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Wrestling roots run deep for NC State’s Justin Oliver
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TECHNICIAN
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PAGE 11 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Wrestling roots run deep for NC State’s Justin Oliver
Emma Sheppard
Correspondent
For NC State graduate student Justin Oliver, wrestling has been a part of his life since the age of six.
His mother’s boss introduced him to wrestling, but little did Oliver know, “wrestling” was not what he expected.
“I was 6-years old, so wrestling to me was WWE,” Oliver said. “I got to the first practice and I literally cried the entire time because it was completely not what I thought it was going to be.”
In that moment, his dad asked him if he wanted to continue to wrestle, and he said yes, which led to him becoming the person he is today.
Oliver grew up in Davison, Michigan where he attended high school, where successful wrestlers such as Brent Metcalf, Jon Reader and Paul Donohoe were produced. Having these greats in his backyard gave him experience and prepared him for the next level.
Oliver had a stand-out high school career, going 172-5 and winning Division-I state championships in 2011 and 2012. He
placed third in 2013 and was the runnerup his senior year.
When choosing a college to go to, Oliver said that his choice came down to Central Michigan and NC State. Ultimately, Oliver chose to go to Central Michigan, where he earned a degree in organizational administration.
“I wasn’t mentally mature enough to move that far away from home,” Oliver said. “I didn’t quite know myself enough to be able to move 12 hours away from
my family, from everything that I knew and into a completely new environment.” At Central Michigan, Oliver redshirted his freshman year and was named the Chippewas’ redshirt freshman of the year. He qualified for the NCAA Championships for the following three years, earning All-America honors and placing seventh his sophomore year.
With one season of eligibility left, Oliver transferred to NC State in 2018.
“Justin has been a great addition to our team,” head coach Pat Popolizio said. “He helped fill a need, and his experience will help us through both our ACC and NCAA Championships in March. I’m excited to watch him compete here in his final campaign.”
After falling one win short of All-America honors both his junior and senior seasons at Central Michigan, Oliver said that improving his game at the NCAA Championships was at the top of his list of goals he wanted to accomplish this season.
“I want to win this last match as a team, and as an individual, against Virginia Tech, so we can secure the team ACC
WRESTLING continued page 14
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TECHNICIAN
PAGE 12 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Rebol central piece of Pack women’s tennis rebuild
SENIOR FINISHING STRONG
Covey Hough
Correspondent
Senior Amanda Rebol looked at the scoreboard, awaiting the results of the ongoing matches. She had beaten her singles opponent and was cheering her teammates on from the sidelines. The match was deadlocked 3-3, with only one singles match remaining. Enduring a grueling, back-and-forth match, junior Anna Rogers finally broke through and won, clinching an upset over No. 11 Florida for the NC State women’s tennis team back on Jan. 28.
“When you’re ahead, you want to try to get the match off the court quickly,” Rebol said. “You want to get the match off quickly because you know how it can affect the rest of play in a positive way.”
Rebol had done just that against the Gators; she trounced her opponent in straight sets, including a 6-0 second set, and by doing so she helped a program that had endured serious struggles in the recent past knock off a top-25 team on the road. This win was a highlight in what has been a great year for both Rebol and the team as a whole.
Rebol’s journey to collegiate tennis started around middle school. She had played soccer and tennis up to that point, but decided to commit fully to tennis around the time she was 12 years old.
“For a long time I played tennis and soccer,” Rebol said. “I guess when I was about 12 I missed a soccer game for a tennis match and my soccer coach told me I needed to pick one. I picked tennis, and not too long after that my mom was working at a tennis club, and I did a summer training session there and I fell in love with it.”
Rebol began homeschooling that year and began to travel around to play in various tennis events. She started taking the sport more seriously and focused on improving her game and began to envision a collegiate career.
