ALBANY, N.Y. — In a three-day wrestling tournament with 330 participants, story lines are not hard to come by. Day one of the 2002 NCAA wrestling championships was no exception.

Billman, Parker redux

Two Penn State transfers, Jamarr Billman and Nate Parker, enjoyed the tournament's opening day.

Parker, now wrestling for Oklahoma, pinned Brad Metzler of Stanford to open his day, before dropping third seeded Sean Gray of Virginia Tech, 6-3.

"I'm sure a lot of people were surprised with my performance," Parker said. "The transition was hard coming from another school, but what better time to come on than at the national tournament?"

Billman was not quite as dominant in his two matches, but got the job done nonetheless. He opened with a 12-3 major decision over Jason Mercado of Brown. His next match, against unseeded Karl Nadolsky, was a different story. Trailing 3-1 with only 30 seconds left, Billman was awarded two penalty points to send the bout into overtime. In the extra period, he hit a takedown to walk away with a 5-3 win.

"I didn't wrestle my best, but that's okay. I know I can wrestle better," Billman said. "I'm just going to wrestle my hardest and take it one match at a time."

Another Lion transfer, Clarion's Jeremy Reitz, won his opening bout, 9-7, before falling to Minnesota's Luke Becker in the second round.

Survive and advance

Who said the first day of the NCAA Wrestling Tournament was supposed to be easy for a No. 1 seed? Navy's Mark Conley, the top seed at 141 pounds, had anything but an easy day. Conley, through the luck of the draw, was one of only a few wrestlers that were forced to wrestle three matches yesterday.

After winning his first bout 8-3, Conley found himself engaged in two wars.

It took Conley a heroic third-period ride to beat Wisconsin's Grant Hoerr 2-0 and Conley was forced to comeback from a two point deficit to drop Lock Haven's Mike Maney 3-2.

Another top seed, Scott Justus of Virginia Tech at 184, was not so lucky. Justus, who many thought was a suspect choice for the top ranking, was dominated by Cal-State-Fullerton's Rowdy Lundegreeen, 14-7.

Other top seeds to go down included Minnesota's No. 2 Leroy Vega at 125, West Virginia's No. 4 Tom McMath at 165 and Illinois No. 5 Jon Lockhart at heavyweight.

One and done

While teams like Minnesota, Oklahoma and Iowa normally dominate the tournament, bringing all or almost all of their wrestlers, 10 teams came to Albany represented by only one wrestler.

Army, the Citadel, Wyoming, Old Dominio, Campbell, Bloomsburg, Howard, Binghamton, UNC-Greensboro and Eastern Michigan were all one-man shows yesterday. Combined, the 10 teams went 2-8 in the opening round of action.

Included in the loss column was Reading native and No. 4 seed Jeff Rusak of Old Dominion.

"I was the only wrestler from ODU last year, so I'm used to it," said Rusak, who came back in the consolation round with a pin. "I have a lot of friends and family up here supporting me, so I want to make them proud."

Super Sanderson

Iowa State's Cael Sanderson, top seed at 197 pounds, improved to 156-0 on his college career yesterday. Appearing to toy with his opponents, Sanderson picked up two falls over Eric Mausser of Clarion and Kyle Cerminara of Buffalo.

Sanderson, who is dogged by media everywhere he goes at this tournament, is right on track to complete the most incredible collegiate wrestling career in history tomorrow.

Still perfect

Eight wrestlers entered the 2002 championships with perfect records. The only two to fall during the first day of competition were Justus and Rusak.

Fresno State's Stephen Abas at 125, Minnesota's Ryan Lewis at 133, Iowa's Mike Zadick at 149, Nebraska's Bryan Snyder at 157, Michigan's Otto Olson at 174 and Sanderson all kept their dreams of perfect seasons alive.