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State in the final, he wrote the words "na- tional champion" 50 times to get himself in the proper frame of mind. "It was in my head," he said. "I visual- ized it." After a scoreless first period, Bravo- Young did his hard work in the second. Fix chose to start the period on bottom, and the Penn State junior rode him out for the entire two minutes. With Bravo-Young in a strong position thanks to a heavy riding time advantage and a 1-0 lead after a third-period escape, controversy struck. He was penalized twice for stalling, sending the match to sudden victory. There, he earned the bout's only takedown to etch his name in Penn State history. "I was hanging on there at the end, just moved my feet and hit an angle," Bravo- Young told ESPN. "I don't care what hap- pened in that match. A national title is a national title." 141 NICK LEE Another No. 1 seed stepped onto the mat against a Nittany Lion, and another No. 1 seed left beaten in sudden victory. Lee bested top-seeded Jaydin Eierman of Iowa, 4-2, scoring the only two take- downs of the bout. Eierman went into the third period with a 1-0 lead, and Lee chose to start in the neutral position. He earned a takedown, but Eierman escaped to send the bout into sudden victory. There, Lee finished the job, crediting his discipline on the mat and his ability to limit his excitement – two traits he showcased in his post-match interview with ESPN. Asked what the victory meant to him, Lee said, "It means I won this year, but we'll go into the next year and see what happens." 174 CARTER STAROCCI Starocci wasn't about to leave the dra- matics to his teammates. Facing the top seed at 174, senior Michael Kemerer of Iowa, Starocci made it three wins in three tries for the Nittany Lions. After both wrestlers earned escapes to send the bout to sudden victory, Starocci got the decisive takedown to become a national champion as a redshirt freshman and avenge a loss to Kemerer in the Big Ten finals. "I'm the best," he said. "I am, that's what I believe. When you come to Penn State, you perform at the biggest level and it's no surprise." 184 AARON BROOKS In contrast to the three earlier weight classes in which it had a finalist, Penn State was trying to avoid an upset at 184, not to pull one off. The top-seeded Brooks did just that, earning his first NCAA title by outlasting Trent Hidlay of North Carolina State, 3-2, after the sec- ond-seeded Wolfpack wrestler was called for stalling in the third period. There was a nervous moment for Brooks late in the match when Hidlay nearly took him down at the edge of the mat. North Carolina State challenged, but no take- down was awarded. "It's been a great season," Brooks told ESPN. "But I just want to stay focused. I had to get him coming forward, it was kind of hard. He got hit for stalling, which was good." ROUNDING IT OUT Penn State took a nine-man contingent to St. Louis for the NCAA champi- onships. As noted above, four of those wrestlers won national titles. Here's how the other five finished: 125 POUNDS No. 23 Robbie Howard began his tournament with an upset win over No. 10 Malik Heinselman of Ohio David Taylor became the Penn State wrestling program's latest Olympian, defeating Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate and former PSU great Bo Nickal in the best-of-three :nals to earn the spot on the U.S. Olympic team at 86 kg. Taylor, a two-time national champion during his collegiate career, awaited the winner of the chal- lenge bracket for a best-of-three series at the Olympic trials, which took place April 2-3 at Fort Worth, Texas. That challenger turned out to be Nickal, who went 3-0 to advance to the :nal series. Although he dropped the :nale to Taylor, Nickal earned a spot on the U.S. national team with his second- place :nish. Taylor rode an early score to a hard- fought 4-0 win over Nickal in the :rst matchup in the series, turning the :rst-period lead into a win. In the second match, Taylor opened up a 3- 0 lead midway through the opening period. He carried that lead into the second period and posted a 6-0 vic- tory to clinch the series and earn a spot on the Olympic team, which will compete in Tokyo this summer. Taylor will be the sixth former Penn State wrestler to compete in the Olympics, joining Frank Molinaro, Kerry McCoy, Sanshiro Abe, Ken Chertow and Katsutoshi Naito. Current Nittany Lion national champion Nick Lee entered the 2021 trials as the sixth seed at 65 kg and went 4-1 overall. A;er a 1-1 showing on day one, Lee went 3-0 on day two to claim third place and earn a spot on the U.S. national team. Lee beat for- mer Lion great Zain Retherford to ad- vance to the third-place match, where he downed 2019 NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, 16-8. Lee beat three former NCAA champs on day two, winning those matches by a combined 38-14 score. Former PSU national champion Jason Nolf went 1-1 on day one of the tournament and faced Evan Wick for third place overall (true second in the challenge bracket) and a spot on the national team. Nolf dominated the :rst period, opening up a 5-0 lead be- fore cruising to a 9-0 victory. Nolf went 2-1 in Fort Worth. ■ Taylor tops Nickal for Olympic berth TAYLOR

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