Like a diesel engine, the No. 12 Penn State wrestling team took a while to get started, but now is primed and ready to jump head first into its Big Ten schedule.

The Nittany Lions (7-2), after losing two of their first three matches against ranked opponents, made a statement with two convincing victories this weekend: a 24-14 win against No. 11 Lehigh on Friday and a 27-7 thrashing of No. 10 Cornell yesterday at Rec Hall. The Lions also recorded victories against then-No.23 Navy and then-No. 25 University of Pennsylvania.

The weekend also marked the

return of the Lions best wrestler, No. 1 at 184 Eric Bradley. The sixth- year senior had been sidelined for the first part of the season after spraining his left ankle during wrestle-offs. The injury allowed him to miss the early bumps and bruises that come with having multiple opens in a short amount of time, which Bradley sees an advantage come March.

"I usually peak during mid-season," Bradley said. "This could be a blessing in disguise because mid-season will now be around Big Tens, so hopefully the way it will work out is that I will be peaking right around [the Big Ten Championships]."

Penn State started the defining weekend with a win at Lehigh. Senior James Woodall started the match with a six-point fall against Trevor Chinn. Woodall's pin came 2:49 into the match and set a tone much different than the thrilling 18-17 match that Penn State won at home.

The Lions were able to pull away from the Mountain Hawks because of the seven bonus points they picked up, one of which came from true freshman David Erwin.

"You see what [Erwin] can do, and what he can do against high school kids," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said. "That's always the tough thing to measure, how he would do against college guys that have been at this level for a couple of years."

Erwin was held out of early dual matches partly for training and also because his opening matches would have been brutal with the first being the toughest against No. 2 at 165, Troy Letters of Lehigh. With a young wrestler you don't want to have him lose his confidence early because it would take the entire season for him to regain it. So with Letters on the shelf, Erwin was able to wrestle against Lehigh.

He dominated Letters' replacement Dave Nakasone, 14-5. Erwin played with Nakasone in the latter part of the third period as he kept letting him get up just to take him down again, so that he could ensure a major decision to give Penn State a 10-3 lead.

Erwin's match led into the debut of Bradley, who looked like he didn't skip a beat when he stepped on the mat for the first time this season. He controlled the tempo early against the Mountain Hawks David Helfrich. Bradley was extremely aggressive offensively, taking the majority of shots at Helfrich. His aggression paid off as he took a 2-0 lead into the third period and finished off the match with a takedown 45 seconds into the period.

Bradley and the Lions carried the momentum they created in Lehigh to the Rec Hall mat against Cornell.

"We expect to improve from the way we wrestled Friday night, but we didn't expect it to be as lopsided as this," Sunderland said.

The Big Red were coming off a devastating 24-13 loss at home to No. 3 Michigan on Jan. 3 and have a rash of injuries, which forced Coach Rob Kroll to bulk up senior Dan Miracola from 174 to 184. And Penn State didn't do anything to help heal Cornell's wounds.

The Lions dominated the Big Red in almost every weight class, which included a riding time total of 4:55 by heavyweight Joel Edwards. Penn State recorded 25 takedowns in the match to Cornell's nine, five of which came from the only Big Red wrestler to show up, Troy Nickerson, who is No. 5 at 125. The Lions had three major decisions and a few near falls from Woodall to help secure the 20-point victory.