Whenever Ty Roach takes a test, he knows he’ll probably receive an A. When he enters a surf competition, odds are he’s going to win. And in high school, whenever he wrestled an opponent, he was likely to come away with a victory.
Roach, a redshirt junior, is double majoring in botany and biology and double minoring in microbiology and genetics. He boasts the highest GPA in his class and has received a grade of A+ in every class except two.
In those courses — Organic Chemistry I and History of West Africa — he only received an A. Roach said he attends every class, but rarely takes notes, and usually studies about 30 minutes over the course of three days for a test. He is also in his second semester as a teaching assistant for Biochemistry 451.
While he doesn’t remember his SAT score, he said he took an IQ test in 10th grade and received a score of 151.
“I guess technically I am a genius,” Roach said.
In addition to being an exemplary student, he is also a competitive surfer. Roach, originally from Morehead City, “can’t remember not surfing” and has been around the sport since he was three years old.
His specialty is long board, and he holds back-to-back titles from the East Coast Surfing Championships, the second-oldest continuously-run surfing competition in the world.
And he’s also a scholarship wrestler for the Wolfpack.
“Wrestling is third on my priority list,” Roach said. “No. 1 is surfing, and No. 2 is school. I didn’t even start wrestling until I was a sophomore in high school.”
But it came naturally to Roach, as he won a state championship at 112 pounds his junior year at West Carteret High School.
He redshirted his first year at N.C. State and hoped to make the starting lineup the next season. But now, four years later, his record stands at 2-2, and Roach hasn’t seen any mat time in the last two years.
“Timing is everything,” coach Carter Jordan said. “We’ve had some really good kids in the weight class where he competes. He holds his own. He can wrestle. He just hasn’t been able to break the lineup since he’s been here. It’s tough to do.”
Maybe it’s because of the injuries he’s sustained. Or maybe it’s because wrestling doesn’t top his list of priorities.
“Don’t get me wrong, my freshman year I came here and had good intentions,” Roach said. “I’ve been beat up and banged up. I hurt my knee this year. My whole knee was purple and blue, and they told me it was bursitis. I tore shoulder muscles at the beginning of this year skateboarding behind a car. Most of my bone breakage is from surfing or doing dumb stuff.”
Although injuries have limited his mat time, Roach hopes they won’t interfere with his plans after school. He is set to graduate in the fall and plans to join the pro tour for long board before pursuing a graduate degree.
Roach wants to be known as “Dr. Ty” and is planning to take the MCAT — without studying — just to see what score he will get.
“He’s incredibly intelligent,” Jordan said. “But when you find out how smart he is, he doesn’t come across as somebody that’s odd or different. He’s a regular guy. A lot of people like that don’t assimilate very well in a social setting, but that’s not Ty.”
Yes, Ty Roach may be a genius, a surfing champion and a decorated wrestler, but he’s just a regular guy.
“I’m doing stuff that he did in preschool,” teammate Ryan Tice said. “He has a 4.0, he’s number one in his class, and he wrestles. It’s pretty amazing. I don’t know how he does it.”
