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Entering the third period, Illinois sophomore Jesse Delgado held a slim 1-0 lead against Penn State sophomore Nico Megaludis in the 125-pound National Championship match Saturday.

The two grapplers had crossed paths two times previously this season and had each won one bout. Megaludis caught Delgado in a move during a scramble and pinned him late in the third period at Huff Hall on Feb. 3, but Delgado exacted his revenge in the semifinals at the 2013 Big Ten Championships en route to his first conference title.

“The mental aspect of it, I think that’s one thing he has that some other guys don’t have right now,” assistant coach Jeremy Hunter said. “He doesn’t look it, but he’s actually really strong, too. When he’s able to get in on a leg, he’s able to pull it in and finish.”

With 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in the championship match, Megaludis dove at Delgado and got a hold of his left leg, but the Illinois sophomore countered the move, quickly grabbing his opponent’s right leg, and the two were locked in a high-pace scramble.

“We got into a scramble and I put him on his back for a takedown and three points,” Delgado said.

While Megaludis held the early advantage in the scramble, Delgado slowly worked the momentum in his favor, locking the Nittany Lion’s left leg and rocking him toward his back. Megaludis broke free after nearly a minute locked in Delgado’s hold and got on the board with a quick takedown to close the gap at 6-4 with 20 seconds remaining.

As time ran out, Delgado’s first national championship was seconds away and the excitement started to set in. Delgado became Illinois’ first national champion since Matt Lackey took home the 165-pound title in the 2003. He ran off the mat as the clocked ticked zero and jumped on Hunter’s and associate head coach Mark Perry’s shoulders, and they returned the celebratory embrace.

Delgado has set the bar high in his first two years at Illinois, securing an All-American honor as a redshirt freshman with a seventh-place finish and earning the same distinction and a national title as a sophomore. Entering college, he admitted he never thought it was impossible for him to win a national title, but it was something he didn’t let cloud his mind. Head coach Jim Heffernan said Delgado’s humble approach to wrestling is a byproduct of his work ethic.

“He’s a pretty unassuming, bashful kid outside the wrestling room, but once he gets in the gym, he’s a completely different kid,” Heffernan said. “He’s focused for two hours every day, he asks questions. He listens, more importantly. You get his best effort every day.”

As Iowa’s two-time national champion Matt McDonough leaves the 125-pound scene as the former top dog of the weight class, Saturday’s championship has thrust Delgado to the top as the guy to beat at 125.

“He’s going to have a target on his back now, and everybody’s going to be watching him, trying to figure out a way to beat him,” Hunter said. “Our goal is to get him to repeat for the next two years. We’ve got to get better, and I think he knows that, and there’s a lot of areas that we can still improve and get better at, and that will be our focus for the next year … to get back to that national championship.”

After arriving at Illinois as a transfer from California Polytechnic State University in August 2011, Delgado made his mark on the weight class by capturing a victory over McDonough during the 2011-12 campaign and did so twice more this season, claiming the title as the only wrestler to defeat the Hawkeye three times in his career. His career has not gone without growing pains, though. Hunter acknowledged that due to Delgado’s quickness, the main game plan against him is to get him on his knees to mitigate his speed, but since he started working with Delgado when he arrived on campus, he’s helped the sophomore adapt to opponents’ strategies.

“He kind of dictated the situations more in the Big Ten Championships when he wrestled him (Megaludis) and in the national championships, again they got in a scramble, he won the scramble, but he controlled the situations a little bit more,” Heffernan said. “I think that was the difference in the match. Now that he’s reached his ultimate goal, he knows what it takes to get there and will carry that mind-set into his junior and senior seasons. 

When asked how he wants to finish his career, he responded: “Two more national titles.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @WELINandDEALIN.