Nothing happens over night. It takes time and performance to become a national powerhouse.

Early in this season the Penn State wrestling team has begun taking the steps in the right direction. The Nittany Lions look to continue their progress on Sunday at the Penn State Open at Rec Hall.

"We always set our goals high," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said. "We must continue to develop, and it was good to see a Big Ten team last week. We still have a long way to go, but we must continue take one small step at a time."

The Lions will be competing at their third open tournament, after winning Mat-Town USA last weekend. The mindset going in, for the Open is different than last week at Lock Haven.

"There is a little bit of a change," junior Doc Vecchio said. "Last week, we wanted to get bonus points, and we did a very good job of it. It's different this week, we still want the pin, but the win is just as important."

The Penn State Open will be the largest open Penn Sate has been at. Teams at the open include Navy, Binghamton, Drexel, Eastern Michigan, James Madison, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and The College of New Jersey. The squads will not all send full squads, some teams will send only their redshirted wrestlers, others will send just a few selected wrestlers, while others will send an entire varsity squad. Coach Sunderland is unsure of who each team will bring.

The injury bug is still infecting the Lions as Adam Smith is still recovering from illness he suffered at Lock Haven. Pete Mielnik is still out and Adam Shepler and Joel Edwards underwent surgery, yesterday. Penn State might see the return of Jason Woodall and Aaron Wright, who both remain questionable.

Rec Hall will host wrestling for the first time since wrestle-offs early November. The hometown crowd should give the wrestlers the necessary boost.

"We really enjoy wrestling at home," Vecchio said. "It's awesome when everyone is cheering for us. It just neat being at home."

Nate Wachter was one of the only Lions not to place a week ago, and we wants to change those results.

"I got messed up last weekend, and did not perform well," 149-pounder said. "I got to keep my weight back, and then that should help me step it up in front of home crowd. It's important to do well at home. I got to bounce back right away, Thanksgiving really killed me."

The Lions look to continue their ways, with a strong performance at home.

"We have a lot of confidence going into this weekend, and we had a real good week of practices," Sunderland said.