UNC wrestling searches for answers after loss to NC State

For the North Carolina wrestling team, it's biggest foe on Monday night wasn’t the No. 3 N.C. State Wolfpack but rather it's own mindset.

“At critical times we didn’t get tough,” Coach Coleman Scott said.

The No. 15 Tar Heels fell to the Wolfpack 28-8 in a contest that saw several ranked wrestlers go one-on-one. While UNC seemed to match up well with N.C. State, the Tar Heels were only able to amass two victories in 10 matches.

Scott went into the matches expecting more from his team.

“We have got to do a little more, find a way to win,” he said. “The calls all went against us tonight. We’ve got to find a way to overcome that.”

Scott said he thinks the match would have been much closer and changed the course of the whole outing had a few of the referee’s decisions gone North Carolina’s way.

“There was probably two or three matches where we out wrestled them and the referee decides it,” he said.

A bright spot in the defeat for the Tar Heels was the performances of both redshirt senior Evan Henderson and redshirt sophomore Ethan Ramos. 

Henderson took down the Wolfpack’s Beau Donahue 12-2 in the 149-pound bout, while Ramos defeated Nicky Hall 14-2 at 174 pounds for his fifth straight win, including four major decisions.

While standout performances from his two top-10 ranked wrestlers helped, Scott won’t let that excuse his team’s uninspired performance.

“We’re a team, we’re not individuals,” he said. “We didn’t fight. We lost two matches without giving up a takedown. We didn’t get tough in critical times.”

Another area of improvement needed for the Tar Heels is in their lower weight classes. The 125- and 133-pound weight classes have not helped UNC claim early leads this season, forcing the team to play catch-up.

That was the case once again on Monday, as redshirt first-year Anthony Bosco and first-year James Szymanski suffered back-to-back major decision losses.

“We haven’t been setting the tone,” Scott said. “We’ve got to start at 141 (pounds) and work all the way up through. Somebody is going to have to step up. We’ve got to have some ownership and leadership if we want to get where we are going.”

Mental toughness will be a key for the Tar Heels, as they look to overcome their 0-2 start to ACC play. While North Carolina might have already faced the two toughest teams in the conference, the road ahead will not prove easy if changes aren’t made.

“We’ve wrestled two of the best teams — top five teams in the country,” Scott said. “It is what it is. They’re either going to get tough and fight for position in the scenario, or they’re going to falter. That’s on the whole team and us as coaches. It’s unacceptable the way we’ve performed in the last two.”

@Evan_Chronis

sports@dailytarheel.com