It was just another day of pre-season training for Joel Edwards and the Penn State wrestling team.

But this time, after doing his best Rocky Balboa impression and sprinting up and down the stairs of Beaver Stadium, Edwards didn't feel right.

He met with a trainer after practice who thought that the pain he felt in his knee was a bone bruise so Edwards decided to tough it out.

For two months, the redshirt sophomore from Upper Darby tried to do just that, but the pain finally became as unbearable as walking around with wet socks.

"Everyday, the pain was irritating," Edwards said. "My leg would just lock up when I was wrestling or sometimes when I was sleeping."

Edwards said he would occasionally have to stand up to stretch in the middle of class or sit with his leg elevated. Finally, he decided to have his knee further examined and the tests revealed two tears of his meniscus.

Edwards decided to have surgery immediately so he could be as close to 100 percent as possible before the Big Ten and NCAA championships this season.

Edwards and Penn State wrestling assistant coach John Hughes said that for wrestlers, returning from an injury can be as frustrating as trying to remove that piece of popcorn lodged in between your teeth.

"You just have to push through and deal with the adversity," Hughes commented.

"Or you can go through a downward spin where you start doubting yourself."

Edwards' first major test came at the Midlands Tournament where he went 3-2, but he believed he should have wrestled better and placed. However, Edwards would soon bounce back as he helped the Nittany Lions overcome a 15-0 deficit to beat rival Lehigh 19-15. Edwards defeated No. 19 Matt Cassidy in a 2-0 match.

"We had our backs against the wall," Edwards said.

"I just wanted to keep the ball rolling after [Eric] Bradley won."

After going 1-1 in matches against Pittsburgh and West Virginia, Edwards faced then-No. 6 Sean Stender of Northern Iowa at the National Dual Team Championships.

There was no pressure on Edwards as the Lions were up 22-9 going into his match at 197.

But he approached the match the same as any other and came out with a 12-6 win.

"Right then, I felt like it was my time," he said.

"Things were finally coming together. I wanted to turn it on until the end of the season."

He went 4-1 during the weekend, with his only loss coming to Marcus Schontube of Penn.

He defeated Schontube earlier this season.

However, Edwards said the weekend was huge for him and the Lions who finished fourth as a team.

"When we look at ourselves now compared to the last couple seasons, we took a big jump," he said.

Hughes said Edwards is slowly getting to where he needs to be as he is wrestling within himself and not trying to do anything extraordinary. Hughes said Edwards is at a "yo-yo stage" where he is capable of beating any wrestler in the nation but needs to remain consistent and not have let-downs.

The path back for Edwards has seemed as long as one of the team's runs up Mount Nittany

But, as the team begins Big Ten play this weekend, the peak finally seems to be in sight.