Penn State and Oklahoma State are the only two teams which will be represented by its full squad at the NCAA Wrestling Tournament, which runs today through Saturday at Maryland.

Thousands have already been eliminated in regional competition, and now only 365 wrestlers from 100 schools remain to battle for a national championship.

"Competition is the fun part," 158-pounder John Yankanich said. Now you get a chance to prove what you can do. It's for the individual to show his stuff."

"This is the fun part of the season," 177-pounder Adam Mariano said. "I have nothing to lose; it'll just be an enjoyable time."

Even with qualifying 10 wrestlers, Penn State is predicted to finish only 12th by Amateur Wrestling News. The wrestlers hope to earn the respect they think they deserve this weekend.

"We just want to prove it to ourselves that we're good," 167-pounder Jason Suter said. "We've lost to a lot of teams that we know weren't better than us, that's the most frustrating thing. A lot of people wrote us off and I'm just hoping everything goes the same way as in the EWLs."

"EWLs is a nice title and everything," Mariano said. "But really, we haven't proven anything. You have to go to the national tournament and you have to perform. That's how everybody's looking at it."

The Lions take three EWL champions into the tournament -- Jeff Prescott (118), Mike Bevilacqua (142) and Yankanich. Four wrestlers placed second in the league tournament -- Bob Truby (126), Suter, Jeff Ellis (190) and Greg Haladay (heavyweight). Chad Dubin (134) and Tim Wittman (150) came in third, and Mariano placed fourth.

One thing they're not taking is experience. Six wrestlers enter the national tournament for the first time, and heavyweight Greg Haladay is the only member of the team with three NCAA tourneys under his belt.

Also, the Lions won't be getting the top seeds. AWN ranks Haladay No. 5, Prescott No. 7 and Bevilacqua No. 12. No other wrestler cracks the top 12.

Coach Rich Lorenzo, however, said he hopes his squad doesn't worry about opponents with higher seeds.

"You only need to win five matches," he said. "We try to keep the guys focused on that. You take them one at a time."

With no single dominating individual, a team unity has formed that Lorenzo said is unique to this year's squad.

"I think they're more group-oriented than other teams we've had," Lorenzo said. "Other teams had outstanding individuals that have stood alone. This team, although we've had similar types of individuals, started believing in each other and pulling for each other and got strength from each other."

"If you've been through a lot of hardships you come together," Yankanich said. "You pull for the other guys."

Last year, after the Lions hovered in the top four for most of the season, they finished a disappointing No. 10 at NCAAs. Four-time All-American Jim Martin, top-seed at 126, finished third. Olympian and three-time All-American Ken Chertow came in sixth after placing third the previous two years.

Penn State had a total score of 39.75, while champion Oklahoma State pulled together 91.25 points with two champions, overshadowing Arizona State's 70.50 points.

The top teams to beat this year are Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Iowa and Nebraska. Arizona State places five wrestlers in the top five, Oklahoma State has seven, Iowa six and Nebraska four. These figures make the Lions realize a team title is basically out of reach, but the members believe they can better their rankings.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we make it into the top five or six," Suter said.

"There's an excitement," Ellis said. "We're kind of underdogs and we want to knock heads and show other teams what we're made of."

Sessions start today with a pig-tail round at 10 a.m., followed by the first preliminary round at 11 a.m. Preliminaries and the first round of consolations will continue at 7 p.m.

Quarterfinals and consolation matches begin at noon tomorrow, followed by semifinals and more consolation matches at 7 p.m.

Consolation semifinals will start 11 a.m. Saturday. Finals will start at 7 p.m.