Franklin Regional grad Spencer Lee avenges loss to reach NCAA wrestling finals

Lee credited his coaches for lifting him up after Piccininni pinned him in a dual match in late February at Oklahoma State. That pin was the first time Lee lost by fall since the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling finals when he was 9 years old.

“It was hard for me to be able to get over that,” said Lee, who pinned Piccininni in last season’s NCAA quarterfinals. “The coaches, they were trying to get me through it. But they knew I hadn’t felt that in a long time. Props to Nick, he’s a great opponent — he packed me in front of his home crowd … and I know that I had to focus on the next big thing.”

In their rematch Friday, Lee took a 5-1 lead with takedowns in the first and second periods before Piccininni scored his reversal.

Lee escaped in the last second of the second period, and after a Piccininni escape in the third, Lee got a late takedown and nearfall points to secure the victory.

“The next score is the most important score,” Lee said. “That’s the mindset that my coaches have instilled upon me, and that’s what’s got to matter.”

Nolf needed a similar focus against Hidlay in a rematch of the 2018 NCAA final, a 6-2 Nolf victory.

The mat officials initially awarded Hidlay a takedown in the final seconds of the first period before reversing the call upon video review. Nolf got a quick escape and takedown in the second period for a 3-0 lead and held on for the win after two Hidlay escapes, staving off another late takedown attempt by Hidlay to get the one-point win.

“It didn’t really matter what the score was,” Nolf said. “I was going to try to continue to score. I was looking for my score, but he was staying really low, so it was hard to get a tie-up … He’s just a good wrestler, has a good, solid defense and solid offense, obviously. But yeah, my mindset is always to keep scoring points.”

Joseph beat Shields by an 11-2 major decision earlier this season. The rematch was closer, but an early takedown by Joseph made the difference.

“I figured it would be a lot closer than the first time around,” Joseph said. “I kind of caught him on his back there, kind of set the tone. But he’s going to wrestle tough all seven minutes.”

Penn State finished the second day of the tournament with 120.5 team points, well ahead of second-place Ohio State (88.5), as the Nittany Lions seek their eighth NCAA title in nine seasons. They also can tie the NCAA record with five individual national champions as Nolf, Joseph, Mark Hall (174 pounds), Bo Nickal (197) and Anthony Cassar (285) won their semifinal matches Friday night.

Like Nolf and Joseph, Nickal is seeking his third individual championship. Hall can win his second.

“We all wrestle together. So people think it’s big match after big match out there — well, we have big matches with each other every single day,” Hall said. “I think that’s pretty important. I just think we’re ready to go because of our preparation.”

Ohio State junior Luke Pletcher, a Latrobe graduate, dropped a narrow 4-2 decision to top-seeded Daton Fix of Oklahoma State in the 133-pound semifinals.

Pletcher and Shields, who clinched All-American status earlier Friday, will wrestle in the consolation semifinals Saturday and have a chance to finish as high as third in the country.

The third day of NCAAs begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with the consolation semifinals, followed by the matches for third, fifth and seventh place. The championship finals begin at 7 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.