EVANSTON, Ill. — Once the seedings for the Big Ten Championships were released, it was clear that the Penn State wrestling team would have to do something shocking to keep it from being the school's worst ever performance.

The Lions brought no ranked wrestlers to the tournament. Four of their 10 wrestlers were not seeded in the top eight, and the three grapplers seeded seventh were the highest seeded of the Penn State squad.

No Nittany Lion survived past the championship quarterfinals, with each Lion that advanced past the preliminary round forced to wrestle either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the quarters.

By the end of the first session of wrestling, Penn State had already lost any chance of putting at least one grappler in the finals, something they had not failed to do in their eight previous Big Ten tournaments.

Their tenth place finish was their worst since joining the conference as was their total score of 35 points, but with six wrestlers qualifying for nationals, the Nittany Lions actually surpassed expectations.

Redshirt sophomore Mark Becks and redshirt freshman Marat Tomaev each won their first consolation matches at 174 and 133 pounds respectively to earn at least a spot in the fifth place match. Neither won another match, and both finished sixth. With the top seven in each weight class qualifying for nationals, both will be in Iowa City March 15-17.

Sophomore 149-pounder Nate Wachter, redshirt freshman 125-pounder Josh Moore, junior Bob Jones, and redshirt junior 197-pounder Pete Mielnik all had their status in limbo going into the second day of the tournament, but all managed to get wins in their seventh place matches to get bids to the NCAA tournament.

"The guys just had to come out and forget about the first day," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said.

"If you told me . . . we would qualify six guys for nationals, I would've thought you were crazy."

Becks, opened up his tournament with a win in the preliminary round, but lost a shot at the title in his quarterfinal match against No. 2 seed Gabe McMahon of Iowa. Becks lost his last consolation match to Illinois Ben King in overtime.

"I'm happy to make it through Big Tens," Becks said. "It was definitely one of my goals, but I'm really disappointed in finishing with a loss. I didn't think there was any chance I could lose that last match."

Tomaev also had his ticket stamped for Iowa City the first night of the tournament. After falling to eventual champion at 133-pound Eric Juergens of Iowa, Tomaev pulled an upset of No. 5 seed Foley Dowd of Michigan with a takedown with nine seconds left in the match. Tomaev lost his next two matches to No. 2 seeded Pat McNamara of Michigan State, and No. 3 seed Brett Lawrence of Minnesota in the fifth place match.

"My ultimate goal was to get to nationals," Tomaev said. "I think this proves I've shortened the gap between myself and the better wrestlers at my weight class."

Though Sunderland was satisfied with six national qualifiers, he expected more out of the team as a whole.

"I'm never going to be happy with a tenth place finish," Sunderland said. "With the team we had, I have to be pleased with six national qualifiers, but our guys have to know this is not what we want as a program."