"At least I won," laughed the Illinois sophomore.
Delgado was pinned earlier this season by Megaludis late in a match he was winning.
"That's a guy I'm probably going to have two weeks from now if I make it to the NCAA finals," said Delgado. "I just need to stay offensive and attack everyone like that."
Delgado will now face a familiar opponent in the finals: Iowa's Matt McDonough, a two-time NCAA champion and three-time NCAA finalist.
Jesse Delgado
Delgado owns two wins over McDonough over the past two seasons. The most recent victory for Delgado was a 9-4 decision in Champaign on Feb. 8.
"That's a bad style matchup for him, but I'm sure he's made adjustments," said Delgado of McDonough. "We're prepared for what we think he's got. I don't know if he's prepared for what we got."
Delgado is one of two finalists for host Illinois, along with Conrad Polz (165), who reached finals by defeating Michigan's Taylor Massa 7-1.
Two-time defending NCAA champion Penn State took over first place in the team standings after their four upperweights from 165 pounds to 197 pounds -- David Taylor, Matt Brown, Ed Ruth, and Quentin Wright -- advanced to the finals.
"I really wasn't aware of the (team) scores," said Ruth, who advanced to his third straight Big Ten finals by defeating Iowa's Ethen Lofthouse, 10-1, in the semifinals at 184 pounds. "My teammates were. We had a chance to close the gap, so we kind of really jumped on it."
Taylor, Ruth, and Wright were No. 1 seeds.
Taylor was dominant in the semifinals at 165 pounds, winning 16-0 over Iowa's Nick Moore. He will face Polz in the finals. Wright eked out a 1-0 victory over Ohio State's Andrew Campolattano in the semifinals at 197 pounds to set up a finals match against Minnesota's Scott Schiller.
Brown, seeded fifth, advanced to the finals at 174 pounds by topping Ohio State's Nick Heflin in the quarterfinals and Michigan's Dan Yates in the semifinals. Brown's run to the finals may have been a surprise to some, but not Ruth.
"The Matt Brown that we're seeing right now, he was like that all year. He's a practice wrestler ... He's starting to step it up now. He's starting to become more the Matt Brown that I know. It just seemed like he went from 0 to 60 right away. That's something I actually expected from him."
Brown will face Iowa's Mike Evans in the finals at 174 pounds. Evans advanced to the finals with a 6-0 shutout over Jordan Blanton of Illinois.
Evans is one of four finalists for Iowa. The other three are McDonough (125), Tony Ramos (133), and Mark Ballweg (141).
"We've got to be ready to battle," said Iowa coach Tom Brands. "It gets tougher if you're not going to wrestle. If you wrestle then it can get easier with effort. It's never easy, but you can sure make it easier on yourself with good effort."
Ramos' road to the finals included victories over two past All-Americans: Cashe Quiroga of Purdue in the quarterfinals and Tyler Graff of Wisconsin in the semifinals. He will now face NCAA champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State in a rematch of last year's Big Ten finals. Both wrestlers are undefeated on the season.
"I'm really excited for that one," said Ramos, who improved to 26-0 this season. "I can't wait to get that one going. My second match today I wasn't feeling too good ... I'll be ready to go tomorrow night."
Stieber cruised to the finals with two pins, including a semifinal pin over 13th-ranked Jordan Conaway of Penn State.
"I just want to get in and out," said Stieber. "If I can pin, I pin. If I have to win 3-2 or 1-0, I'll take that as well. When I get the pin it's awesome for the team and me."
His thoughts on the finals showdown against Ramos?
"It should be a fun match," said Stieber. "Iowa fans are crazy. They're going to be loud, so I'll probably get called for stalling right away by them ... But no, it's going to be fun. He's awesome. He's had an awesome year. I've had a great year so far. Hopefully it's a good match. Hopefully we put a lot of points up."
Logan's younger brother Hunter Stieber advanced to the finals at 141 pounds with a 10-8 win in sudden victory over Purdue's Brandon Nelsen in the semifinals. Like older brother Logan, Hunter will face an Iowa Hawkeye in the finals, Mark Ballweg.
