NC State’s Ryan Jack finishes seventh at 141 in NCAA tournament

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 23, 2024 – Every wrestler comes to the NCAA Division I national championship meet with expectations. For most, that expectation is wrestling on Saturday night on a single mat in middle of the arena in front of thousands of fans and millions more on ESPN.

For all but 20 wrestlers competing in the finals, reality gets in the way.

North Carolina State’s Ryan Jack had a national championship on his mind and it has been there for a while now. A year ago, he was the fifth seed at 141 pounds but he lost two of his first three matches and went home empty-handed.

“It haunted me,” he said Saturday. “For a whole year, I was thinking about this tournament and it came (up) fast.”

This weekend, he won his first two matches but dropped a two-point decision in the quarterfinals. He won his first consolation round match to earn All-American honors for the first time in his career but got pinned in a scramble in next match.

Jack (22-5) finished his tournament on a high note with a hard-fought 4-3 decision over Minnesota’s Vance Vombaur to finish seventh. Jack becomes the fifth wrestler from Connecticut to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Division I tournament.

“It’s hard to come back and wrestle today when you have the expectation of coming here to win,” Jack said. “So, I was happy I was able to place today. Not everyone gets a chance to do that. I was happy to keep the right mindset and stick it out.”

Jack, who graduated from Danbury High, took an early 3-0 lead with the first takedown of the match but Vombaur escaped 10 seconds later. In the second period, Vombaur nearly rode out the entire period but Jack escaped with six seconds left to take a 4-1 lead.

Vombaur escaped quickly in the third period to cut the lead to two, 4-2. He also had a point for riding time in the bank with a 1:25 advantage. But Jack was able to deflect and hold off the Gopher wrestler for his 22nd win of the season, a new collegiate career-high.

“Today’s match is difficult,” Jack said. “Everyone’s body hurts after three days (of competition). No one wants to be wrestling back, really. You want to be wrestling at night and that is the most difficult thing — wrestling (now) knowing that you won’t be wrestling tonight. But I love the sport (and) I wrestle the best I can every match.”

The last Connecticut wrestler to earn All-American honors was Jack’s brother, Kevin, who was a three-time All-American with the Wolfpack from 2015-18. Kevin Jack is now an assistant coach with the Wolfpack and was in Ryan Jack’s corner for every match.

“After I lost my quarterfinal match, he told me that he had been there before. He just told me that it’s not the end of the world. Just out there and place now,” Ryan Jack said.

Jacob Camacho, Jack’s teammate at Danbury High, went 2-2 at 125 pounds for North Carolina State while Stanford’s Nico Provo of Stratford/Greens Farms Academy went 2-2 at 125 pounds, too.

 

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Connecticut All-Americans at the NCAA Div. I championships

Wrestler (hometown)	School	Place, weight	Year
John Engel (Stamford)	Lehigh	1st, 118 pounds	1931
Jim Guzzio (Hand-Madison)	Maryland	5th, 134 pounds	1997
Orville Palmer (Middletown)	Oklahoma State	7th, 197	2000
Kevin Jack (Danbury)	NC State	5th, 141	2015
Kevin Jack (Danbury)	NC State	3rd, 141	2017
Kevin Jack (Danbury)	NC State	6th, 141	2018
Ryan Jack (Danbury)	NC State	7th, 141	2024