CLEVELAND — Last year, Iowa was led by veterans at the NCAA Championships.

Seniors Cory Clark, Thomas Gilman, and Sammy Brooks all made the semifinals, and junior Brandon Sorensen threw his name in there as well.

This year, it’s all about the freshmen; 125-pounder Spencer Lee and 165-pounder Alex Marinelli are Iowa’s sole semifinalists and only All-Americans so far.

“I always believed in myself that I could make it here,” Lee said. “And if you don’t believe, you don’t achieve.”

“Free the Lee” seemed to be Iowa wrestling’s slogan for a good chunk of the season. For months, Lee, the Hawkeyes’ top recruit, wore a redshirt, unable to help his team.

But now he’s helping as much as he possibly can, serving as a bonus-point machine for the Hawkeyes. After picking up two tech falls on March 15, Lee pinned Oklahoma State’s Nicholas Piccininni at 3:58 to move on.

Now just a little more than two months after his first dual in a black and gold Iowa singlet, he is an NCAA semifinalist.

“If the coaches didn’t think I was ready, I wouldn’t be here,” Lee said. “They believed I was ready. They believe in me, I believe in myself, and I believe in the work we’ve put in. It’s been fun so far.”

For Marinelli, it’s an extreme comeback after his rough performance at the Big Ten Championships, where he placed sixth.

Now at the NCAAs, he follows the example of Lee and scores bonus points — excluding his quarterfinals match against No. 4 seed Chad Walsh of Rider.

Walsh scored 2 takedowns early. Following two Marinelli escapes and a Walsh escape in the second period, the Hawkeye closed in on Walsh’s lead with a takedown to make it 5-4.

Marinelli added a takedown in the third and gained a point for riding time to forge his path to the semifinals with what ended up a 7-6 decision.

“When he hit me, I was like ‘You know what, he’s probably getting backs right now.’ I had no clue it was so tight. I couldn’t really hear — I get back up, it’s still 4-1; I’m in it,” Marinelli said. “I look at [head coach] Tom [Brands], and he says, ‘Jesus trained. Keep going, keep fighting. Do it for Him.’ ”

Marinelli had been feeding off Michael Kemerer for the first two rounds of the tournament, as each recorded 2 pins. But after Kemerer was defeated by Penn State’s Jason Nolf in the quarterfinals, 6-2, Marinelli was left wanting to avenge his teammate and follow the pace set by Lee at the beginning of the day.

“I not only feed off of Kemerer, I feed off of Spencer Lee,” Marinelli said. “Spencer came up after his match against Picininni and said, ‘If you don’t pin your guy, I’m ahead in team points.’ And I guess he is.”

Now, both have big matches against tough opponents in front of them.

Lee is faced with a rubber match against former national champion Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State after the pair split their two previous matches.

Marinelli has Illinois’ Isaiah Martinez, the NCAA champion in 2015 and 2016, waiting for him.

“Our two guys, the way they compete, I know they’re excited for [March 16],” Brands said.