Three All-Americans, two consolations winners and a national runner-up.
That's what the No. 11 Penn State wrestling team came away with this weekend as seven Nittany Lions competed among some of the nation's best wrestlers in the NCAA championships in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Finishing with a record of 19-13 and a team score of 54.5 points -- 0.5 points behind 10th-place Ohio State and only 2.5 points behind eighth-place Iowa -- the seven Penn State wrestlers led their team to an 11th-place finish.
Matched up against Minnesota's Cole Konrad for the third time this season, senior Aaron Anspach attempted to break the four-time All-American's 76-match winning streak, but the Golden Gopher heavyweight wouldn't allow it.
Konrad pinned Anspach at the 1:53 mark to complete his undefeated season and earn his second NCAA championship.
Sophomore Jake Strayer, junior Phil Davis and Anspach all earned All-America status in the tournament. Strayer finished just one victory shy of All-America honors in last year's NCAA championships.
After dropping out of title contention in the quarterfinals at 133 pounds with a 9-3 loss to Cal Poly's Darrell Vasquez, Strayer went on to the consolation bracket where he earned a 9-6 decision over Harvard's Robert Preston.
Strayer then lost in the fifth round of consolations to Missouri's Tyler McCormick before rebounding in the seventh-place match and pinning Indiana's Andrae Hernandez at the 2:38 mark.
"Strayer came [into the tournament] unseeded and placed seventh, which is a huge accomplishment, especially after he just missed it last year," Anspach said.
One surprise for Penn State in this tournament was the performance of its leaders -- Davis, last year's runner-up at 197 pounds and James Yonushonis, an All-American last year.
Yonushonis turned in a 1-2 record on the tournament by losing first in the second round and then again in his first consolation match.
The end is a bit of a surprise for the senior co-captain who has compiled an 83-50 record in his career as a Lion.
Although Davis became an All-American for the third time in as many years, the junior co-captain failed to improve upon last year's national tournament performance.
Davis started off the tournament with two decisions and a pinfall but lost to the eventual runner-up, Iowa State's Kurt Backes, in the semifinals.
Davis lost the match on a controversial call, Anspach said. As Davis was trying to escape a hold by Backes at the end of the second period, Davis left the ring and was called for fleeing. However, the only way to escape the move is to push forward out of the hold and for Davis, forward was off the mat -- a move that cost him a point and possibly the match.
Moving on to the semifinal round of the consolation bracket, Davis faced Ohio State's J.D. Bergman, the same wrestler who knocked Davis out of contention for the Big Ten title earlier this season.
Bergman once again defeated the Lion grappler by a 5-4 score.
Facing a familiar foe in Cornell's Jerry Rinaldi in the match for fifth place, Davis came out determined not to lose again.
After falling behind, 3-2, in the second period, Davis capitalized on a slip up by Rinaldi and scored a reversal to take a 4-3 lead with only seconds remaining in the period.
From that point on, Davis controlled the match, scoring an escape, a takedown and earning a point for riding time to win, 8-4, and take fifth place.
According to Anspach, although Davis was not overly pleased with his performance, he still can be proud of being a three-time All-American and the things he has done in his three years at Penn State.
So while the Lions return from Michigan without a team national title or any individual titles, the team still finished 14-5 overall, fourth place in the Big Ten and an 11th-place national finish.
