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Taylor among Olympic qualifiers

Wrestling

FORT WORTH, Texas — Four resident athletes with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club qualified for the Tokyo Olympics later this summer, and former all-time great David Taylor became the newest member of Penn State wrestling’s Olympian club.

The NLWC had five wrestlers competing for titles in the Olympic Team Trials finals, all of whom had already clinched spots on the U.S. National Team. Four of the NLWCs finalists became 2020 Olympians — Taylor, Kyle Snyder, Thomas Gilman and Helen Maroulis — with wins while the fifth lost to an NLWC teammate in the finals.

Taylor beat NLWC teammate and former Lion great Bo Nickal in the best-of-three finals to earn the Olympic spot at 86 kg. While dropping the finale to Taylor, Nickal earned a spot on the U.S. National Team with his second-place finish.

Snyder won at 97 kg, and Gilman won at 56 kg. Maroulis won the women’s 57 kg class.

In addition to Nickal making the National Team, current Nittany Lion Nick Lee and former Penn Stater Jason Nolf each finished third in their weight classes to earn spots on the National Team.

Lee beat former Lion great Zain Retherford to advance to the third-place match where he downed 2019 NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis 16-8 to take third. Lee beat three former NCAA champions on Saturday alone by a combined 38-14 score.

Nolf went 1-1 on day one and beat Evan Wick for third place, 9-0.

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