The thud from the referee's hand smacking the mat echoed through the stunned and silent Rec Hall crowd.

In his head, Penn State's DeWitt Driscoll heard the referee blow the whistle after Illinois' Michael Martin took him down, signaling the end of the overtime period. However, in reality, the whistle hadn't blown, and the Penn State wrestling team was down 6-0 to Illinois in its Big Ten opener as Martin was awarded the fall in overtime.

In what has been a season characterized by few highs and many lows, Driscoll said the Illinois match was the bottom. Now, with the Big Ten championships less than a week away, Driscoll will get the chance to prove that the strenuous season was worth it.

Like many of the Nittany Lions wrestlers, Driscoll's season began with an injury. In November, Driscoll felt pain in his right arm to the point where Penn State wrestling assistant coach John Hughes said Driscoll's bicep in that arm was about three inches bigger than the bicep in his left arm. The diagnosis was a staph infection and Driscoll had surgery on Nov. 20.

He returned to the lineup about a month later, but wasn't where he believed he could have been if healthy.

"I was taking on some of the top guys in the country and taking my beatings," Driscoll said. "It was tough because I knew I wasn't at my best."

Then came the Illinois match where Driscoll was pinned in overtime, much to the dismay of Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland, who sent Driscoll to the back hallway of Rec Hall to run sprints after the match.

"He just told me I was better than that," Driscoll said. "I was harder on myself than he ever could have been."

Driscoll and the Lions traveled to Iowa the following weekend, where Marat Tomaev weighed in for Penn State along with Driscoll at 141 pounds. Tomaev, who has wrestled with a torn ACL and a torn MCL all season, was cleared by doctors to compete, but nobody had told Driscoll.

However, Driscoll got the nod against No. 5 Cliff Moore and lost 12-4. On the bus ride to Wisconsin, Sunderland told Driscoll that the coaching staff felt he needed a match off, and Tomaev took the mat and pinned the Badgers' Tyler Laudon. Looking back, Driscoll said he was disappointed, but he probably benefited from the match off.

Tomaev's win set up a wrestle-off between Tomaev and Driscoll the following week, which Driscoll won. From there, things brightened for the redshirt sophomore with three wins against Northwestern, Michigan and Lock Haven. It was Driscoll's best stretch of the season as he prepared for the team's final matches before Big Ten and NCAA championships.

And then Driscoll faded back into darkness as the news came that he would have to wrestle Tomaev once again for the starting job. Driscoll said he didn't know why he had to go through another wrestle-off after already beating Tomaev, but the coaching staff felt that Tomaev, wrestling in his last year of eligibility, had earned one more chance.

"Marat is a senior who's been around the block," Hughes said at the time.

"As a coaching staff, we decided that he deserved another chance."

The two wrestlers went at it again, and this time it was Tomaev coming out victorious with a 7-5 decision. The loss was extremely hard on Driscoll. After he had finally won a few matches in a row, he was forced to sit out the team's final two matches of the year against Penn and Michigan State. Tomaev went 1-1 on the weekend against two ranked opponents, and there would be one last wrestle-off, a best-of-three series the following Wednesday morning in the wrestling practice room at Rec Hall.

The three matches mirrored Driscoll's season. In the first match, he defeated Tomaev in a close 3-2 affair. With an hour between matches, Driscoll was feeling good and ready to regain his starting spot. However, Tomaev came out on top in the second match.

It came down to one last match to determine which wrestler weighed in at 141 pounds for the Lions at the Big Ten and NCAA championships.

With eight seconds left in the final period of the match, it looked like Driscoll would move on, as he had a 2-0 lead.

However, there was still some fight left in Tomaev, who notched a late takedown to send the match into overtime where Driscoll finally won and earned the starting spot.

"Since I've been at Penn State, Marat is probably one of the best wrestlers I've ever seen," Driscoll said. "The stuff he knows about the sport is more than I can ever dream to learn."

Driscoll can now focus on his Big Ten opponents and on representing the Lions at 141 pounds this coming weekend. He said the struggles he has gone through this season can only help him the rest of the way.

"I just need to use it as fuel," Driscoll said. "I've put too much in to this season to just do okay."