Jeff Prescott's "head injury" cost the wrestling team a victory over West Virginia yesterday.

Prescott wrestled at 126 pounds Saturday as the Lions beat Pitt, 22-21, and he did not make weight again yesterday. Freshman John Evans lost a major decision at 118 to West Virginia's Steve Millward, and the Mountaineers won, 23-17.

With Prescott, who has earned team bonus points in every bout, the score would have been at least 21-19, Penn State.

Prescott, ranked No. 1 at 118 pounds, is the second Penn State wrestler in two weeks to have trouble making weight. Troy Sunderland, now ranked No. 2, did not make the trip after failing to make weight last weekend.

"In Jeff's case, I think he let what Troy did affect him," Coach Rich Lorenzo said. "I think what happens in a case like that is he gets to look too much at himself and gets selfish. He just wants to do what's best for him."

Lorenzo did not know until 10 Thursday night that Prescott was going to have trouble making weight. Prescott has a bruised knee, but Lorenzo said it should not have hindered his workouts this week.

"He got a mindset about him that he needed time off and didn't say anything to anybody," Lorenzo said. "When it came time to get the weight down, he had a poor attitude, he said he can't make it, and then he was too far over. He really let everybody down."

Neither Prescott nor any other wrestler was available for comment.

"They're out in the van and I'm making them think a little bit," Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo spoke with the team after the match about the need to act as a team, not a group of individuals. He said some wrestlers are lacking pride in the team, and this has hurt the Lions in past weeks.

Lorenzo accepts the physical injuries which have plagued the Lions since they won the national dual meet title last month; he knows those wrestlers want to wrestle. He is impatient and unsure about how to deal with the mental breakdowns.

"I like to refer to it as a head injury, and that's the most difficult injury to work with," Lorenzo said. "If there's a shoulder separation, you can see the separation, you can diagnose it, you can see what the treatment is. With a head injury, you only assume you're getting at what the problem is."

The Lions expected a tough match against No. 12 West Virginia, but they were surprised by Pitt, which went into the match winless in the EWL for the last two seasons.

Because Prescott did not make 118, regular 134-pounder Chad Dubin did not wrestle. Dubin wrestled individually at the Sunshine Open between semesters and needed to sit out one meet so he did not go over the 21 dates of competition allowed by the NCAA.

Evans, wrestling for Prescott at 118, lost on a technical fall. Prescott then pinned Sean Moffit at 126, and Bob Truby earned a major decision at 134.

Tim Wittman, suffering from an elbow injury, failed to score bonus points over Pitt's Doug Johnson at 150. No. 4 Scott Hovan usually wrestles at 150 for the Panthers, but he sat out yesterday because he did not make weight last weekend. Pitt's policy is that wrestlers who do not make weight sit out the next match.

Mike Kraft won his first bout since wrestling at 177 over Pitt's Joe Hilfrerty. His win turned out to be crucial when heavyweight Marc Padwe was pinned in the first period by Terry Miller.

"(Padwe) got too arrogant," Lorenzo said. "He got double underhooks and tried to jack the guy up in the air and got headlocked. It was the only thing he could do in that position, and Marc didn't think he'd do it. But he did it."