Blue White Illustrated

THE YEAR IN REVIEW MALE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR NICO MEGALUDIS O In his first season, the determined 125-pounder finishes strong T I M OW E N f course, winning is most important to him. Scoring points is up there, too. But when Nico Megaludis takes the mat prior to each match, he has something else in mind, a particular goal. He wants his opponents to "hate wrestling me," he said, "so when they wrestle me again, they would rather be wrestling someone else." Added his father, Dan Megaludis, "That's really the simplicity of every match he walks into. That philosophy is foremost on his mind." At this point in his career, the ap- proach has worked marvelously. In high school it helped lead him to three Pennsylvania state titles with one career loss. And during his first year at Penn State, he finished with All- America honors and a trip to the 125-pound NCAA final. He was the runaway choice as Blue White Illus- trated's Male Freshman of the Year. His was the kind of freshman year that most newcomers dream of hav- ing. But the successes didn't come easy. Megaludis lost his Big Ten debut to Minnesota's Zach Sanders before dropping four more regular-season contests. Then he fell twice at the Big Ten tournament – including another loss to Sanders – and settled for a fifth- place finish. "They threw me to the wolves as a true freshman, and it's not like we had the easiest schedule in the world," Megaludis said. "I had some tough losses. I did keep building on it, but it was kind of frustrating sometimes. I went from having one loss in high school to having this many losses. ... 28 A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 ROLE REVERSAL After falling to Perrelli twice during the regular season, Megaludis edged him in the semifi- nals of the NCAA tournament. Steve Manuel W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M | B L U E W H I T E C O N T R I B U T O R But I asked for God to give me strength and build upon this and let these [loss- es] not be setbacks; let them be things that drive me to keep getting better." Megaludis's determined attitude paid off. After entering the NCAA championships in St. Louis as the No. 10 seed, he upset three opponents who were seeded above him to secure a spot in the national final. His opponent in the championship bout was Iowa's Matt McDonough, al- ready a two-time national finalist and a returning national champ. It was their second meeting of the year, and McDonough had won the first match. Hoping to turn the tables on McDo- nough on college wrestling's biggest stage, Megaludis fell 4-1 in the final. Since the tournament concluded in March, he said he has watched the match a few times, but not without it "ticking" him off. It is unclear whether McDonough will return at 125 pounds next season, but if he does, Megaludis plans on being ready. "Definitely," he said. "I definitely want another shot at McDonough." That's because Megaludis despises losing. His dad said, "We couldn't even have family game night or play Scrabble in the house without him go- ing bananas [if he lost]." And if there's one thing he despises more than losing, it's losing to the same person twice. McDonough was one of three opponents to top Megalud-

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