Intel: News and notes on NC State wrestling heading into the 2025-26 school year

By Brian Reinhardt

With the NC State fall semester close to its start, now is a good time to dive into some news and notes regarding Wolfpack Wrestling coming off an action-packed summer.

Here’s the latest intel on NC State wrestling heading into the 2025-26 school year.

The Schedule

There hasn’t been too much information on the upcoming schedule, but we do know some home opponents. The ACC rotation this year will see North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech all coming to Reynolds Coliseum.

In nonconference action, a couple highlights will be Cornell coming to Reynolds and the Pack hosting Rutgers at a local high school in the Triangle area. In addition, former NC State assistants Frank Beasley and Donnie Vinson will both bring their respective squads to face the Pack in Raleigh, as George Mason and Buffalo will be in action along with The Citadel in a four-team event one weekend.

No New Addition

After months of speculation, it appears that 2024 All-American TJ Stewart will not be transferring to NC State from Virginia Tech. Stewart and the Pack talked multiple times after the season, and Stewart was committed to coming to Raleigh.

But there were issues getting him enrolled at NC State, and it now appears we will not be seeing him in a Wolfpack singlet as there has been little to no talk between the two sides during recent weeks.

Two-time NCAA qualifier Dylan Fishback (preseason No. 7 according to FloWrestling) left the program to return to his home state and finish his career at Ohio State, so there is a huge void in the Pack’s lineup at 184 pounds going into the season.

Return to Action

One other lineup issue NC State must figure out over the first semester is the return to action for 2025 All-America heavyweight Isaac Trumble.

Trumble originally hurt his knee in the last dual of the year against Virginia Tech. He got the knee scoped prior to ACCs, but was clearly affected by the injury and had to injury default. He went to the NCAAs and captured a fourth-place finish, but was competing on a torn ACL.

He underwent surgery after the season and also got married. He was absent from the freestyle circuit this summer, and as of today, his return is not 100 percent clear. The ultimate goal would be to have him back in the lineup for the Collegiate Duals in late November.

Depth behind Trumble at heavyweight looks like it will be coming down to a true freshman walk-on that the Pack might have to wrestle in early-season duals.

NC State’s two other 2025 All-Americans, 125-pound national champion Vince Robinson and ACC 174-pound champion Matty Singleton, saw limited freestyle action this summer but will be good to go for the start of the collegiate season.

Learn the Freshmen Names Now

According to InterMat, NC State brought in the No. 6 overall recruiting class nationally. The freshmen put in work over the summer, and it is almost a given that you will see multiple members of this class in the starting lineup in their first season in Raleigh.

Coming off a gold medal freestyle performance at the U20 Pan American Championships, No. 21 overall recruit Will Denny (Marist, Ill.) looks to be the early leader for the open spot at 165 pounds. Redshirt junior Aaron Faison has been with the program for three years, but the coaches say Denny is a very tough wrestler ready for action right away.

A second top-100 recruit, No. 85 Casen Howle (Greenwood, S.C.), has made great strides competing against the Pack’s upper weights in practices, and will be looked upon to help fill the void at 197 pounds right away. He will get competition from redshirt junior Andrew Macchiavello, but as of now, Howle should be the postseason starter at the weight. It will be interesting to see if one of the two could drop down to 184 pounds.

The Pack’s highest-ranked recruit, No. 8 Daniel Zepeda from Gilroy, Calif., is expected to redshirt and take over for Ryan Jack at 141 pounds after this season.

Depth at 133 Pounds

The one transfer NC State did add in the offseason was Zach Redding. He was a two-time NCAA qualifier at Iowa State, including reaching the blood round in 2023. He was most recently competing at 141 pounds, but was brought to NC State to fill the void of two-time All-American Kai Orine’s graduation at 133 pounds.

But there will be competition at 133 pounds. Redshirt junior Troy Hohman has made great strides throughout the summer and can now focus on being at just one weight. Hohman started his NC State career at 125 pounds, but was thrown into the mix at 133 last year when Orine was originally going to be at 141. After Orine moved back down to 133, Hohman went up to 141 for the ACC Championship meet, but fell a win short of qualifying for the NCAAs.

On To Croatia

Former Wolfpack All-American Trent Hidlay became only the second former Wolfpack wrestler to make the Senior World Team, as he won the Final X event back in June and earned a spot on the 2025 U.S. Senior Freestyle World Team at 97 kilograms.

Hidlay will be traveling with RTC coach Jamill Kelly to the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, Sept. 13-21.

In a tune-up for that tournament in late July, Hidlay captured gold, winning the latest Ranking Series event. There he downed the No. 4-ranked wrestler in the 92 kg weight class, then got an injury default win over the No. 1-ranked wrestler after an initial takedown. Then, in the final, he won 7-2 over the No. 9 in the world and two-time World medalist. During his run in Hungary, Hidlay was cornered by the Pack’s previous Senior World Team member, Nick Gwiazdowski.

More International News

There was a rumor thrown out last week about NC State adding a lightweight as early as this year. That rumor is false, but could be something to keep an eye on for next year’s recruiting class.

2024 Cadet (basically U17s) World Bronze medalist Jinnosuke Okonogi of Japan reached out to NC State and asked to train with the Pack in Raleigh this summer. He got time with Robinson, the 2025 national champion, in the room, and worked with associate head coach Zach Esposito. He then went on to become a Cadet World champion earlier in August at 55 kg, and in a post-tournament interview mentioned NC State.

Okonogi still has one year of high school remaining and hasn’t committed to coming to the United States for college. But it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on over the next year as he would be an elite lightweight addition.

A recent trend in college wrestling has seen a pair of Japanese wrestlers join college programs, Rin Sakamoto at Oklahoma State last year and Masanosuke Ono, who will join Penn State this season.