CLEVELAND — Spencer Lee is headed to the NCAA finals.

On March 16, Lee overcame the tough obstacle of Ohio State’s Nathan Tomasello with a pin in the duo’s rubber match in the semifinals.

After taking the lead early with a quick takedown, Lee kept it going with a 2-point near-fall. Lee had a 6-2 lead in the third period before sticking the former national champion at 6:04.

The true freshman was unable to take Tomasello down in either match when they met earlier in the season, but March 16 was a different story, and Lee made the most of the opportunity.

“The coaches were telling you, ‘Spencer, you’ve got to wrestle, you have to wrestle. This is your match. You know, you trained for this,’” Lee said. “And instead of backing out, almost taking the easy way out, the coaches were telling me, ‘You’ve got to make it hard, not only on yourself, but your opponent, but mostly yourself, because at the end of the day, you’re really training for yourself.’ ”

The victory sets Lee up in the finals against Nick Suriano of Rutgers, the tournament’s No. 4 seed.