How Penn State wrestler Nick Lee is embracing challenges ahead of his Indiana homecoming

Jan. 27 has been circled on Mater Dei High School wrestling coach Greg Schaefer’s calendar for a long time. It’s even marked on the calendars he gave out to all his wrestlers and the coaches of the Catholic high school’s feeder programs around Evansville, Ind.

On that Sunday, the Nittany Lions will wrestle at Indiana, in a dual that could see two of his former wrestlers — Penn State’s Nick Lee and Indiana’s Kyle Luigs — clash at 141 pounds.

“There’s going to be a lot of Mater Dei fans supporting two great young men there,” Schaefer said. “It’s really good for a program to give these young guys something to aspire to be like, to give them an example to follow.”

In his two years at Penn State, the example Lee has set is one of perseverance, willingness to take on challenges and positivity in the face of adversity. Not just anyone can wrestle his way back to fifth place after getting pinned in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

But Lee, who Schaefer said has chased challenges since his days of moving up and down weight classes to face the toughest wrestlers in high school, thrives off challenges. A week after a hard-fought win over his old high school rival Chad Red and two weeks after his first loss of the season, Lee is embracing the toughest stretch of the season.

“From my matches, we’ve seen more areas I need to improve on,” Lee said. “The good part about getting really good competition is that they highlight what you need to improve. We have good opportunities right now in the season to really see what we need to get better at going into the postseason; that’s pretty exciting for me because I can really focus in on those areas now.”

An area that’s caused Lee some trouble in his past couple matches has been finishing his shots. That’s an area Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said they’ve been working to improve after the issue was exposed, and Lee’s been responding well in practice.

“Nick’s a very intelligent kid,” Sanderson said. “He knows what he needs to do and he wants to win, he wants to be successful, so he’s always been very receptive and very coachable. He’s just an incredibly optimistic kid all the time. So he’s always going to be moving forward.”

Fortunately for a guy who likes challenges, the level of competition Lee’s facing isn’t about to decrease anytime soon. After the Nittany Lions wrap up their tour of the Hoosier State this weekend with duals against Indiana and Purdue, Lee will likely face a top-10 opponent in four of his last five bouts heading into the postseason.

“Going into postseason, it’s only good competition,” Lee said. “So you want to be used to that good competition. If you ask anybody who’s a freshman, going into college, that’s one of the biggest adjustments, that there is so much good competition. Every match is tough.”

But Lee, who in the words of teammate Shakur Rasheed is “always cheesin,” is hard to faze. That’s a quality Sanderson said makes it difficult for the sophomore to be held down, even after that initial pin at NCAAs, when the coach himself wasn’t too happy.

“That’s kind of how I am, I guess,” Lee said. “I like the challenge and I like the opportunities to learn and get better.”

None of this comes as any surprise to Schaefer, who said Lee was “wise beyond his years” for as long as he’s known him.

“He’s never been afraid of a challenge, and oftentimes he’s chasing challenges,” Schaefer said. “With that wisdom of you become your best whenever you get exposed or whenever you rise to the level of competition, he’s a true student of the sport, and it’s pretty obvious that he does learn from the experiences he’s had.”

That attitude is one Schaefer is hoping rubs off on his high school wrestlers. The team tries to watch Lee’s matches whenever they can. They set up a screen in a classroom to watch two weeks ago, when the team was off, and, of course, everyone watched his rematch with Red.

On Sunday, the entire Mater Dei High School team is taking a road trip up to Bloomington to watch as a couple guys who were once in their shoes get a chance to duke it out on the Division I level. Vans full of younger wrestlers from the Mater Dei feeder programs are also set to make the trip.

Although Lee said he’s looking forward to wrestling in front of people who watched him compete for years and against guys he grew up competing with — on both Indiana and Purdue — he’s focusing more on the future than the past.

“It’s just another match,” he said. “We’ll prepare for them like we do for any dual, but it’ll be probably nice to see some people from home and to have them there supporting me.”

No. 1 Penn State (7-0, 3-0 Big Ten) at No. 19 Purdue (5-5, 2-2 Big Ten)

When: 7 p.m., Friday

Where: Holloway Gymnasium, West Lafayette, Ind.

Radio: ESPN 1450 AM, Lionvision on GoPSUSports.com

Online: BTN+ (paid subscription), FloWrestling (paid subscription)

No. 1 Penn State (7-0, 3-0 Big Ten) at Indiana (4-8, 1-4 Big Ten)

When: 1 p.m., Sunday

Where: University Gym, Bloomington, Ind.

Radio: ESPN 1450 AM, Lionvision on GoPSUSports.com

Online: BTN+ (paid subscription), FloWrestling (paid subscription)

This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 10:56 AM.

Lauren Muthler

Centre Daily Times

814-231-4646

Lauren Muthler is managing editor at the Centre Daily Times who also covers Penn State wrestling and any other interesting stories that come up.