Two wins yesterday and a win Saturday afternoon added three more victories to the third-ranked wrestling team's undefeated dual meet record.

Head Coach Rich Lorenzo said the weekend wins indicate the progress his team has made. He added that the wrestlers earned the results and wrestled very close to their potential.

Penn State defeated North Carolina State, 39-2, and Maryland, 31-6, yesterday in College Park, Md. On Saturday afternoon the Lions pummelled Navy in Annapolis, 30-8.

"We got a great team effort out of all ten guys that were wrestling each time," Lorenzo said. "The guys took a lot more control of their matches throughout the whole length of the bouts. They had some tough opponents, but yet they basically worked on the things they needed to work on and respected themselves."

The noon match between the Lions and North Carolina State at Cole Field House yesterday contained a number of surprises. The Lions dominated the Wolfpack as N.C. State could muster only two points. The draw came in the 126-pound bout between defending national champion and three-time All-American Jim Martin and All-American Mike Stokes. Martin previously defeated Stokes in the finals of the Mat-Town tournament at Lock Haven in late November.

Three upsets also enabled the Lions to cruise to their decisive victory over the Wolfpack.

Freshman Peter Horst upset Joe Cesari, 6-2, in the 142-pound bout. A second upset came when Troy Sunderland, wrestling in place of Penn State's Mike Bevilacqua, pinned Darren Farrow in the first period of their 150-pound match. Heavyweight Greg Haladay then avenged his loss to Brian Jackson in the finals of Mat-Town by defeating his ranked opponent, 5-2.

Lorenzo said all three N.C. State opponents are seasoned wrestlers and were favored to win the bouts. He credited the upsets to control and intensity on the part of the Penn State wrestlers.

"They came out and did a great job and were able to defeat opponents that were ranked higher than they (were) and had more experience," Lorenzo explained. "It's like when there are upsets at football games and anything else, you come to play and you come to wrestle. Our kids came to wrestle today and that was nice to see."

Senior tri-captains Ken Chertow and Martin started the ball rolling in the 2 p.m. match against Maryland when Chertow pinned Rich Williams in the final period of the 118-pound match and Martin won by technical fall over Steve Schwartz, 24-8.

"Kenny Chertow gets us off to a very strong start every time he goes out there. He wrestles seven minutes of intensity, he's always trying to score (and) to mix it up," Lorenzo said. "He's also a great team leader on the bench."

"Jimmy has been such a great example and a great leader that I can't say enough about him."

The Lions dropped only two bouts in their 31-6 win over the Terrapins.

"What's happening now is we're getting more of a complete team effort where all ten guys are going out and battling to their maximum," Lorenzo explained. "In the past we had six (or) seven guys giving a great performance and then two or three guys being flat."

The Lions (14-0-1) easily defeated Navy Saturday afternoon, 30-8. They led 16-0 after the first four bouts before Bevilacqua tied with Tim Tousignant, 1-1, to give the Midshipmen their initial score.

Mark Verratti lost to Navy's Scott Schleicher, 9-3, at 158 and Jason Suter edged Ron Neff with a riding time point at 167, 5-4. Freshman Matt White dropped his bout to Steve Cantrell by the same score at 177. Two-time All-American and tri-captain Andy Voit decisioned Dave Raby at 190, 17-10, and Haladay concluded the match with a fall over Brett Bourne in the first period of the heavyweight bout.

The Lion's JV squad also defeated its Navy opponent, 24-21, for the first time since Lorenzo has been coach at Penn State.

Lorenzo said the competition was tough, but his wrestlers did what was necessary -- score and win. He added they will have to maintain that attitude in order to win an Eastern Wrestling League championship and the NCAA championship.

"They (the three opponents) were challenging, it's just that we took control of our own destiny," Lorenzo said. "Our guys respected themselves more than they did their opposition, so they weren't about to give anything away even though we were not favored in a lot of the weight classes and obviously by the score we didn't give anything away."