There was no drop off Penn State wrestling star Luke Lilledahl.
A week after beating Iowa’s Dean Peterson, which led to him being ranked No. 1 by InterMat, Lilledahl took on the No. 11 ranked wrestler in the country at 125 Indiana’s Jacob Moran.
Lilledahl’s win over Peterson was a measure of revenge, since Peterson was one of only three wrestlers to beat Lilledahl last season.
Moran also came into the bout with a past win over Lilledahl, having beat him at the All Maryville Open when the two were in high school in 2022. This match went quite different, with Lilledahl not only beating Moran, but pinning him in the second period.
This is Lilledahl’s sixth straight win over a ranked opponent.
Lilledahl burst onto the scene as a true freshman last season, winning the Big Ten Championship and finishing third at the national championships.
At Penn State’s Media Day in November, coach Cael Sanderson spoke quite highly of Lilledahl.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“Well, ‘Lightning Luke’, he competes, and he just keeps getting better,” Sanderson said.
“He loves to compete. … (He) just won a world title, obviously a couple weeks ago. One of those just awesome people, great competitor, the guy that we’re very, very excited to have lead us off.”
Sanderson added that he “didn’t even know what to say” about Lilledahl.
“I can’t really do justice to just the kind of competitor and person (that) Luke is,” Sanderson said. He just loves wrestling, loves competing, and he’s a student of the game. He keeps improving.”
So far, Lilledahl is living up to Sanderson’s words.
