ST. LOUIS -- About 30 minutes after Phil Davis buried his head in his hands after winning his first individual national championship, he led his team to the raised mat to collect the third-place team trophy at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Davis defeated Central Michigan's Wynn Michalak, 7-2, in the 197-pound weight class, the highlight of Penn State's weekend at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Davis' individual championship is Penn State's first since Jeremy Hunter won in 2000.
"It's a great accomplishment for him," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said of Davis' title, which likely cements him as one of Penn State's all-time best wrestlers. "We're proud of him for everything he's done for our program."
But Penn State's performance at the NCAA tournament was anything but a one-man show. The Nittany Lions not only finished with an NCAA champion, but captured second-, third- and fourth-place finishes as well.
Penn State ended the tournament Saturday with 75 team points. Iowa won with 117.5 points.
"We've been in a lot of tournaments where we had good rounds and didn't
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get it done in the next round," Sunderland said. "But, this round, the kids just came each round ready to go, and it's a credit to the whole program."
Two Penn State wrestlers competed in the finals Saturday night. One was eventual champion Davis, the other Bubba Jenkins, who finished second after falling to Iowa's Brent Metcalf in the 149-pound championship, 14-8.
The Jenkins-Metcalf bout was tied 5-5 late in the second period, but Metcalf changed the direction of the match after a hard takedown -- Jenkins was slammed to the mat -- and three back points.
"That was definitely a big takedown," Metcalf said. "It was that point where it put the match just out of reach. I knew finishing that was going to be big."
The Hawkeyes' 117.5 team points were 38.5 more than second-place Ohio State. They dominated the tournament and mathematically clinched the team championship early Saturday morning.
Penn State achieved third place despite only qualifying seven wrestlers. Of those seven, only four -- Mark McKnight, Dan Vallimont, Jenkins and Davis -- wrestled until Saturday, the final day of the tournament.
Penn State's thin roster partly stemmed from a poor performance at the Big Ten tournament during spring break, when the Lions finished seventh out of 10 teams. Only six wrestlers finished in the top 7 of their weight class -- the criteria to qualify for the NCAA tournament -- but McKnight was awarded one of two Big Ten "wild card" spots.
"One thing that I think I can take away from this is knowing that I killed myself," McKnight said.
Vallimont and McKnight clinched third- and fourth-place titles during Saturday morning's wrestleback sessions. Despite being knocked out of contention for a national championship, the team's focus quickly turned toward getting as many points as possible.
McKnight's route to a fourth-place finish was physically draining. In a span of 24 hours, he wrestled six matches, two of which went to overtime. But McKnight stressed the need to contribute to his team's success in the team point standings though he paid a price.
"I didn't really notice [the physical toll] until I woke up this morning and my body felt like I'd been in six fights in the past six days," McKnight said Saturday. "All in all, during the event, it's not that bad, but it takes a toll on your body. I'm pretty beat up. I'll need a few days to relax."
Now, with the season over, naturally the talk turned toward next year.
"So far, I think it's going great. We have a young team, and it's looking good for next year," Vallimont, who is currently a sophomore with Jenkins, said. "If things go right and if everybody stays healthy, I think we can be in the running [for next year's title]."
