What a difference a year makes.
Last season, the Penn State wrestling team posted a miserable 6-12 record. The Nittany Lions were 3-5 in Big Ten play, including a huge beatdown of Indiana and a close loss to Purdue.
The Lions once again put a hurting on the Hoosiers and wrestled a close match with the Boilermakers. This time, though, Penn State came out on top in that close match and sit on the brink of solidifying a winning season.
Penn State wrestlers and coaches were unavailable for comment.
No. 17 Penn State (9-3, 2-0) opened its Big Ten schedule Friday night against Indiana (12-4, 0-1). The Hoosiers obviously forgot to bring their chairs and bull whips to tame the Lions. Penn State won nine of the 10 matches and left University Gymnasium with a 37-4 win.
The victory ran Penn State's record to 10-0 all-time against Indiana. The 33-point win was the largest margin of victory for the Lions in the 11 years that they have been part of the Big Ten.
Penn State traveled from Bloomington to West Lafayette, Ind., for the matchup with No. 13 Purdue (11-2, 0-1). Unlike last season's 21-17 loss to the Boilermakers, the Lions were able to carry the momentum from Friday and pull out the 21-15 win. Penn State now holds an 8-1 record all-time against Purdue.
Scott Moore moved closer to etching his name in the Penn State record books over the weekend. With a pin of Indiana's Coyte Cooper in the 141-pound match, Moore registered his 19th pin of the season. He is just one behind former Nittany Lion Cary Kolat for the single-season record. Kolat recorded 20 pins during the 1994 season.
The 32nd pin of Moore's career leaves him just two behind former NCAA champion and United States Olympian Kerry McCoy's career record of 34.
Moore still wasn't done attacking McCoy's records. The win against Purdue's Randy Pursley was Moore's 40th of the season. That puts him in sole possession of sixth place for the Penn State single-season record. The three win totals ahead of Moore -- 47, 43 and 41 -- were all set or tied by McCoy.
The rest of the team is hoping that more similarities arise between this season and the 1994 squad. That year the Lions posted a 15-6 record and finished third at the NCAA championships.
With the wins Penn State is just one victory away from securing a winning record for the season.
A winning season would be the first for Penn State since 1999 and just the second in the five seasons under Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland.
