KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For Trent Hidlay, the first day of the 2024 NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships consisted of scoring, scoring and scoring some more.

The former Mifflin County High School star, and current senior 197-pounder for North Carolina State, won two matches by technical fall, piling up a combined 45 points, to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.

Already a four-time All-American and three-time placewinner (4th in 2023, fifth in 2022, second in 2021), Hidlay ran his record to 26-0 in pursuit of a fifth All-America honor and his first national championship.

Hidlay, No. 2 seed, exploited a clear advantage on his feet to dispatch No. 31 seed Kristian Kinsey of Virginia in the first round.

As he often does, Hidlay set up his leg attacks with an aggressive underhook game, notching three takedowns in the first period and riding Kinsey for 1:30 to lead 9-2 after the first period.

Hidlay chose bottom to start the second and didn’t take long to escape. He went back to work on his feet and scoring two more takedowns to open a 16-4 lead heading into the final period, with 2:14 in riding time advantage.

Kinsey chose neutral to start the third and needed just 27 seconds to pick up his sixth takedown to finish off a 19-4 technical fall.

In the Round of 16, scored even more points in a 26-10 technical fall win over Nikolas Stemmet of Stanford, the No. 18 seed, in 6:27.

The Cardinal wrestler scored the initial takedown, but that only seemed to provoke Hidlay. He escaped and scored three takedowns of his own to open a 10-6 lead after one period. Hidlay added an escape and two more takedowns in the second and led 17-7 with a period to go. He finished off the match with three takedowns in the third period.

In the quarterfinals, Hidlay will meet Nebraska No. 10 seed Silas Allred.

Hidlay declined an interview request by The Sentinel.