When Rebol first came to NC State, the women’s tennis team was undergoing a major transition, and the program was seriously struggling. The new head coach, Simon Earnshaw, had joined the previous year. “She was one of my initial recruits,” Earnshaw said. “When she came here she obviously wanted to be a part of something that was going to change.” Since then, Rebol has seen the team go from a Division I afterthought to a top-25 team. NC State is 10-3 with three wins against teams ranked in the top-25. The team is ranked No. 11 in the ITA Division I rankings, the highest ranking in program history. “It’s crazy to see where we’ve come as a program altogether,” Rebol said. “When the freshmen came in it was Simon’s first real recruiting class, we were ranked like 140, so we’ve had a lot of success since then.” Rebol has been
“When Rebol first a key part of the team’s success. She came to NC State, the is 18-9 on the year and has improved women’s tennis team steadily over the course of her NC was undergoing a major State career. Her transition, and the stellar play as of late has been a key program was seriously reason why the team has improved, both struggling. The new head since her arrival and from last season. coach, Simon Earnshaw, ”I feel like I unhad joined the previous derstand my game more than I did in year.” the past,” Rebol said. “My personal success recently is really nice, but at the same time it’s been more of a team thing. If I can get that point on the board and help the rest of my teammates, then that’s really achieving my biggest goal.” Earnshaw has praised her team-first mentality and rock-solid work ethic. He describes her as a very resilient individual and someone who is always looking to improve. “I don’t think there’s really been any time when you ask Amanda to do something and she won’t do it,” Earnshaw said. “If we ever ask her to host a recruit, it’s yes. If we ask her to this or that, it’s yes. It’s always yes. Those are the types of people you just can’t do without. As a coach, you want people you can trust and people who are responsible. I think [Amanda’s] been as good of a representative of our program as there could be.”
Sports
TECHNICIAN
PAGE 13 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
NC State looks to pick up major win at Florida State
Tristan Tucker
Staff Writer
The NC State men’s basketball team (208, 8-7 ACC) will travel to Florida to take on the Florida State Seminoles (22-6, 10-5 ACC) in a heated ACC matchup on Saturday. The Seminoles are currently No. 18 in the AP poll and are a major roadblock in the Pack getting a favorable seeding in the ACC Tournament. A win over the ‘Noles would be huge for the Pack as well as a major confidence booster nearing the end of the regular season.
The Pack is coming into the game having won four of its last five games after a brutal stretch through January and early February. The team was expected to go through growing pains as a predominantly new team with many transfers, but the roster has now bounced back in a strong way.
“[It’s] very important,” redshirt sophomore guard Devon Daniels said. “You know, I think it’s really starting to show. At the beginning of the season there were new pieces, and it was kind of hard to catch a rhythm, but now I think we’ve got it going. So, hopefully we can keep that going.”
Much like the Pack, the Seminoles are a team-oriented organization, meaning that they do not have a single go-to scorer but instead a committee of scorers. The team’s leading scorer is forward Mfiondu Kabengele, who is averaging 13.1 points, as well as 5.5 rebounds per game. Kabengele is also capable of hitting from deep, shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc.
Joining Kabengele at the apex of Florida State scorers are starting guards Terance Mann and Trent Forrest. Mann is a solid wing that leads the team in rebounding at 6.4 rebounds per game and scores 11.5 points per game. Mann is also second on the team in assists at 2.4 and shoots an amazing 46 percent from deep. Mann leads the team in minutes at 31.1, so look for Mann to have an impact for the duration of the game.
Forrest on the other hand is a defensive machine, averaging two steals per game. Ball security will be key for the Pack in order to maintain a fully controlled game. Forrest also averages nine points and leads the team with 3.8 assists per game. Being able to impact all aspects of the floor, as Forrest is able to display, is an X-factor for teams that do not have a single established star.
In order to combat this, the Pack will need to limit the amount of turnovers it lets up and allow junior guard Markell Johnson to get the team into a stable offensive rhythm. Johnson is coming off of an ACC career-high with 25 points against Wake Forest and will look to ride the hot hand into this game.
“Markell Johnson was special,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “Especially in the first half. When we were struggling to score, he rose up and made a bunch of shots. I thought he was really good; he had a career-high for him in ACC play.”
Johnson and Forrest will be the most interesting matchup as Johnson averages 2.3 turnovers, which Forrest can exploit rather easily if Johnson is not careful.
Another thing to watch out for is 7-foot4-inch Florida State forward Christ Kou-
madje, who leads the team in blocks at 1.6 blocks per game, is second on the team in rebounds per game at 5.7 and is tied for the lead for offensive rebounds per game at 2.1. Koumadje also leads players who get consistent minutes in defensive rating per100 possessions at 90.4.
