The Penn State wrestling team has seen its first couple of casualties, but after the first round of the NCAA wrestling championships still has a strong front line to finish out the battle.

After the first round of competition in Oklahoma City, the Nittany Lions still had five of eight wrestlers in the quest for a national title while the team ranked eighth overall in the tournament with 12 team points.

Penn State picked up a pin from Nathan Galloway and two major decisions from Eric Bradley and Phil Davis, along with steady wins from Jake Strayer and James Yonushonis.

"Well, we did what we were supposed to do. We won the matches we should have," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said.

Dewitt Driscoll, James Woodall and Joel Edwards were defeated in the first round and will have to fight their way through the consolation bracket.

The Lions' scoring charge was led by Galloway. In the time that it takes to put on and tie a pair of shoes, Galloway had his opponent, Aric Fuhrman of Bloomsburg, on his back and scraping the floor, trying to escape what would ultimately become a 26-second pin.

Returning All-Americans Davis and Bradley both showed their championship experience dominating in major victories against Greg Perz of Eastern Illinois and Jon Oplinger of Drexel respectively.

Davis was coasting with a six-point victory, but wasn't completely satisfied with a regular decision. With only seconds left, Davis took one last shot at Oplinger and nearly pinned him.

He was rewarded with a two-point takedown and three-point near fall to finish the match 11-0.

Strayer and Yonushonis had strong first showings at the national level, each adding points with four point victories.

Sunderland said he thought Driscoll had an outside shot at defeating his opponent, Michael Keefe of UT-Chattanooga, but the senior's eagerness and inexperience in his first NCAA tournament may have factored in his defeat.

Driscoll failed on his first two attempts to score and fell behind 4-1 with a couple of takedowns in the first period.

"He didn't get the first takedown and we knew from then he was gonna be in for a hard-fought match. He couldn't come through with a win," Sunderland said.

Penn State had no prior experience this year against any of its opponents in the first round. Sunderland said that there were a few wrestlers in the first round that the team had not been able to come up with video coverage of their matches.

Penn State was headed into the second round of the first day on more familiar ground as five of the eight grapplers were wrestling with opponents they had faced earlier this year, with a total record of 4-2.

"Anytime you've beaten a guy before, you're certainly capable of doing it again," Sunderland said. "The only risk is to overlook him. That can change the outcome of a match. We have to not look past a match because we've beaten someone before."

By rank, it looks like Strayer may have caught a break when unranked Jason Borelli upset No. 10 Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly. Sunderland said that Borelli's lack of ranking might be more of an illusion, calling him a "very competitive wrestler."

"Borelli's good enough to be seeded, and I wouldn't see that as a fluke win," Sunderland said. "He wrestles smart and hard, and Jake's gonna have to do that to get a win."

Strayer defeated Borelli in Reno by a score of 6-1 earlier this year.

ESPNU will cover the 11 a.m. quarterfinal round and consolation bouts beginning today and will team with ESPN Plus to cover the evening's semifinal round at 7. ESPN will showcase the NCAA finals round beginning at 7:30 tomorrow.