Pat Cummins off the wrestling mat is as friendly and good-natured a person as anyone could hope to meet. He's relaxed, courteous and usually has smile on his face.

Try telling that to Tommy Rowlands. He probably won't believe you.

Not after last night, when Cummins, the junior Penn State heavyweight, thugged Rowlands, ranked second in the country, 10-4, to earn the Nittany Lions an 18-18 tie at Rec Hall.

With Penn State trailing Ohio State, 18-15, and having lost six of the last seven matches, Cummins stepped onto the big blue and white mat with the weight of his home fans' doubt weighing on him.

Any momentum the Lions had picked up after jumping out to a 12-0 lead had evaporated. Rec Hall was being dragged down by the yoke of another close, disappointing loss weighing on the Penn State faithful.

At first, the long faces and grumbling of the Lion fans looked prophetic.

Rowlands took Cummins down with the skill of a surgeon.

Cummins looked languid, unable to get his offense going.

But momentum is a fickle companion. In the second period, Cummins hit a classic inside trip for a takedown and the silent crowd erupted. Seconds later Cummins hiked Rowlands into the air and brought him down with vicious intent. Rowlands landed hard on his shoulder and had to take an injury time out.

All of the sudden, in the space of maybe 20 seconds everything shifted into Cummins' corner.

But Rowlands isn't a national champion for nothing. He fought through the pain to tie the bout back up at four and late in the third period, he was in on a single leg, looking for the winning takedown.

Concern returned to the faces of the Penn State fans, but it didn't last long. Cummins extended Rowlands and then wrapped him up in a nearside cradle. Rec Hall pleaded for the pin to be called but Bob Derr wouldn't oblige. Still Cummins had won 10-4, and forged out a tie in the scoreboard at least, when all had looked lost just minutes beforehand.

"This win is right up there for me," Cummins said afterwards. "It's been a longtime coming. This will give me a definite mental edge for next time."

It was Cummins' first victory over Rowlands, last year's national champion, in five tries and only Rowland's fourth loss of the season.

For Cummins, who had to wrestle No. 1 Steve Mocco on Monday, Rowlands yesterday and will wrestle Mocco again Sunday, the win is huge. It's also big for his team.

"We had a lot of big wins come out of tonight, Pat's was especially nice," Penn State head coach Troy Sunderland said.

"He just wrestled a great match tonight. He knows he can wrestle with anyone in the country. The inside trip he hit (Cummins' first takedown) was a thing of beauty. He hit it perfectly. You got to love it."

After the match there was some grumbling from Buckeye head coach Russ Hellickson that Rowlands was injured and that if the match wasn't on the line, Ohio State would have forfeited at heavyweight.

Cummins doesn't buy it.

"I heard some rumors that he had hurt his ribs. Whatever. It isn't an excuse," Cummins said.

Even after someone tries to degrade the biggest win of his career, that's about as angry as Cummins will get.

Off the mat, anyway.