Making his debut in the night's first fight was 132-pound John Baer, who was fighting with a partially fractured nose, against Joey Song from UNLV. Both fighters started out tentatively, throwing few punches. In the second round, Song took control of the fight by forcing Baer into the corners. Song won the fight by decision.

"It was a great experience," said Baer. "I've only been with the team three months. I'm happy with the fact it went all three rounds, but I'm a little upset with my performance."

Also making his debut was 165-pound Miles Rivas against Justin Trenta from Virginia Military Institute. Rivas took control of the bout midway through the first round and never looked back, forcing eight counts in all three rounds before referee Seth Lyter stopped the bout in the third with Trenta bleeding badly.

"Miles Rivas is going to be very good," Penn State coach Bill Wrable said. "He's a very accurate puncher. He just has an instinct for boxing."

In the 112-pound class, Jon Whitbred matched up against the No. 2 nationally ranked Xenon Maccari from UNLV. Neither fighter wasted time on preliminaries, as they flailed at one another from the opening bell. Maccari looked more consistent throughout the fight, but Whitbred showed no quarter against the onslaught of punches. Maccari won the fight by decision.

"Jon was strong, real tough," UNLV coach Skip Kelp said. "Xenon was a little more technically savvy. Jon was hit with some good shots and kept coming."

In a hard fought 165-pound battle, Tom Shortledge took on Anthony Bravo from VMI. Shortledge took control early and forced an eight count of the dazed Bravo. In the second and third rounds, Bravo came out swinging only to have his attacks be blunted by Shortledge's uppercuts. Both fighters tired as third round wore on with Bravo bleeding. Shrotledge won by decision.

"Extremely nervous, I played football in high school but this is totally different," Shortledge said. "Totally nervous until I got hit with the first punch."

In one of the evening's closest fights, 139-pound Nick Bair fought Jose Gonzalez. Both boxers traded jabs throughout the highly technical bout. Bair won the fight by decision.

"Both of us were very even fighters," said Bair. "It came down to who practiced hardest and who fought hardest in the ring."

The evening's heavyweight bout that brought the crowd to their feet featured ex-Navy Seal Rick Slater for Penn State against future Navy Seal Pat McCauley. The taller, brawnier Slater stalked McCauley around the ring for much of the fight. Slater won by decision.

"Slater hits like a mule, he's a tough kid," McCauley said. "It's always a war with him. I'll probably face him at nationals."

Penn State boxing team president Alex Komlev faced off against 165-pound Dustin Lonero for the Midshipman. The taller Komlev had a shaky start, taking a standing-eight count midway through the first. He recovered however, and had Lonero against the ropes and fighting desperately by the end of the bout. Komlev won in a close decision.

"Alex always likes to be strong and beat people up but certain people you can't do that with," Wrable said. "After he started moving in the second round I thought he did very well. He's going to be there at the end of the year."

The last fight of the night pitted 139-pound Doug Bayly, who finished second in nationals last year, against Steve Cobos for Navy. The wild-swinging Bayly moved Cobos around the ring all fight long, staying inside and using his uppercut. Bayly won a convincing decision.

"Bayly did a great job of getting inside Cobos who had the reach advantage," Navy coach Tom Searing said. "He fought a strong bout and deserved to win."

"They did well overall, but they only fought two out of three rounds," Wrable said. "We gave away the middle rounds. . .we have a long way to go. We have to be better on conditioning, combination punching, and a lot of footwork."

The team now looks ahead to next week when half the team will fight in Reno and half the team at VMI.