Penn State had two wrestlers compete in the Saturday morning medal round at the NCAA Championships. The Nittany Lions were 1-2 in the session with Nick Lee finishing strong after taking consecutive losses to place fifth place and Roman-Bravo Young dropping his only match to finish eighth.

In the process, Penn State clinched its eighth national title in nine years midway through the session and well before the finals even began. After five sessions, the Nittany Lions have 123.5 points.

How It Happened

No. 3 Nick Lee wrestled first in the session, hoping to bounce back from his semifinal loss to No. 2 Joey McKenna and place as high as third.

No. 9 Dom Demas of Oklahoma opened up an early 4-2 lead with two first-period takedowns and remained in control for the entirety of the bout.

He led by as many as four points in the third period before a late comeback attempt by Lee came up short. The two-time All-American from Penn State scored two takedowns in a span of 35 seconds to cut the deficit down to 10-9 with under a minute to wrestle. Demas however punched his ticket to the third-place match with a takedown in the closing seconds to hold off Lee and win 13-9.

About an hour passed in before Penn State’s next match. During that time, the Nittany Lions officially clinched their eighth title in nine years after Myles Martin failed to win by fall in the 184-lb. wrestlebacks.

Lee was back in action later in the session for the fifth-place match. After jumping out to a 6-1 lead on No. 7 Mitch McKee, Lee stamped an exclamation point on his breakout season and great tournament with a pin. The fall was Lee’s third of the weekend and earned him fifth-place honors for the second year in a row.

In the 133-lb. seventh-place match, No. 10 Roman Bravo-Young faced No. 6 Ethan Lizak, a former finalist. An exciting first period ended in Lizak leading Bravo-Young 7-4 and included a sequence where the Nittany Lion freshman went from his back allowing near-fall points to a reversal.

That high-scoring first period made all the difference, as Lizak rolled to an 8-5 win. Bravo-Young earned a stall point and Lizak tacked on a riding time point after riding out the third period. With the loss, Bravo-Young took eighth place.

What’s Next

We’ll see you at 7 p.m. for the NCAA Finals. Penn State has five finalists for the fourth year in a row.

No. 1 Jason Nolf vs. No. 2 Tyler Berger (Nebraska)
No. 2 Vincenzo Joseph vs. No. 8 Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech)
No. 1 Mark Hall vs. No. 3 Zahid Valencia (Arizona State)
No. 1 Bo Nickal vs. No. 2 Kollin Moore (Ohio State)
No. 2 Anthony Cassar vs. No. 1 Derek White (Oklahoma State)