The Mat-Town Classic, held at Lock Haven University, usually serves as a gauge for the condition of the No. 16 Penn State wrestling team. On Saturday, the Lions were a few points -- and a few mistakes from taking home the championship, coming in second place with 146.5 points -- right behind No. 6 Minnesota (154).

"I'm pleased with the effort -- we really fought hard and were in all the matches we ended up losing," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. "But we were easily in a position to win, so it's disappointing to finish second when you're so close in points."

The Lions had 13 of the 15 wrestlers who traveled to Lock Haven place in the team tournament, and they also picked up one individual championship. Junior Eric Bradley, ranked No. 5, beat Minnesota's freshman standout, No. 8 Roger Kish, 5-4 in the 184-pound finals.

The win not only gave the Lions their lone championship of the day, but also kept Bradley's season perfect.

"He did a nice job -- the kid he wrestled in the finals was really touted in high school, and a real tough kid," Sunderland said. "He wrestled a smart match, maintained good position and scored when he needed to."

However, even with a perfect record at this point in the season, it is still early and Sunderland would like to see his returning Big Ten champion score more, and wrestle more offensively.

The Lions had another representative in the finals, as senior James Woodall (No. 17) fell to Pitt's Matt Kocher 3-0 in the 149-pound division.

Nate Galloway (No. 13) suffered a close 6-3 loss to the eventual champion at 157-pounds, American University's Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov. The Penn State sophomore was able to rebound, taking third in the weight class by defeating Indiana's Brandon Becker, 9-4.

The team picked up two more third-place finishes, one from redshirt freshman Phil Davis at 197-pounds, and the other from senior Josh Walker in the heavyweight division. Walker earned a 3-2 win against Tyler Rees of Rider in the third-place match, after he went down in a tough 7-4 decision against Minnesota's Cole Konrad (No. 2) in the semifinals.

Davis' finish came the hard way, via the loser's bracket, as he lost 7-6 in his second-round match against the University at Buffalo's Harold Sherrell, who went on to finish second at 197-pounds. Also competing in the 197-pound bracket was the usual starter for the Lions, Joel Edwards, who finished seventh.

Edwards' finish was one of the few mistakes Sunderland credited with the close second-place finish.

"We had a couple of mistakes that cost us big," Sunderland said. He said that some inexperience of younger wrestlers was big factor in these mistakes.

As in Edwards' case, the early season rustiness may have cost some of the veterans in their matches, Sunderland said.

Even with a few disappointments, the Lions had a good showing in their first team tournament of the season, and had "a good start against Big Ten teams like Minnesota and Indiana."

"We're pretty balanced right now, but I told the team we have to get better, to be as good as a tournament team as we are a dual-meet team."