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stronger. And with strength comes speed, as evidenced by an array of ankle-pick and leg-sweep takedowns in a 22-7 technical fall victory Dec. 6 against Lehigh's Joe Lobeck. "Stronger, quicker, better shape – our strength coach, Mike [Schroeder], works on that with us, and that's some- thing I'm focusing on," Lee said. "I'm not going to say that I'm not stronger than I was last year, because then all the work I put in over the summer wouldn't have meant anything. I think I'm a little stronger than I was last year at least." Lee, who has earned bonus points for Penn State in 58 of his 71 career bouts, is ranked No. 2 heading into the January portion of the schedule. He's behind Luke Pletcher of Ohio State, who moved up from 133, and ahead of Mitch McKee of Minnesota and Dom Demas of Oklahoma. He will tell you the only ranking that counts is the one "right after the nation- als." Lee has not wrestled Pletcher. He's beaten McKee a couple of times and he lost a wild 13-9 bout to Demas in the 2019 NCAA consolation semifinals. He'll be looking to get past all of them at some point this season, as well as Chad Red of Nebraska, Max Murin of Iowa and Tristan Moran of Wisconsin, among others. "He took fifth as a freshman, and last year he was in the semifinals and was a point from being in the finals," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. "He definitely made a jump, and we're hoping he can make another jump his junior year. I think his technique has improved, but I think more than anything, his strength. He makes 141 pretty easily. He has room to put on a couple pounds of muscle. That's been his focus. He's done that." Lee, who is enrolled in the College of Health and Human Development and is thinking about hospital administration, said he'll also step outside of the college folkstyle realm and focus on freestyle. While he wasn't certain whether he would compete in the U.S. Senior Nation- als in late December in Texas, qualifying for the Olympic Trials at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center this coming April (and/or in 2024), is on his bucket list. "That would be incredible," he said. "The BJC is really awesome for us, but it's really awesome for everybody that's going M any – perhaps most – would argue that winning eight of the past nine NCAA wrestling championships trumps a dual-meet winning streak, no matter how impressive. Penn State reeled off 60 consecutive wrestling wins between Feb. 15, 2015, and Nov. 22, 2019, the school's second- longest streak in any sport behind only the women's volleyball team's skein of 109 between 2007 and 2010. Oklahoma State wrestling put together a 76- match undefeated streak, while the Iowa Hawkeyes had an 84-match un- beaten string. And after the now-third-ranked Nit- tany Lions' trip to Arizona State ended in a 19-18 loss, a new streak stands at a modest two. Without a fully healthy lineup, it might not reach double-fig- ures with remaining tests such as Ne- braska, Iowa and Ohio State. Penn State was two starters and one point short in Tempe, Ariz. That was remedied two weeks later at Lehigh when coach Cael Sanderson brought Brady Berge (157) off the injury list and pulled the redshirt off of freshman phenom Aaron Brooks at 184. Perhaps assistant head coach Cody Sanderson's comments on the Penn State Sports Network gave the situation some clar- ity. "Every one of us are sick to our stom- achs right now, but that's part of the sport," he said that night. "A loss can be very clarifying. There's something about a loss that kind of snaps you right back into focus, and we have to make the best out of this for our team." The Lions have used 16 different wrestlers in four dual meets, injuries have sidelined starters at 125, 157 and 184, and there's a possibility that 197 (Kyle Conel/shoulder) might be in- cluded come January. But with a healthy Berge and a boost from Brooks, along with the likelihood of moving Shakur Rasheed to 197 from 184 once his surgically repaired knee is healthy, Penn State's lineup will be as formida- ble as any the Cornhuskers, Hawkeyes and Buckeyes can produce. ALWAYS THINKING AHEAD Cael Sanderson always has a plan, and part of that plan this season was to keep Brooks out of the lineup along with fel- low redshirting freshmen Joe Lee, Carter Starocci, Michael Beard and Seth Nevills. That plan was altered at Lehigh. "We just felt it was the right thing to do," Sanderson said about Brooks, a Cadet world champ and Junior World silver medalist. "If we were going to wrestle him, it made sense to get him out there now and let him get through these big dual meets, away and home, then give him a month to get ready for the Big Ten season." SLEEPING ON THE JOB Road trips, no matter how long or short, apparently are planned out in great detail. The team leaves the day before for an away match – even for a three-hour trip to Nittany Lions look to get healthy after win streak ends | N O T E B O O K

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