BLOOMSBURG -- Penn State became the first Eastern Wrestling League team to advance its full squad to the NCAA tournament this weekend as it upset West Virginia and Bloomsburg to win the EWL title.

The Lions captured three championships and placed nine of their 10 wrestlers in in the top three to win their ninth consecutive tournament title.

Although no Lion was a predicted champion, Jeff Prescott, Mike Bevilacqua and sixth-seed John Yankanich all claimed tournament titles, with Yankanich, a walk-on, named Outstanding Wrestler.

Four others, Bob Truby, Jason Suter, Jeff Ellis and Greg Haladay, claimed second place spots. Chad Dubin and Tim Wittman battled to third place finishes, and Adam Mariano captured fourth.

"Even with the best case scenario we never predicted seven guys (in the finals)," 134-pounder Dubin said. "And sending 10 guys . . . you set your goals for that, but often you don't reach your goals."

The tournament was extra sweet for the Lions this year, after losing to Bloomsburg and West Virginia in the regular season, their only EWL losses since 1981.

"There was a lot of talk about Bloomsburg and West Virginia," Prescott said. "They beat us this year and that got me fired up. We came here, we wanted to win, and we wanted to wrestle."

"I mean this from the bottom of my heart," Bevilacqua said. "I wanted to win the EWL for the team so badly, with every one bad-talking us and doubting us."

The tournament was a madhouse circus that no ringleader could direct. The first and second rounds went by in a blur of upsets. On one mat sixth-seed Yankanich, after handling West Virginia's third-seed Dave Onorato, was busy beating up on No. 2 seed Matt Peters from Cleveland State. Thirty feet away, Suter was in the process of Pinning All-American Frank Zelinsky, last year's tourney runner-up.

Fighting in probably the most balanced weight class, Prescott delighted the fans by tearing up his opponents, recording a 1:36 fall in the first round and a technical fall over Bloomsburg's John Supsic in the second.

"You can't help getting psyched up when you have a guy like Prescott ahead of you," Bevilacqua said. "Going out there, being so physical, being mean and nasty, annihilating their opponent, making them look bad. It spreads like wildfire."

Truby, not to be outdone, recorded his own fall on his way to the finals. His bid for a championship was halted by Bloomsburg's Dave Kennedy, No. 5 in the nation.

"I think the first round was the key," Coach Rich Lorenzo said. "Just the way the guys came out to wrestle. They wrestled hard. You have to give a lot of credit to Prescott and Truby, they got us going in both rounds. They had good intensity which picked the team up."

Third-seed Bevilacqua kept the team points coming in, defeating No. 2 seed Alan Utter from Pittsburgh before overcoming top-seed Scott Collins from West Virginia in the finals.

The Mountaineers, which finished second with 121 points to Penn State's 145.5, took four Lions out of the title bid. Suter lost to nemesis Mark Banks in the finals, 5-4. Likewise, Jeff Spinetti overcame Ellis, 5-3, at 190. Dominick Black and Dirk Cole defeated Mariano and Wittman in the semi-finals, 3-2 and 10-5, respectively.

Haladay, making his way through the finals via defeats over Edinboro's Bill Friburger and Lock Haven's Kenny Walker, lost to Clarion's top-ranked Kurt Angle, 2-1.

Dubin, seeded sixth, lost his first bout only to come back and tear through the consolations, avenging his loss by beating third-seed Audie Atienza from Edinboro, 10-6. Atienza defeated Dubin in the first round.

Wittman defended his third-seed at 150 with a hard-fought victory over Bloomsburg's Tom Kuntzleman, seeded fourth.

Mariano gave the team some bonus points with a pin in the first round and a technical fall in the consolation semis before being stopped in the consolation finals by Lock Haven's Dale Budd.

"This was nice to see young men believe in themselves come down here and earn the title," Lorenzo said. "All the credit has to go to the kids because they're the ones that put out the performance on the mat."