How Penn State wrestling’s Nick Lee got 15,995 BJC fans just as excited about the sport as he is
There may have been 15,995 wrestling fans in the Bryce Jordan Center Saturday night, but not a single person was sitting when Penn State’s No. 2 Nick Lee took down Ohio State’s No. 1 Luke Pletcher to extend his lead to four with a little over a minute remaining.
Fans jumped out of their seats, raised their fists and cheered so loudly that the national championships banners — which Penn State moved over from Rec Hall — started to shake near the scoreboard. Lee’s teammates also couldn’t contain themselves on the bench in celebrating the junior’s 8-4 victory.
“I was kind of up and running around,” teammate Vincenzo Joseph said. “I got little excited.”
Added 174-pounder Mark Hall: “(With) a really good match like that, the anticipation is huge and it’d be near impossible for us not to be jumping around. It was cool to see. We were excited for him.”
Lee had come to the BJC and accomplished what he wanted to do. Yes, he beat the No. 1 wrestler at 141 pounds to lock up the top seed for Big Tens, catapulted himself near the top of the Hodge Trophy race and helped his team to the 20-16 win. But beyond that, he made 15,995 people get as excited about wrestling as he does.
The junior, whose teammates and coaches say is always smiling around wrestling, shared that energy and enthusiasm with the rest of the crowd Saturday night.
“I think I was pretty excited. I’m excited for every match,” he said. “We got 10,000 more people here tonight, so that was pretty cool. I’m glad more people got to experience the experience that is Penn State wrestling.”
With Lee’s match, Hall’s quick cement-mixer pin, Joseph’s 13-5 major decision after giving up the first takedown, and smoke and fire shooting into the air, there was no shortage of entertainment at the BJC. Even before Lee’s match, and before the dual started, the concourse was packed, as fans stopped to take photos with cardboard cutouts of the wrestlers and waited in long lines to buy Penn State wrestling hoodies and T-shirts.
When the lights in the arena turned down and AC/DC’s “Thunder” pulsated through the air, it was hard not to feel the buzz.
But it was the wrestling itself — when Lee got a takedown and forced two stall warnings in the second period, punishing the Buckeye from the top position, then taking him down again in the third — that had the BJC bursting at its seams.
For Lee, the feeling is mutual. The two-time All-American, who feeds off that energy whether it’s at the BJC or Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye, just wants to soak it all in while he still has the chance.
“There’s not better time to appreciate it than now,” he said. “It’s really fun when you get to experience this stuff with your teammates. Out of season you say, ‘man I wish I was back making weight in the BJC,’ which is not something many people say, but it’s fun in the moment. It’s awesome and I’ll miss it.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
