Iowa junior Spencer Lee has won the 2020 Hodge Trophy, becoming the third Hawkeye and first 125-pounder to win the award.

Congratulations @LeeSpencerlee36!

? ?‍♂️ ? ?: https://t.co/genVXYfrgu#Hawkeyes #FightForIowa pic.twitter.com/A48q4zn27w

— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling) March 30, 2020

The Iowa press release says Spencer received 52 out of a possible 57 first-place votes. That makes him the most overwhelming winner of the award since voting became public, beating out Kyle Dake in 2013 (39 out of 43).

He also dominated the fan vote. According to WIN's release, "Of the 26,709 fan votes from March 23 to March 27, Lee got 58 percent of overall votes of the eight undefeated finalists with 15,567 votes. West Virginia sophomore Noah Adams finished second in the fan voting with 3,865 votes, Moore was third with 2,747 votes and Princeton sophomore Pat Glory had 1,503 votes."

Hailing from Murrysville, PA, Lee cruised to this year's Hodge and became the third Pennsylvanian to claim wrestling's Heisman, after Jake Herbert and Zain Retherford. He's also a finalist for the AAU's James E. Sullivan Award, which has gone to a wrestler four previous times.

Lee was quoted by the communications team at Iowa as saying:

"Winning the Hodge Trophy and being recognized by fans, past winners, and members of the media is certainly an honor. The criteria behind the trophy is in line with the values of the Iowa Wrestling program, and I want to thank my teammates, coaches, and fans for their endless support. I also want to congratulate the other finalists. No one got the end they wanted, but this is still a season we should all be proud of."

Lee was at the forefront of the Hodge race all season, and withstood his competition dropping one-by-one. When the NCAA tournament was canceled, there were nine undefeated wrestlers remaining, eight of whom were named Hodge finalists. He stood out head and shoulders above them all.

The numbers were all-time. He went 18-0 with four pins, nine techs, three majors, a seven-point decision, and a forfeit. That gives him a dominance score of 4.94 and a bonus rate of 94 percent. Note, the NCAA "most dominant award" officially has him at five because they count the forfeit.

He spent an average time of 3:42 on the mat, and all of his techs and pins ended in either the first or second period. Those techs and pins gave him a finish rate of 76.5% meaning he ended 3/4 of his matches early! He had wins over 10 different NCAA qualifiers, including the guys seeded third, fifth, and twelfth at the national tournament.

Kollin Moore was runner-up and had three first-place votes. Ryan Deakin was third and Shane Griffith was fourth; both received one first-place vote each. Deakin officially finished third ahead of Griffith with more points for second- and third-place votes from the Hodge Committee.

There were three other wrestlers received non-first-place votes from the committee: two-time NCAA champ Vincenzo Joseph, three-time national finalist Mark Hall, and Arizona State’s two-time champ Zahid Valencia.

All-Time Hodge Winners

* indicates co-winners