Six of nine boxers, including four between 125 to 147 pounds, advanced to the national championships with Northeast Regional victories Saturday at White Building.
Going into the championships, Penn State's strength is its four lightest fighters -- Jack Ross (125), Kelly Cordes (132), Sterlen Barr (139) and Tom McGrogan (147).
"I'm boxing the best guys, because we're on our team, like Salt (Barr), Kelly and Tom," Ross said. "I don't go against no guys as good as these guys, and even if I do I already have the experience."
Ross, in perpetual motion, kept pounding Lock Haven's Doug Pavone on the inside, eventually landing some good head shots. Pavone tried stalling Ross by clinching him on the inside.
"He just kept on holding me up and even when he was holding me up, he was leaning on me and I couldn't even step back to get my one arm free," Ross said.
Ross forced a standing eight count in each of the first two rounds. In the third, after Ross trapped Pavone in the corner and landed three solid crosses, the referee stopped the bout.
In Friday's preliminaries, Barr looked casual and a step slow in decisioning Dickinson's Jack Estepp. From the start of his fight with Army's Dan Bernal, he looked a different fighter. Bouncing on his toes and bobbing his head, Barr slipped and countered to defeat last year's national runner-up. Sliding to Bernal's side and landing looping punches, Barr rendered Bernal's straight-ahead attack ineffective.
"I didn't want to go toe-to-toe with him. By me keeping him off balance, I made him miss a whole lot," Barr said. "He was getting frustrated and then I was timing him, making him miss, and I countered with his mistakes."
"It was like being born again," Barr said of when the decision was announced and his arm raised. "I know I'm going all the way now. I know I'm going to be national champ and that's something somebody can only dream about."
McGrogan counterpunched to a decision over Lock Haven's Chris Cassel. The fight was slow, but he was able to pick and choose his openings. McGrogan knocked Cassel down once and forced two standing eight counts -- each time throwing only a single punch.
"I've been working on my leverage, getting my balance right," McGrogan said. "So when he went down with the one punch, I really wasn't surprised."
At 180, Jim Veverka decisioned Lock Haven's DeWayne Bryant. A southpaw, Veverka was always on the attack, throwing right jabs and straight lefts. Veverka controlled the fight except for the last 20 seconds of the second round when he got lazy, dropped his hands and was nailed on the chin several times.
Matt Osborne worked inside to decision Army's Dave Parsons in a sloppy fight at 190. Parsons, an awkward fighter with a big height advantage, missed wildly with looping rights that everyone in the building could see coming.
Cordes stepped on the scale a contender and stepped off the champion at 132. No school felt it had a fighter good enough to safely challenge for the crown.
Craig Bernier dropped a 3-2 decision to Lock Haven's Manny Rose at 165. Rose, a defending national champion, usually capitalizes on his intimidation and reputation as he did in a one-round knockout the last time they met.
Bernier stood his ground and made Rose box, rather than brawl. While Rose threw wild punches, Bernier countered with short crisp punches in an even first round.
Rose's power overcame Bernier's boxing ability in the second round. He dominated the second round, knocking Bernier down once.
If the fight had lasted another minute or another round, Bernier would have won the fight. With the crowd on its feet, Bernier turned Rose from feared fighter to a punching bag.
The fight ended with Bernier pounding Rose's head. Rose was leaning back on John Dixon was knocked out by Central Connecticut's Mike Campusano at 172. Campusano used his strength to make Dixon retreat. He unloaded a vicious uppercut to end the fight in the second round.
At 156, Randy Pogue was knocked out in the second round of Friday's preliminaries by eventual champion Tom Barile of Central Connecticut.
