The Penn State wrestling team will travel to Ohio State this weekend to perform a psychology experiment -- the falsification of the phenomenon of déjà vu.

Exactly 364 days ago, the Nittany Lions were in an almost identical situation: looking to secure a .500 winning percentage in the Big Ten with the team standing in their path being Ohio State, a team that, like last year, is winless in the conference.

Penn State (11-4, 3-3 Big Ten) will try to avenge a loss in last year's final dual match, a 21-17 loss to Ohio State at the Bryce Jordan Center, with a road victory at 7 tonight at St. John Arena in Columbus.

It was at this point last season that Penn State coach Troy Sunderland was telling his men not to take Ohio State (5-12, 0-7 Big Ten) lightly, not to look at their record, and not to try to cruise into the Big Ten Championships. This year, he has approached the team with the same philosophy, but with last year's demoralizing loss to back up his claims.

"We learned our lesson last time. We went out flat and thought we wouldn't have to wrestle hard," senior captain Eric Bradley said. "It was a pretty upsetting loss for us. This year we'll keep that in the back of our memory and go out there and get the win."

"It was borderline embarrassing," senior Dewitt Driscoll said. "We're definitely looking for some kind of redemption to change things from last year. Everyone's still a little angry about that one, you know, ending your season like that."

After the matchup against Ohio State, Penn State will follow up with a noon match on Sunday at Indianapolis' Conseco Fieldhouse against Purdue, a neutral site an hour-and-a-half away from the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Ind. The match will serve as an intermission during the Indiana high school state wrestling championships.

Purdue (9-8, 1-6 Big Ten) has fallen on and off the national radar but currently is on the outside of the top 25.

Several intriguing matchups will take place, including the Boilermakers' 133-pound veteran No. 5 Chris Fleeger versus rising freshman No. 9 Jake Strayer. No. 6 Phil Davis is coming off one of his best performances of his Penn State career and will battle No. 18 Nathan Moore of Purdue.

The feature matchup is the battle at 184 where Penn State's fallen hero, No. 8 Bradley, will get a chance to redeem himself from his first loss two weeks ago. He will battle No. 2 Ben Wissel in a match of competitors that have faced off four times in their history in the Big Ten.

"I don't necessarily feel like the underdog. I'm 3-1 against him, but he beat me out at Nationals," Bradley said. "That's the only time he's beaten me. I'm gonna get out there and see if I can get after him early, see if I can't open up the score a little more."

Bradley said he doesn't get caught up in the rankings, but knows he dropped from No. 1 after his defeat at Iowa State.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'll be No. 1 again in four weeks and that's all that matters," he said.

Injury notes

Senior captain James Woodall will not wrestle this weekend because of a skin disorder. James Lapham will take his place at 149.

"I'm just getting mentally prepared for it. I don't plan on letting my team down," Lapham said. "I'm gonna go out there and bust my hump until I have nothing left in me. That's all I can do."

No. 9 James Yonushonis will return to the 174 spot after taking a week off to rest an injured knee.