With the lack of overall size on the roster, Keatts will need to get creative in grabbing rebounds, as Kabengele is the other player tied with Koumadje with a strong 2.1 offensive rebounds per game. Add that to the fact that leading scorer, Kabengele, does not start, and the Pack faces a hard task of grabbing rebounds for the entirety of the game.
One option the Pack could resort to is fouling Koumadje after a rebound, as he shoots only 56.5 percent from the freethrow line, which ranks last for Florida State players receiving consistent minutes.
Johnson and sophomore guard Braxton Beverly will need to control the offense,
STATE continued page 14
Sports
TECHNICIAN
PAGE 14 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
STATE
continued from page 13
look for holes in a great defensive lineup and not take tightly contested shots. Graduate forward Wyatt Walker and redshirt sophomore forward DJ Funderburk will need to grab rebounds and ensure that little secondchance points are given up. This was done successfully in the Wake Forest victory, and Keatts will look to repeat that success.
“We were able to get out in transition because we rebounded and shared the basketball,” Keatts said. “We made shots. We’ve played pretty well in the last three games where teams have zoned us, talking about Syracuse, Boston College and now Wake Forest. It is better to have a week off with a win opposed to a loss. We have got to take a couple of days off, and then try to stay sharp for our next opponent in Florida State.”
The Pack will need to make sure to score in bunches, particularly through redshirt senior guard Torin Dorn, redshirt junior guard C.J. Bryce and Daniels who have the capability to get hot in a short period of time.
The game is sure to be an intense defensive battle between the two teams and the Pack will need to show off its dominant offense once again to secure the conference win.
“Every win is important down the stretch,” Dorn said. “So winning as many games as possible is definitely at the utmost importance to us.”
The Wolfpack will take on Florida State in the Tucker Center in Florida on Saturday. The game will tip off at noon.
SARAH COCHRAN/TECHNICIAN Redshirt sophomore forward DJ Funderburk looks for a pass after getting a defensive rebound against Wake Forest on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019 in PNC Arena. Funderburk had 7 rebounds and 4 blocks in the Wolfpack’s 94-74 win over the Demon Deacons.
WRESTLING
continued from page 11
title,” Oliver said. “Then we can go into the ACC tournament, upset a few people and win the ACC title, and hopefully keep that momentum going forward into the NCAA tournament and finish out on top.”
The Wolfpack won that match against Virginia Tech as a team, with the ACC dual title coming down to a criteria point to determine the match. While wrestling is a team sport, athletes compete in their own respective weight groups, and the points they earn as individuals compile into a team score.
“It can be hard to really differentiate the two sometimes,” Oliver said. “You just gotta go out there and do your job.”
Being a graduate student, Oliver is one of the older athletes on the team and tries to give some of his expertise to the younger wrestlers.
“I definitely bring a little bit of experience I guess, being one of the older people on the team,” Oliver said. “I have a different perspective, being from a different school, and knowing how special a lot of the things that we have going on here are. The resources that we are given and the level of support that we have here is a lot more appreciated.”
Being at NC State has given Oliver more opportunities and has shown him a more competitive atmosphere.
“There’s more of a fight from the guys,” Oliver said. “No matter what position you’re in or what you’re feeling, everybody gives 100 percent, and that’s definitely something that I needed.”
Since Oliver is now so far away from home, he looks to his teammates for a sense of family. They challenge him and give him something to work for. In addition to the give and take of advice from his teammates, he looks up to one of his first coaches as his inspiration to be a better wrestler.
“It was actually Brent Metcalf’s brother,” Oliver said. “He died in a car accident when I was in fourth grade. I actually have a tattoo that’s inspired by him. He helped me a lot with starting out wrestling so I’d have to say he is one of my biggest inspirations.”
With Oliver’s final season of eligibility coming to an end, he is reflecting on his wrestling career and hopes to use the lessons he has been taught over the years in the outside world.
“Everything,” Oliver said. “Obviously, earning All-American Honors when I was 16 was definitely special, but just being able to go through the entire process of it, and build the relationships that I’ve built and train the way that I’ve trained kind of helps me know that I’m going to be able to do whatever I want to do outside of wrestling. It’s definitely an accumulation of everything, the people that I’ve met, the people that have supported me and helped me throughout the process, will definitely be something that I will forever cherish.”
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PAGE 15 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
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