The No. 12 Penn State wrestling team came out firing this weekend as No. 3 Phil Davis scored pinfalls in both of his matches and No. 12 Aaron Anspach scored two major decisions to bring the crowd in Rec Hall to its feet.

But while both matches seemed to start the same way, Penn State only capitalized on the momentum in Friday's match.

After defeating unranked Ohio State on Friday night, 26-12, the Nittany Lions fell to No. 11 Illinois, 18-16, in the last match of the dual yesterday at Rec Hall.

One of the bright spots to come out of this weekend, however, was the performance of several Penn State freshmen.

Redshirt freshman Dan Vallimont had the best showing of the competing underclassmen, going 2-0 over the weekend at 149 pounds.

On Friday, Vallimont managed to earn a 4-2 decision over Ohio State's No. 16 Lance Palmer. And yesterday, the New Jersey native continued to play spoiler as he defeated Illinois' Troy Tirapelle, 9-3.

"It's a big weekend for me I guess," Vallimont said. "[It's] really important for Big Ten seeding, obviously, down the road. It's a nice confidence booster for me coming off of last weekend and two tough losses."

Coming into the match, Tirapelle was ranked No. 10 nationally and held a 21-4 record, but Vallimont got the better of him, scoring two takedowns and gaining two points on a near-fall in the match to improve to a 14-7 record.

Vallimont's performance this weekend not only caught the attention of his opponents, but his teammates were impressed with his results as well.

"We gotta look at our freshman right now," senior co-captain Aaron Anspach said. "They're competing tremendously for us. Dan Vallimont had a huge win Friday and had a huge win [yesterday]. He's competing the best I've seen him wrestle yet."

When asked if he thought he would jump into the national rankings this week, Vallimont remained humble on the possibilities.

"It's really not that important to me," he said. "It would look good and be nice to see, but in the long run, I probably don't want it cause it makes you relax a little bit. I like being the underdog, staying under the radar a little bit."

Vallimont was not the only freshman to make an impression this weekend, however.

True-freshman Bubba Jenkins also posted a strong performance, defeating Ohio State's Jason Johnstone, 10-6, at 157 pounds on Friday and then wrestling a close match with top-ranked Mike Poeta from Illinois.

Jenkins narrowed the match score to 3-2 in the third period, but Poeta scored a takedown with 15 seconds remaining to seal a 5-2 win.

"I think his confidence has been growing since he performed against [Minnesota's] C.P. Schlatter, even though it was a lopsided score at the end," head coach Troy Sunderland said of Jenkins. "Getting the initial takedown was a big step, and now, coming in here today and wrestling Poeta to a tough match. You know, I think his confidence will continue to grow. He needs to get better in certain positions and all positions, but he showed us today the kind of ability he has."

The Lions will look to the freshman and younger wrestlers to take this valuable experience and to build on it as they attempt to reach .500 in the Big Ten Conference at home next weekend.

No. 9 Northwestern will visit Rec Hall at 7 p.m. Friday and Penn State will wrestle again at noon on Sunday, when they take on No. 5 Iowa.