Last season the wrestling team entered the National Dual Meet Tournament with an almost-unbeatable dual-meet team. Coming away with anything less than a championship would have been a disappointment.

This year, however, is quite different. With some inexperienced wrestlers and injuries, it would have taken an extraordinary performance from some unheralded wrestlers for the Lions to defend their championship.

And they nearly did.

The Lions, seeded No. 6, exceeded expectations on their way to a third-place finish with two wins over higher ranked teams -- No. 3 Oregon State, 20-16, and No. 5 North Carolina, 23-16. The Lions also beat Central Oklahoma, 30-12, and Nebraska, 24-14.

"I'm just so proud of all of the guys," Coach John Fritz said in an interview with WRSC-AM. "We didn't win it all, and we're not pleased with that, but we're pleased with the fight that we saw."

The Lions only loss came at the hands of No. 2 Iowa. The Hawkeyes, however, did not have as easy a time with the Lions as they did on Jan. 7, when they beat Penn State, 29-15. On Saturday, Iowa came away with a 24-15 win over an injury-depleted Penn State squad.

"Not going into the Iowa match full strength, it's kind of though to come away with a win," heavyweight Kerry McCoy said on WRSC.

The fact that Penn State was able to finish third without some key wrestlers made the Lions' performance even more impressive. Penn State was forced to wrestle much of the tournament without the services of standout 118-pounder Shawn Nelson. Nelson injured his knee in his first bout, an 8-2 win over Central Oklahoma's Randy Zellner, and was forced to watch the rest of the tournament from the sidelines.

True-freshman Mark Brennan was thrown into the fire and wrestled ranked wrestlers in three of his four matches. But while he didn't win a match, he saved the Lions valuable team points in those bouts.

Another unlikely hero was Rob Piper. Piper, wrestling in his first varsity matches, won two key bouts and helped the Lions to wins over Nebraska and North Carolina.

But while some unlikely heroes emerged, it was the performances of the Lions' mainstays that propelled them to their strong finish.

Sanshiro Abe (126), Cary Kolat (134), John Hughes (142) and McCoy all went undefeated in the tournament.

McCoy, still unbeaten this year, scored a big win over Oregon State heavyweight Reynold Gardner that broke a 16-16 deadlock and gave the Lions the win.

Kolat also kept his record perfect and improved his career record to 2-1 with nemesis T.J. Jaworsky when he scored a 4-2 win over North Carolina's NCAA champion.