The stage was set all morning for the matchup between the No. 17 Penn State wrestling team (2-1) and No. 2 Lehigh (4-0) in the finals of the first ever Pennsylvania State Dual Championships.

The top two seeds of the tournament, held yesterday in Rec Hall, rolled through their first and second round matches, to face off in the finals. However, Lehigh's powerful lineup, boasting seven nationally ranked wrestlers, was too much for Penn State. The Lions dropped the championship match 24-15, giving Mountain Hawks bragging rights in the state of Pennsylvania.

"It's a great experience for the Pennsylvania schools," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. "It's so early, some of the guys are still a little rusty -- it's our first real meet out of the [wrestling] room. But it's disappointing that we didn't get the win."

Sunderland did praise how well senior James Woodall and redshirt junior DeWitt Driscoll wrestled in such early season matches.

Following the 149-pound match, in which Woodall (No. 16) pinned Matt Anderson in 3:18, the Lions held a 9-6 lead against the Mountain Hawks. According to Lehighsports.com, this was the first time a Lehigh wrestler had been pinned all year.

Lehigh responded though, rattling off three straight wins, including No. 1 Troy Letter's pin of Steve Troup in 5:59 at 165 pounds.

With the Lions trailing 18-9, defending Big Ten champion Eric Bradley (No. 8) provided a spark in the 184-pound match. Bradley was able to pull the Lions back within a pin of the No. 2 team in the nation, defeating No. 17 Matt Cassidy 8-3. Bradley was able to dominate much of the match, picking up the additional point for riding time.

For one instant, it seemed as if the Lions could have tied the match, as early in the first period at 197 pounds, Lehigh's top-ranked Jon Trenge found himself on his back.

In a quick scramble, No. 17 Joel Edwards was able to counter an attempted throw by Trenge and had the nation's top 197-pounder dangerously close to being pinned.

However Trenge was able to recover, forcing a stalemate. Then Trenge took over and was able to pick up the match-clinching points by pinning Edwards at 2:15.

"It was just kind of a scramble situation," Sunderland said. "It was Joel ending up at the lower end of the stick at the end, and that's how Trenge ended up earlier -- unfortunately, Joel wasn't able to keep the hold."

No. 12 Adam Smith started the scoring for the Lions, beating John Stout 8-3 in the 125-pound match. Although Driscoll lost 8-3 to Lehigh's Cory Cooperman (No. 4), he was the first opponent not to be pinned by Cooperman this season.

Both the Lions and the Mountain Hawks were able to win very convincingly on their way to the finals. Penn State swept its matches against a contingent from Bucknell, which is restarting its wrestling program next season. Lehigh rolled over Div. III York College, 44-3.

In the second round, the Lions defeated a tough Clarion team 27-13, while Lehigh swept the Div. II University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

Woodall pinned Clarion's T.J. McCance in 4:06, while Edwards earned a technical fall for the Lions in his match against Charlie Cilinski. Trenge, who wrestled just less than eight minutes for the entire day, collected two pins during the first two rounds for Lehigh.

The first-time event had a good turnout, with eight teams vying for the championship. Lehigh, York College, Pitt-Johnstown, Slippery Rock, Clarion, Mercyhurst and the wrestlers from Bucknell all traveled to Penn State for the early season match. With a sizable number of spectators on hand, and good reviews from the opposing coaches, Sunderland was pleased with how the championships went and optimistic about its future.

"Once the teams can promote it, more teams can come in," Sunderland said. "I think it can become a great event at the beginning of the season and catapult college wrestling."