With the spoils Penn State's rich athletic program provides us, it usually does not occur to spectators that the athletes we vicariously live through to fight our battles and boredom are, like ourselves, students.

Sports lends itself to us through its accomplishments and issues. In turn, we tend to entertain ourselves with daily arguments of theory ranging from the scope of college football's national championship to the breakdown of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Rarely do we truly appreciate the sports not associated with the NCAA, the Big Ten conference or even the athletic department.

Perhaps we have collegiate athletics out of perspective.

It is not until you have watched four college students fight valiantly to qualify for the national boxing championships -- as I did Saturday night as the boxing club hosted the National Collegiate Boxing Association's Northeast Regionals -- and then proceed to dismantle the ring in which they boxed immediately afterward while still wearing their gold medals.

Not until you have watched a 180-pound boxer named Clinton Shultz floor his opponent, Shippensburg's Mike Ward, with a hard right only one minute into the first round of their national qualifying bout, can you understand what's gone wrong.

After watching four teammates -- Mike Francis (147 pounds), Vince Calio (156), Derek Vietro (165) and Jim Bernier (172) have gold medals draped around their necks, Shultz had put himself in position to follow suit quickly.

But he made a mistake.

Shultz lacked the killer instinct to finish Ward immediately. He let his opponent recover during a standing eight-count, then waited for Ward to regain his senses before delivering another blow that certainly would have finished his wobbly legged counterpart.

A big mistake.

Coach Bill Wrable stood in the blue corner, waving vehemently for Shultz to attack. Behind Wrable stood Shultz's teammates, who sensed Ward's weakness and cheered for Shultz to drop his foe. Each and every one of them wanted to step in the ring and get the knockout. Just ask them.

To Shultz's misfortune, they didn't. Ward recovered to win the second round, depsite a mouth bleeding so profusely that referee Tony Wolfe almost stopped the bout.

Wrable knew things took a turn for the worse when he told Shultz to work the body in the third and the boxer asked, "Which one?" His vision blurred and his legs weary, Shultz stumbled to the center of the ring at the sound of the bell.

He punched at the air, swinging in slow motion while his footing floundered. Amazingly, Shultz connected once with a right uppercut, then caught Ward by surprise, almost sending him to the mat with a right hook.

"Everything was just a big blur," Shultz said afterward. "I had to feel the punches. Instinct just pulls you and tells you what to do."

But instinct couldn't win the bout. Neither could Shultz, who lost a 3-2 split decision. Expecting devastation, I asked him if he would trade his Dec. 2 victory over Ward for a trip to the NCBA's national championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 6-7.

"Absolutely not," he said. "There's nothing to be ashamed of putting 100 percent in and losing. No regrets. No one likes to lose, especially me. This will take a while."

I think I've had more difficulty comprehending his loss. I thought Shultz should have knocked Ward out when he had the chance. But Clinton Shultz happens to be a 180-pound senior majoring in business logistics and a member of the boxing club.

And that's the problem.