The Penn State wrestling program may have experienced its worst NCAA Championships in 20 years this past weekend in Iowa City.

The Nittany Lions failed to qualify a wrestler for All-American status for the first time since 1980, and their 25th place finish was their worst since a 45th place performance that same year.

However, with all six of their qualifiers winning at least one match, one coming within a victory of All-American status, and all six coming back for next year, the Lions will try to use this tournament as a major building block.

"We definitely got something to build on from this tournament," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said.

"Last season, besides (national champion 125-pounder Jeremy) Hunter and (All American 197-pounder Ross) Thatcher, none of our wrestlers won a match. These guys are all coming back, so they'll be able to take this experience and build off it for next year," Sunderland added.

Redshirt freshman Josh Moore had the Lions' best performance at the tournament, coming within a victory of being All-American.

After losing his second round match, unseeded Moore came back Friday and won his first two wrestle-back matches against No. 14 Shaun Williams from Oregon, 10-3, and No.19 Brent Johnson of Kent State 7-5.

Moore's run ended in a loss to No. 9 seed Ruben DeLeon in the fourth consolation round. DeLeon pinned Moore 4:23 into the match.

No other Nittany Lion made it past the third round of consolations. Redshirt freshman 133-pounder Marat Tomaev and sophomore 149-pounder Nate Wachter each won two wrestle back rounds. After his 16-8 win over Central Michigan's Brandon York Thursday night, Tomaev got a 7-4 victory against No. 18 ranked Shawn Kegal of Buffalo.

His season came to a close against No. 17 Dylan Long of Northern Iowa, who pinned him at the 6:55 mark of their match. Tomaev had led the match 5-4 before the pin.

After his win over Oregon's Tony Overstake Thursday night, Wachter also got a 13-4 win over Joe Henson of Penn before losing to Colin Robertson of Boise State 7-5 in the first overtime.

"I'm upset, because I thought I had a chance of being an All-American this season," Wachter said. "But it was still a good experience to go out there and get a couple wins."

Redshirt sophomore 174-pounder Mark Becks got a quick victory in his second consolation round match with a pin over Greg Parker of Princeton 0:41 into their match.

He also managed to hang with No. 12 seed Ati Conner of Nebraska for the seven minutes of regulation, but eventually lost to Conner 5-3 in the sudden victory round of overtime.

Redshirt junior 197-pounder Pete Mielnik survived Thursday night with a 15-6 win over David Schenk of Cal Poly SLO, but Purdue's Jon Bush was too much for him in the second consolation round, pinning him 5:58 into their match.

Heavyweight Bob Jones' extraordinary first season of wrestling came to a close in his first consolation match, as No. 12 seed Ryan Kehler of West Virginia defeated him for the second time this season 3-2.

"There were definitely some positives at this tournament," Sunderland said. "Our guys beat some tough wrestlers. We very easily could have come out of this without as many wins as we got. We're going to look at the positives and the negatives and build and learn from those, and hopefully the guys bring back the intensity from this tournament to next season."