The Penn State wrestling team, with its 10 wins in hand, trekked the wilderness of Michigan in search of at least one win, if not two.

It returned home from its expeditions to Ann Arbor and East Lansing empty-handed.

The No. 16 Nittany Lions(10-8, 3-5 Big Ten) lost to No. 8 Michigan (10-6, 5-2) 25-17 Saturday night and fell to No. 10 Michigan State (9-5, 5-1) by a close 19-18 score yesterday. The weekend saw Penn State finish with a 3-5 Big Ten record for the season.

Looking to come away with a .500 record in the conference, the Lions fought hard against the Spartans, but suffered their fifth loss to a top-10 opponent this season.

The match came out fairly even, with each team winning five of the bouts, but Michigan State was able to claim more bonus points to capture the victory.

Following a pin to sophomore Adam Smith at 125 pounds, Penn State evened the score at 6-6 with a pair of decisions by juniors Josh and Scott Moore. The win for Scott Moore, his 44th of the season, gives him sole possession of second place on the Penn State single-season record list.

A close loss by freshman Nate Galloway set the score at 9-6. Then Penn State made some changes.

Sophomore Dan Waters injured his knee in the Michigan match, and was unable to wrestle a day later. Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland made the decision to move seniors Nate Wachter and Doc Vecchio up a weight class to 165 pounds and 174 pounds, respectively. The gap in the lineup at 157 pounds was filled by seldom-used sophomore Jarrad Turner.

"Jarrad was ready to go for us wherever we needed," Sunderland said in an interview on the Penn State Sports Network. "He has done a great job with being there and being ready."

Ready or not, Turner couldn't hold off Gray Maynard and lost an 11-2 major decision. Michigan State held a 13-6 lead only momentarily, as a team point was taken away after Maynard took a shot at Turner's face following the referee's whistle.

The Lions and Spartans went back-and-forth through the last five matches. The determining factor was in the 197-pound match, where Michigan State's Nik Fekete was able to get a major decision over senior Ryan Cummins. That gave the Spartans an insurmountable seven-point lead, and led to their one-point victory.

Saturday night's contest didn't come down to a late rally, but rather a slow start hurt Penn State against Michigan.

The Lions lost four of the first five matches, and faced an early 16-6 deficit. The lone winner for Penn State early was at 149 pounds, where Galloway got out of his recent funk with a surprising pin of Ryan Churella in just 25 seconds.

Penn State would get wins by Vecchio, senior Mark Becks and junior Pat Cummins in the second half of the match but were unable to overcome the 10-point Michigan lead.

"We are a little bit frustrated right now after a few matches like this on the road," Sunderland said.

Through that frustration, though, there were a few bright spots for the Lions.

Becks was one of those bright spots, as he won both of his matches this weekend. He pulled off a 22-10 major decision over Michigan's Willie Breyer and followed that up with a 4-2 decision over the Spartans' Nate Mesyn. Becks is now 35-3 on the season, including a 16-1 mark in dual matches.

Pat Cummins also went undefeated on the weekend, beating Michigan's Tony Grygorzyk 17-5 and pinning Michigan State's Mike Keenan in 4:27.