National Duals champion Minnesota climbed to second place in the team standings after a strong semifinal round, and like Penn State and Iowa, advanced four wrestlers to the finals: Dylan Ness (149), Kevin Steinhaus (184), Scott Schiller (197), and Tony Nelson (285). The Gophers trail the Nittany Lions by 10.5 points heading into the final day.
"We picked up the pace and we ended up in second," said Robinson. "That's not obviously where we want to be. But there's still a lot of wrestling left for tomorrow."
Minnesota took a hit at 174 pounds when Logan Storley, the nation's top-ranked wrestler, lost twice on Saturday and will wrestle for seventh place on Sunday.
"It's one of those deals ... You just have that bad day," said Robinson. "You've got to come back from it. He's going to end up wrestling for seventh and eighth. It doesn't stop what happens at the national tournament. I think that's the thing, where he's going to get seeded, you better still seed him because I don't think you want to draw him."
Jake Sueflohn (141) and James Green (157) reached the finals for Nebraska. Both were seeded fourth.
Sueflohn knocked off Penn State's Andrew Alton in the quarterfinals before defeating Ohio State's Ian Paddock in the semifinals.
Green, a returning All-American, reached the finals by edging top-seeded Derek St. John of Iowa in the semifinals 5-4, avenging a loss from earlier this season.
"I've got to finish the match out better," said Green. "But I was still trying to get my takedowns at the end. I've just got to finish those. This match was different from my other matches with him. I committed more on top. I got that riding time and it helped a lot."
Northwestern, like Nebraska, advanced two wrestlers to the finals: Jason Welch (157) and Mike McMullan (285).
Sunday's session gets underway at 11:30 CT, with the finals scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT.
Team Standings
1. Penn State 123
2. Minnesota 112.5
3. Iowa 109
4. Ohio State 92
5. Illinois 72.5
6. Michigan 61
7. Nebraska 52
8. Northwestern 50
9. Purdue 29
10. Indiana 26.5
11. Wisconsin 26
12. Michigan State 17
Semifinal Results
125:
No. 2 Matt McDonough (Iowa) pinned No. 17 Sean Boyle (Michigan), 2:46
No. 4 Jesse Delgado (Illinois) dec. No. 3 Nico Megaludis (Penn State), 6-3
133:
No. 1 Logan Stieber (Ohio State) pinned No. 13 Jordan Conaway (Penn State), 1:29
No. 2 Tony Ramos (Iowa) dec. No. 3 Tyler Graff (Wisconsin), 3-1
141:
No. 2 Hunter Stieber (Ohio State) dec. Brandon Nelsen (Purdue), 10-8 SV
No. 9 Mark Ballweg (Iowa) dec. No. 8 Nick Dardanes (Minnesota), 3-1
149:
No. 10 Jake Sueflohn (Nebraska) dec. Ian Paddock (Ohio State), 11-5
No. 6 Dylan Ness (Minnesota) dec. Dan Osterman (Michigan State), 10-9
157:
No. 6 James Green (Nebraska) dec. No. 2 Derek St. John (Iowa), 5-4
No. 1 Jason Welch (Northwestern) dec. Josh Demas (Ohio State), 2-0
165:
No. 2 David Taylor (Penn State) tech. fall No. 13 Nick Moore (Iowa), 16-0
No. 8 Conrad Polz (Illinois) dec. No. 9 Taylor Massa (Michigan), 7-1
174:
No. 7 Matt Brown (Penn State) dec. No. 11 Dan Yates (Michigan), 5-1
No. 3 Mike Evans (Iowa) dec. No. 9 Jordan Blanton (Illinois), 6-0
184:
No. 1 Ed Ruth (Penn State) maj. dec. No. 14 Ethen Lofthouse (Iowa), 10-1
No. 5 Kevin Steinhaus (Minnesota) maj. dec. No. 8 Josh Ihnen (Nebraska), 10-2
197:
No. 2 Quentin Wright (Penn State) dec. No. 13 Andrew Campolattano (Ohio State), 1-0
No. 8 Scott Schiller (Minnesota) dec. Nathan Burak (Iowa), 3-1 SV
285:
No. 1 Tony Nelson (Minnesota) dec. No. 5 Bobby Telford (Iowa), 1-0
No. 9 Mike McMullan (Northwestern) dec. No. 11 Connor Medbery (Wisconsin), 5-4
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