After taking a couple steps forward with two huge upsets last weekend, the Penn State wrestling team took a couple steps back this weekend by getting dominated by both Ohio State and Illinois.

The Nittany Lions won just four total matches on the weekend, falling to Ohio State 24-9 and to Illinois 32-3. Their record fell to 5-7 overall and to 0-2 in the Big Ten.

An 8-4 upset victory by Penn State redshirt sophomore Mark Becks over Ben King, the Fighting Illini's No. 8 ranked 174 pounder, in the meet's second match roused the Nittany Lion faithful.

The Lions could not convert the win to momentum, however, as they lost the rest of the day's matches.

"We took ourselves out of it," coach Troy Sunderland said.

"Becks came out, and really went after it, but a lot of other kids came out and went after it but didn't follow through. We're not going after it consistently, and we're just not putting it all together."

The Lions were down 10-3 when Fighting Illini heavyweight John Lockhart, ranked No. 6 in the country, delivered the knockout blow with a pin of Penn State heavyweight Bob Jones, 1:24 in to the match. Illinois clinched the match when sophomore 133 pounder took down Nittany Lion redshirt freshman Marat Tomaev in overtime.

Illinois recorded 30 takedowns in the match compared to four by Penn State.

"We knew they were tough," Sunderland said.

"But we didn't know they were this tough. We made them look a lot better than they were."

Sunderland was pleased with the wrestling of sophomore Nate Wachter, who managed to hang with No. 1 ranked 149 pounder Adam Tirapelle, losing 10-4.

"I was pleased with the way Nate Wachter wrestled," Sunderland said. "He went out there and went after it, he tried a lot of shots. He didn't finish up on a lot of them, but he mixed it up. I was encouraged by his performance.

"The rest of the team just needs to wake up and figure out what they're doing. This was an embarrassing performance."

Penn State was actually where they wanted to be after the first two matches against Ohio State.

Redshirt junior Pete Mielnik took the Buckeye's No. 7 ranked 197 pounder Nick Preston to the second overtime before Preston won with an escape, and Bob Jones kept No. 1 ranked heavyweight Tommy Rowlands from putting any extra points on the board, losing 9-4.

The Lions also came up with two big wins by Marat Tomaev and 141 pounder Nate Parker.

Tomaev defeated Ohio State's No. 19 ranked 133 pounder Jeff Ratliff 3-2, and Parker followed up with a win over No. 10 Robert Sessley.

"I'm getting better," said Tomaev, who has been battling injuries for three years, and is still working with pain in his knee. "But I'm still not where I should be. There is still a long way to go. It's still hard for me to finish shots."

"Beating a ranked kid means nothing to me; I just want to go out and win every match."

The Lions would lose the next four matches however, and the Buckeyes had an insurmountable lead by the time the Lions No. 13 ranked 184 pounder Jeff Knupp beat No. 16 Anton Talamantes 5-3 in the meet's final bout.

The Lions got more bad news over the weekend when they discovered that redshirt freshman Josh Moore has been battling a similar shoulder injury to that which ended his brother Scott's season.

Josh was not in the lineup yesterday, but he is expected to wrestle the year out before having surgery.

Penn State hosts a double dual meet at Rec Hall on Wednesday. Pennsylvania will wrestle the Lions at 6 p.m., followed by Lock Haven at 8 p.m.