taking a real advantage in the first three periods of action.

It was only the second match of the dual between No. 7 Virginia Tech and No. 4 NC State — the two teams chose to start with the 165 lbs weight class — but Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C., was rocking as two top-five wrestlers duked it out.

The premier matchup headed to sudden victory, where the next grappler to gain a point would win the bout and three overall points for their team.

Neither wrestler wanted to go down, but as time wound down Hidlay proved to be the aggressor. Lewis did everything he could to defend himself from Hidlay’s pressure, but the four-time All-American was relentless and finally got a takedown, resulting in two points and a 3-1 win over Virginia Tech’s star.

The win was huge for Hidlay, who had suffered a tough loss against North Carolina's No. 9 Clay Lautt on Friday. For Lewis and the Hokies, the loss was monumental — one they couldn’t afford to have.

Lewis was 17-0 on the season prior to the match, and whenever he was on the mat, Virginia Tech expected points.

Hidlay’s big win was key to NC State’s (13-1, 5-0 ACC) 21-10 win over Virginia Tech (9-4, 4-1 ACC).

The two teams already locked up the top ACC spots heading into Sunday, and after a canceled dual earlier this season, Sunday’s match wouldn’t count towards conference standings — only for pride between two of the nation’s best programs.

And it meant a lot to each school’s fans, especially after last year’s match, when No. 20 Sam Latona (125-pounds) gave VT the ACC title with a last-second win.

This year’s match was just about as start-studded as it gets: There were a total of 19 ranked wrestlers competing; nine of the 10 matchups included ranked-on-ranked competition; eight ACC champions and seven all-americans wrestled, including the lone national champion, Mekhi Lewis.

With the rivalry starting with the 165-pound class, Clayton Ulrey faced the Wolfpack’s No. 20 Thomas Bullard. Bullard shut out Ulrey, 4-0.

Next, Hidlay beat Lewis in the match of the day, and Hidlay’s brother, No. 3 Trent Hidlay (184-pounds), took care of business against No. 14 Hunter Bolen, winning 2-1.

Hokie fan favorite, No. 30 Dakota Howard (197-pounds), then suffered a second straight loss, getting shut out by No. 15 Isaac Trumble, 6-0.

Through Howard’s match, the Wolfpack had taken the first four matches, leading 12-0 going into the heavyweight match.

But No. 14 Nathan Traxler kicked off a Virginia Tech run that saw the deficit shrink to just two points. The heavyweight transfer took out Owen Trephan to put the Hokies on the board with three points.

Then Latona upset No. 14 Jakob Camacho in the 125-pound bout, moving to 4-0 against the NC State wrestler in his career. Immediately after, No. 5 Korbin Myers (133-pounds) earned a key major decision win over No. 14 Kai Orine, 14-6, slicing NC State’s lead to two, 12-10.

Three matches remained, and it looked like a dramatic finish was in store. But, this was not the case.

NC State won the remaining three matches to take the win over Virginia Tech and assert its dominance over the conference rival.

The Hokies now have a two-week break before heading to Charlottesville for the ACC wrestling championships on March 6.