LOCK HAVEN -- The Penn State wrestling team had just finished second in the 11-team field at the Mat Town USA tournament on Saturday and Penn State coach Troy Sunderland was less than pleased.

"We had some guys give us a good effort and we have some guys that should have stayed home. They should have ate more at Thanksgiving dinner and not shown up," Sunderland said.

The cause of Sunderland's ire was the 29 points that separated the runner-up Nittany Lions and their eastern rival and new Mat Town champions Cornell.

The Big Red had four champions to Penn State's two, had the tournament's outstanding wrestler in 133-pound champion Travis Lee and, most importantly, had the first place trophy.

"Cornell's a real tough team," the Lion's 184-pound champion Eric Bradley said.

"They came in here ready to go and wrestled hard."

All of those things added up to bring the Lions back down to earth after rolling the field at East Stroudsburg last weekend. Penn State now hasn't won this tournament, something that used to be automatic, since 2001.

To be fair, things might have been much different if Sunderland had the full roster at his disposal.

Penn State could not enter a wrestler at 141 pounds with both Marat Tomaev and DeWitt Driscoll injured, Tomaev out for the season. Two potentially high finishers in Phillip Davis and Nathan Galloway were held out of action and now look like definite redshirts.

Also, at 149 pounds, rising star Matt Storniolo had to forfeit out of the tournament before the semifinals because of a shoulder injury.

"I knew I wasn't 100 percent going in," Storniolo said. " I knew I wasn't healthy but I just wanted to try and get some points for the team. I think I'm going to take next weekend off and get ready for Navy (Penn State's dual meet opener on Dec. 13)."

To pinpoint where Penn State lost the team championship, look no further than the quarterfinal round. Four Lions -- James Woodall, Jeremy Hart, James Yonushonis and Joel Edwards -- all lost tough matches, effectively ending the Lions' title bid.

Hart's loss, by one point to eventual 165 champion Zach Doll of Pittsburgh, was especially hard.

Cornell's supremacy was sealed when Lee defeated Penn State's Josh Moore, 11-9, in the 133-pound final. The match, featuring two of the country's top three or four at 133 could be a preview of a NCAA semifinal or final match.

But despite the disappointing second place finish, there were some bright spots for Penn State. Senior Pat Cummins won his second straight title at Heavyweight winning 3-1 over Rider's Carmelo Marrero, walk-on Rich Brooks battled to a fifth place finish at 157 and, even though they failed to face each other yet again, Matt Smith and Adam Smith finished third and second at 125 respectively.

Positive signs, all of them, but they were all overshadowed by the continued revival of Bradley. A highly touted recruit that thought his wrestling career was over due to a back injury just one year ago, Bradley is undefeated on the season, has won two straight tournaments and is one of the team's most consistent performers.

In the finals on Saturday, Bradley grinded out a 2-1 victory over Nick Catone of Rider, the top seed, to take the championship in the 184-pound weight class.

"Eric Bradley deserves a heck of a lot of credit," Suderland said. "Most guys in his situation would have just packed it in, but not Eric. He's just put in so much hard work."

Still, for Bradley himself, it's not enough.

"I'm disappointed in how I won this tournament," Bradley said. "I was too conservative. In the finals, I wanted to open up my offense more, but my opponent just has real good mat sense so it was hard. It's something I'm going to work on."