OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Ken Chertow threw everything he had into a last desperate takedown attempt, but failed. Eventual national champion Jack Cuvo avenged a loss to Chertow in last year's Olympic Trials with a 6-6, 2-1 overtime victory at the NCAA Tournament.

Chertow strode off the mat and put on his ski jacket, Penn State wrestling tassel cap and gloves. He then mounted a stationary bike and pedaled furiously to drop excess pounds for weigh-ins.

"I've got to utilize my sweat," Chertow explained. "I've got to keep going -- I don't want to stop and think about it. It's kind of a remote control. I've been burned before, I don't get emotionally wrapped up in it. I just go out to do my job."

Fifteen minutes later, the referee announced that defending national champion Jim Martin had fewer reversals than Michael Stokes of North Carolina State. So Martin lost his first match in 58 outings, 2-2, 1-1, criteria No. 4.

Martin gathered his equipment and settled in a corner of the arena. Although his hands covered his face, they did not hide the tears streaming down his cheeks or muffle the sound of his sobs.

"I guess it just wasn't meant to be," he said. "I feel like I spilled my guts out there, but I just wasn't able to win."

"I think God's blessed me with a lot and I know He's been with me on the mat. He's strengthened me and I know He was really a strong factor in helping me through the tournament last year. Every time I go out there I just hope to bring glory to His name and use my talents the best I can."

"Sometimes I just feel like I'm not able to live up to His standards, but that's not the case at all, that's just how I feel. I strive to become more like Him, be perfect in every way, and I know that I'm not. Everytime I make mistakes out there I realize that, just like every time I make mistakes in life. It's just my goal to be as similar to Jesus Christ as I can."

Chertow and Martin were Penn State's top two title hopes. Both lost the most painful matches of their college careers in Friday night's semifinals.

Martin had remained low-key before the match and only afterward did his emotions pour forth. Chertow, however, bounced around before the Cuvo match, touching his toes and stretching his arms. Fired up, he grunted and groaned during the match, striving for victory. Although he did not realize his goal, Chertow had little emotional energy with which to reflect on the match.

"I don't think anything," he said after the match. "There's a sour taste in my stomach. It takes a while to sink in and it's only been half an hour.

"It's not the end of my wrestling career. It's not the end of my life. It's just bitter disappointment and I'm going to have to live with it. I just have to face myself. I'm not doing it for anyone but me. I didn't come through for myself -- I let myself down."

"Kenny and Jimmy put everything into being national champs," said Assistant Coach John Fritz, his eyes filling with tears. "As coaches we get to know them so much that we start to feel for them. It was just hard to watch the losses because I had a good feeling, I knew how hard they worked."

Both wrestlers cramped and trembled uncontrollably as they dropped weight before matches. Both practiced hundreds of extra times, averaging four to five hours per day. They even crammed for tests on road trips, before weigh-ins and at any other possible moments preparing for medical school.

"I know down the road the losses are going to make then better people," Coach Rich Lorenzo said. "I know if you can't get the goal you worked so extremely hard for it teaches you some valuable lessons, but I can't tell that to them now because they're not ready to learn that lesson yet."

Although Chertow ended the season as strong as any 118-pounder and was then a two-time All American, he was seeded fourth behind No. 1 seed Cuvo of East Stroudsburg, Northwestern's Jack Griffin and North Carolina's Doug Wyland.

Griffin, the second seed, had three losses and had never before placed at NCAAs. Wyland, the third seed, had only limited NCAA experience and had competed at 126 for all but the Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

Therefore, Chertow and Cuvo were placed in the same bracket and clashed in the semis instead of the finals.

"It should have been the final," Cuvo said. "As far as any wrestler in the world, he's the most mentally tough. And he works harder than anyone I know -- except myself. He's the toughest wrestler I've wrestled this year."

Martin, who is almost never beaten on bottom, encountered problems when the referees allowed wrestlers to ride on the ankles.

An old rule permitted a wrestler only five seconds on the ankles because to ride, a wrestler must be working for a pin. Thr rule was repealed because the coaches said it was being called too quickly. During the tournament, although many wrestlers rode on the ankles simply to boost riding time and not to try for a pin, the referee did not call stalling.

"It's the easiest way to control an opponent," Lorenzo said, "because you can hang down on his ankles and it's tough for an opponent to use his upper body and hips, where his strength is. We've tried it since the referees are allowing it, but we aren't quite as good as the other teams because we haven't practiced it as much."

The ruling continued to plague the Lions as Chertow lost both consolation semifinals to finish in sixth place. He got caught on bottom, his weakest position, in both matches but was most affected by the officials in his first consolation match against Oklahoma's Chris Bollin.

"I'd say out of the six-minute match, for five-and-a-half minutes, Ken pushed him all over the place," Fritz said. "About halfway through I asked the mat judge 'Are we watching the same match? Our kid's pushing him all over the place and he's stalling.' He said he agreed but he never told anyone and the head official never called it."

Nebraska's Jason Kelber rode Martin for well over a minute in the first consolation final at 126, leaving him helpless. A late escape and a stalling penalty point propelled the match into overtime, where Martin finally prevailed, 6-6, 1-0.

Martin then faced Iowa's Tom Brands, who wrestled the Lion to a draw in December. He overcame the freshman's theatrics and strength to earn third place, 5-4.

"It's very frustrating -- that's one of my strong points, bottom position," Martin said of his first consolation semifinal. "Not too many people ride me. When he (Kelber) got down on my ankles, he wasn't really doing anything, just holding me."

After focusing solely on a national championship, both wrestlers had trouble adjusting to the consolation bracket. Martin, after a sleepless night, said it was hard to get up in the morning. Chertow woke up but didn't wrestle with the same intensity as he had previously.

"During the championship rounds I have a lot of adrenaline, I don't feel my nagging pains and injuries," Chertow said. "In the consolations, the adrenaline flows a little differently."

"I fought hard, I had a lot of pride in my performance, I went out there to win the match; it just didn't happen."

Chertow's next match, the World Cup in Toledo, Ohio, in two weeks, will prevent him from dwelling on his collegiate-style loss, and his freestyle ambitions should keep him busy enough to forget it for a while to come.

"If I would have won an NCAA title, I night have been able to back off on freestyle for a few years, just go to med school and not worry about training and maybe get back into it in '92 (for the Barcelona Summer Olympics)," Chertow said. "But I just can't wait to peak again for four years, I don't want to do that. I've put 10 years of my life into it, I've fallen short of what I wanted to accomplish. Med school can wait."

Martin however plans to stop competing, but not stop sharing his talents, by helping high school and college wrestlers. But even the gruelling years of medical school won't erase his semifinal match memories.

"It's hard to believe it's over," Martin said. "I put so much time in. I just have to choose to be thankful that I won last year, and I am, but I feel like I worked harder this year and I wanted it more so it hurts more to not win."