Wrestler Troy Sunderland says a tie is as bad as a loss.

His first loss of the season, to unheralded Brad Gazaway of Navy on Saturday night, was bad enough. So after battling from a 5-2 third-period deficit to tie N.C. State's Tom Best, 142-pounder Sunderland decided against settling for the tie.

After a takedown with 22 seconds remaining, Sunderland allowed Best to escape and take a 6-5 lead. Then Sunderland "threw everything at (Best) for the last 20 seconds."

And he took down Best with two seconds remaining to win the bout, 7-6.

"That just typifies Troy's attitude . . . he hates to lose," Coach Rich Lorenzo said. "He could have lost that bout, but he would rather have lost it than tied it."

The wrestling team (12-1-1) won all of its matches this weekend, downing Navy, 25-12, N.C. State, 25-11, and Maryland, 33-6. The Lions wrestled so aggressively and defeated their opponents so easily that in many individual bouts, including Sunderland's loss, the officials refused to call stalling and hindered Penn State.

"The whole team (Navy) was basically stalling and backing away from us," 158-pounder Jason Suter said. "That kind of hurt us as a team from being aggressive."

Sunderland was the aggressor against Navy's Gazaway, scoring two takedowns that were ruled out of bounds.

"I pushed him all over the mat, it seems like to me," Sunderland said. "I took a lot of shots, and he sat back and defended."

Sunderland got caught with 20 seconds remaining in the bout; he shot and came back out, then Gazaway shot and caught him "kind of flatfooted" for the winning takedown. Gazaway was called for locked hands, but he rode on Sunderland's ankles to clinch the match.

Lorenzo said Gazaway also should have been called for stalling because he spent more than the allotted five seconds riding on Sunderland's shoelaces. But he refused to blame the loss on one call.

"Troy just made a mistake," Lorenzo said. "That's the thing about wrestling -- if you're not sharp every time you go out, there's always someone capable of beating you."

Heavyweight Marc Padwe wrestled sharp in his first bout, defeating No. 6 Brett Bourne, 4-3. But he wrestled his opponent's style against No. 3 Sylvester Terkay and lost, 9-0.

Padwe planned to take control in the tie-ups and his feet early against Bourne. He escaped to start the second period, and then two double stall calls gave Padwe the lead, 2-1.

Padwe clinched the match with a takedown at the edge of the mat in the third period.

"He wrestled real smart and real heady," Lorenzo said.

Against Terkay, however, Padwe gave up a takedown in the first few seconds and was ridden for most of the first period. He then chose neutral to start the second period, but allowed Terkay to shoot first again.

"I didn't wrestle the way I like to wrestle," Padwe said. "He likes to dance around out in the open, whereas I need to tie up to get my offense going. I got frustrated."

Penn State's lightweights took control of each match; Penn State had a 12-0 lead over Navy and N.C. State and a 15-0 lead over Maryland after the 134-pound bout.

Jeff Prescott scored two pins and a technical fall at 118, and Bob Truby scored a decision over No. 7 Mark Smith, a major decision and a pin at 126.

"Prescott just flies into people and gives 100 plus percent, and Bobby Truby doesn't want to be outdone, so he gives the same," Lorenzo said.

Chad Dubin came back from last weekend's disappointment (losing to Iowa's Tom Brands by technical fall and Oklahoma State's Alan Fried in a major decision) to earn three decisions. His wins included a 3-2 decision over Navy's Kelly Davis, who defeated him 7-3 at the Sunshine Open earlier this season.

"Last weekend Chad got slaughtered and embarassed," Lorenzo said. "But this weekend . . . he wouldn't let the other team get in there and get the best of us; he wouldn't let them get any momentum rolling in their favor."

In their first starts, 167-pounder Dan Ombalski and 190-pounder Fred Koberlein got their first varsity wins. Ombalski, a true 158-pounder who wrestled up a class in place of Dave Hart, defeated Ron Lewis of Maryland, 12-6. Koberlein defeated Dave Bowbliss of N.C. State, 11-5.

Heavyweight Skip Pighetti, in his second time in the starting lineup, got his first dual meet victory over Bill Ferencz of Maryland, 13-6.