The Penn State wrestling team will hope to build on its eighth place finish at the Cliff Keen/National Wrestling Coaches' Association National Duals last weekend, as its gets into the heart of a string of tough matches this weekend with the opening of its Big Ten schedule.

Ohio State, ranked No. 15 in the Intermat rankings this week, will visit Rec Hall tonight at 7, and No. 5 Illinois will be in town for a match Sunday at 1 p.m.

"I talked to the team again this week, again to let them know I was happy with an eighth place finish last week," coach Troy Sunderland said. "But this is not where we want to be at the end of the year. We have to keep going out there and working hard.

"We've got a lot of tough competition coming up, the next week and a half is going to be pretty tough."

The upsets of Arizona State and Hofstra over the weekend garnered the Nittany Lions some national recognition. Penn State cracked Intermat's top 25 for the first time this season, coming in at No. 17 this week.

"It's nice to be recognized nationally as moving up," coach Sunderland said. "Rankings don't mean a whole lot right now, but it's nice to think that we've let others know that we're better than they originally thought."

The Lions will have a good chance to prove it this weekend. Though Ohio State is ranked just two spots ahead of Penn State, they have six starters ranked in the top 20 compared to two for Penn State.

Highlighting that list is redshirt freshman Tommy Rowlands, ranked No. 1 in the country at heavyweight. Rowlands has lost just three matches thus far in his first year of competition. Penn State will send Bob Jones, the newcomer from the football team who has really been thrown into the fire of late. This will be the fifth ranked opponent he's wrestled in nine matches on the team.

Nittany Lion redshirt junior Jeff Knupp, ranked No. 15 at 184 pounds will grapple with No. 16 ranked Buckeye sophomore Anton Talamantes in what coach Sunderland calls a must-win match.

The Lions and Buckeyes will also match ranked wrestlers at 141 pounds. Penn State's Nate Parker, ranked No. 17, will face No. 10 Robert Sessley, a rematch of a Big Ten tournament contest two years ago which Sessley won.

Penn State looks to have sophomore Nate Wachter back to wrestle Buckeye sophomore Keaton Anderson, ranked No. 16 Keaton Anderson. Wachter is questionable after a shoulder injury at last week's Duals.

Other ranked Buckeyes include No. 19 Jeff Ratliff at 133 pounds and No. 7 Nick Preston at 197 pounds. No. 5 Illinois is even more solid, with all six of their ranked wrestlers listed in the top ten.

"They've just got a really balanced, solid team," Sunderland said. "There's no question that we'll have to wrestle close to our perfect match to get a win."

Leading the group is senior Adam Tirapelle, ranked No. 1 at 149 pounds.

Also ranked are senior Nate Patrick, ranked No. 2 at 184 pounds, No. 10 Matt Lackey at 165, No. 8 Ben King at 174, No. 8 Pat Quirk at 197 pounds and No. 6 John Lockhart at heavyweight.

"We just have to go out there the rest of the season with intensity, desire and emotion," Sunderland said. "We need to be up for the rest of these meets, because if we're not, we'll be in a world of hurt in the Big Ten, but I think the guys will rise to the occasion."