ST. LOUIS -- In front of a very loud and raucous crowd inside the Savvis Center, the NCAA Wrestling Championships got underway yesterday.

Penn State nearly succeeded in getting all six of its representatives of through to the second round.

Early in the day, Bryan Heller fell in the final seconds of his match at 133 pounds.

Holding a 7-5 lead with a riding point in his back pocket, Heller looked to close out the match. His opponent, Tony Curto of Bloomsburg, however, managed an escape and a takedown. Now, trailing 8-7 as the final whistle sounded, Heller was forced to cash in that point for riding time to send it into overtime.

With momentum against him, Heller allowed an early takedown.

At heavyweight, Joel Edwards was in control of his match thanks to an early takedown and domination on top, and was set for the pin.

However, in the process of getting his Eastern Illinois foe to the mat, Edwards' shoulders touched the surface, resulting in a defensive pin at 3:52.

Penn State coach Troy Sunderland stood there in shock knowing there was nothing he could do.

"I was telling him to be careful, be careful," Sunderland said. "I should've told him to get out and allow the reversal but that's a tough thing to do when you're in control of the match."

Eric Bradley, No. 4 seed in the 184-pound bracket advanced, but it wasn't easy.

Facing T.J. Morrison of Rider College, Bradley prevailed thanks primarily to a stall penalty in a 2-1 match.

Bradley had hoped to open up his offense to avoid some of those close matches.

Sunderland and Company were enraged when Morrison appeared to flee the mat when Bradley got into his offense.

There were other examples that, if converted, show that Bradley can possibly come back to State College as an NCAA champion.

"We knew it was a conservative kid who stayed in good position," Sunderland said. "When he had the single legs up, we wanted him to convert the takedowns and open the match a little bit."

While Bradley, senior Adam Smith at 125 pounds and freshman Phil Davis at 197 pounds have all advanced to the second round in their respective classes, sophomore Nate Galloway, at 157 pounds, is the only Penn State wrestler to make a third-round match thus far.

With two decisive victories, Galloway has dispelled the fact that he's just a "wild card" participant.

His defeat of No. 7 seed Matt Lebe of West Virginia advanced Galloway to the round of 16 and closer to All-America territory.

Galloway, who's endured a turbulent season that included a major-decision loss to now-No. 8 Joe Johnson of Iowa, has rebounded.

"He did a real nice job. He was able to capitalize on a couple of takedowns and a couple of close calls," Sunderland said. "The back points he was able to get opened up the match. Lebe really had to really come after him and that's where Nate can get some points."