CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- When the final match was finished at the 64th NCAA Wrestling Championships, Oklahoma State found itself in a very familiar place -- sitting atop the wrestling world.

The Cowboys, just one year off NCAA probation, won their 30th title in easier-than-expected fashion.

Behind the strength of three champions, Oklahoma State scored 94.75 points to outdistance Iowa (76.5) and its "Second place is the first loser" T-shirts, Penn State (57) and Oregon State (49.5). The Lions, whose title hopes were slim at best, were victimized by a semifinal round that saw favorites Cary Kolat (134) and Sanshiro Abe (126) drop overtime bouts by identical 6-4 scores.

While No. 1 seeds were dropping all weekend, Penn State's Kerry McCoy was one of only two wrestlers to keep his record perfect as he won the heavyweight class with a hard-fought 7-4 win over Northern Iowa's Justin Greenlee.

Kolat lost to Oregon State's Babak Mohammadi, a wrestler Kolat had beaten 9-5 earlier in the season. Abe, who looked dominant in his first two matches, was unable to get his offense going against Cornell's David Hirsch.

"It's not like they really did terrible or choked," Fritz said. "Had they won by one point everybody would have said, 'Hey they looked great.' "

Both Abe and Kolat, wrestled back strong to take home third-place plaques and score valuable points to help move the Lions into third place.

"That's probably one of the greatest lessons in life," Fritz said. "When they can do that and bounce back like that they can handle tougher things in life."

John Hughes became the fourth Lion All-American with a seventh place finish at 142 pounds. Hughes lost to eventual champion Alan Fried of Oklahoma State 14-4 in the semifinals.

"I'm sorry my brother (Russ) didn't make All-American," Hughes said. "I felt I should have been in the final. I'm not pleased taking seventh."

The only wrestler who went into the tournament with more pressure on him than Kolat, was Oklahoma State's Pat Smith, who was looking to become the first four-time NCAA champion in history. Smith breezed to the finals where he ran into Michigan's tough Sean Bormet. Bormet nearly made history when he gave Smith all he could handle before losing 5-3.

"In all my years of competition, I don't think I had to deal with the all the pressure he's had to deal with," said Oklahoma State's Coach John Smith, a two-time Olympic champion, who also happens to be be Pat Smith's older brother. The other big story of the meet was Oklahoma State's Mark Branch, who won the 167-pound championship. Branch became the only wrestler to win a title after entering the tournament with a losing record.

Note:

On Saturday morning a rumor ran rampant through the Smith Center that Kolat was going to tranfer to Iowa. Kolat, however, denied the tranfer rumor.

"That's just talk," Kolat said. "Everything is fine at Penn State. I don't know how that got started."

Fritz seemed surprised when asked about it, and said that he didn't believe it to be true.

"I don't know anything about it," Fritz said. "We haven't heard anything. I hope that he would tell us if he were unhappy."