Rec Hall will be filled with wrestlers this weekend as several nationally ranked teams join Penn State to compete in the 2006 Nittany Lion Open.

The Nittany Lions serve as host for the tournament that starts at 8:30 a.m. Sunday and will last all day.

Twelve top-30 teams will compete in the event. The group includes No. 5 Hofstra, No. 11 Cornell, No. 13 Ohio State, No. 14 Edinboro, No. 15 Penn and No. 19 Michigan State from the top 20.

Penn State, ranked No. 7 in the USA Today/NWCA coaches poll, has been on a roll this season, completing a 3-0 sweep two weekends ago at the Pennsylvania Duals at Lock Haven. There, the Lions defeated Clarion, Pitt-Johnstown and No. 14-ranked Edinboro, all of whom will be competing in State College this weekend.

"I haven't been involved much in the planning ... but I know it's over 600 kids [that will be there]," Penn State head coach Troy Sunderland said of the expected wrestlers.

Penn State will have a full complement of its own wrestlers, too. The Lions will have 24 competing attached, while another 13 will be wrestling unattached.

According to Sunderland, the Nittany Lion Open will allow the team to gain some experience in weight classes that still need work.

"It's particularly important in a couple of weights," he said. "We'll be looking closely at 157, and 184 should be interesting as well."

So far this season, the Lions have yet to establish a presence in those weight classes.

The tournament will serve as a good gauge for the rest of the Lions as well, as the team has two important dual meets coming up next weekend.

On Dec. 8, the Lions will face off against perennial rival No. 24 Lehigh at Rec Hall. The day will be a special one, as Penn State's new Lorenzo Wrestling Complex will be dedicated in a ceremony before the match.

Two days later, the team will head to Hempstead, N.Y., to take on No. 5 Hofstra.

"We want to get some good, hard competition going into next weekend," Sunderland said of the tournament this weekend.

"We knew when we scheduled Hofstra that they had a very solid team. That was part of the reason why we scheduled them."

With so many wrestlers this weekend, the team should have an opportunity to survey itself before entering the heart of the season.

"We need to see what we can do to get our best 10 on the mats," Sunderland said.

Notes

The Lions moved up one spot to No. 7 this week in the USA Today/NWCA coaches poll.... Five wrestlers on the team are ranked nationally in their respective weight classes: No. 7 Mark McKnight at 125, No. 7 Jake Strayer at 133, No. 2 James Yonushonis at 174, No. 1 Phil Davis at 197 and No. 11 Aaron Anspach at heavyweight. ... Last weekend at the 2006 Mat-Town U.S.A. Tournament, Penn State wrestlers David Erwin and Dave Rella brought home individual titles. Erwin brought home the title wrestling unattached at 184-pounds, while Rella, also wrestling unattached, claimed the title at 165.