Penn State Wrestling: 5 Biggest Surprises of 2021 Season
By Chris Snyder
Biggest Surprise No. 4
Joe Lee didn’t improve
It took us until the 4th biggest surprise to finally get to our 1st not so great surprise.
I can hear everyone now “Here we go again, Chris is railing on Joe Lee about not being the greatest wrestler to walk the planet.”
Look, I’m not here to “rail on Joe Lee”. I’m simply surprised Penn State fans didn’t see any improvement throughout the year from him.
Leading up to the B1G Championships, Joe had compiled a record of 4-2 with an impressive win against then No. 22 ranked David Ferrante of Northwestern. Lee’s two losses came at the hands of Michigan’s Cameron Amine and Ohio State’s Ethan Smith.
And I don’t think anyone would say either of those losses were “bad” losses. Based on what I saw from Joe during the shortened 2021 season, nothing told me he wouldn’t continue to improve as the season went on.
Which I’m sure were the same feelings from the Penn State faithful for Lee heading into the B1G Championships. Especially since he was slotted to face Maryland’s No. 11 seeded Jonathan Spadafora, a wrestler he pinned less than two weeks prior to the B1G’s.
So what happened?
Joe Lee lost to Spadafora in sudden victory. Uh oh, that’s not great.
In the consolation bracket Lee then rattled off two straight victories which included pinning the No. 5 seed Andrew Sparks. Lee then promptly lost the next two matches in a fall and a decision (10-6) to finish in 8th place in the B1G’s.
Next up was the NCAA Championships were Joe Lee was clearly going to learn from his mistakes during the regular season and build on the experience from the B1G’s on his way to winning several matches in the NCAA’s.
Unfortunately, this didn’t happen as Lee lost both of his matches and his 2021 NCAA Championship ended before it could even start.
As I mentioned, Joe started the season 4-2 heading into the B1G’s. From that point to the end of his season he went 2-5 and lost each of the last four matches he wrestled.
This can’t be seen as anything less than surprising.