Bubba Jenkins wanted to move down a weight after last season. Dan Vallimont liked where he spent his first year in the Penn State lineup. After some offseason coaxing, Penn State’s coaching staff flopped the sophomores into new weights, a move designed to maximize the Nittany Lions’ scoring potential at the NCAA Championships. The results of the switch were evident during Thursday’s first two sessions at Scot-trade Center. Vallimont, last year’s starting 149-pounder, won twice to advance to the 157-pound quarterfinals while Jenkins, a 157-pounder as a true freshman, won twice to the advance to the same round at 149 pounds. Jenkins and Vallimont accounted for two of Penn State’s three quarterfinalists. Senior Phil Davis advanced to the 197-pound quarterfinals for a fourth straight year by defeating Purdue’s Logan Brown 9-2 in the second round.

The three quarterfinalists helped Penn State end the first day tied with Cornell for ninth in the team standings with 17.5 points. No. 1 Iowa leads the tournament with 29.5 points. Three of Penn State’s other four qualifiers — senior Mark McKnight (125), sophomore Dave Rella (165) and freshman Garrett Scott (141) — remain in consolation brackets at their respective weights. “We are wrestling hard,” Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. “Jenkins and Vallimont have battled hard and Phil is continuing to roll. It can always be better, but it can be worse right now, too.” By winning second-round bouts, Jenkins and Vallimont are one win away from becoming All-Americans for the first time. Jenkins edged Northwestern’s Ryan Lang 4-3 and Vallimont defeated Central Michigan’s Steven Brown 10-7 to advance to the quarterfinals.

“We had this in mind last year, but Dan and I were at different weights,” Jenkins said. “Neither one held up our end of the bargain last year. This year, we made a vow to each other and the team that we are going to get it done. We are both at the weights we want to be at.” Well, they are at the weights they want to compete at now. It took Vallimont some time to embrace the switch which developed into a possibility during a team trip to Europe last summer. “I guess this is what we wanted,” Vallimont said. “I didn’t know if it was going to work out this well or not. But it’s going pretty well.” The new weights didn’t produce complete comfort Thursday. Vallimont, the No. 3 seed, needed an overtime takedown to defeat Chattanooga’s Seth Garvin 8-6 in the first round. Vallimont then resembled the wrestler who ascended to No. 1 in the NWCA/InterMat rankings earlier this year by taking Brown down four times, including twice in the first period, in the second round. “I guess it was two different kind of high-scoring matches,” said Vallimont, who will face Boise State’s Tyler Sherfey in the quarterfinals. “The second one, I was pushing the pace and wrestling the way I wanted to wrestle. The first one, I didn’t know if I was ready to wrestle yet.”

Jenkins, the No. 6 seed who started his tournament with a 15-5 victory over Navy’s Bryce Saddoris, encountered a dicey moment during the second round. Lang grabbed his left leg with 14 seconds remaining, yet Jenkins kept his balance to prevent points before the buzzer. “I wasn’t literally thinking at all,” said Jenkins, who will face third-seeded J.P. O’Connor of Harvard. “I was going to react to whatever he did with as much speed and explosion as I have.” Davis, a three-time All-American seeded No. 2, looked primed to make another deep run into the national tournament. He started his day by locking a cradle and pinning Cal-Bakersfield’s Riley Orozco in 1:47. He then recorded three takedowns and accumulated 1:28 of riding time to defeat Brown for the second time in less than five weeks. “I really wanted to work on a couple of things before I get into the big ‘Money Rounds,’” Davis said. “That’s what I call them.” Davis has a major opportunity to cash-in today. He faces Maryland’s Hudson Taylor in the quarterfinals and his half of the bracket might have become easier when Iowa State’s David Bertolino upset third-seeded Mike Tamillow of Northwestern. Davis defeated Taylor by technical fall in November. Tamillow handed Davis (23-1) his only loss of the season.

Scott and McKnight both dropped to consolation brackets after second-round losses. McKnight, who opened his tournament with a 5-1 victory over Oklahoma State’s Tyler Shinn, lost to Iowa’s Charlie Falck 5-2 in the second round. Minnesota’s Manuel Rivera defeated the 12th-seeded Scott 8-5 in the same round. Rella recovered from his 4-1 first-round loss to Edinboro’s Jarrod King to drill Hofstra’s Ryan Patrovich 14-5, an encouraging result considering Patrovich defeated Rella 3-1 in November. Junior 184-pounder Phil Bomberger was the only Nittany Lion who failed to record a victory Thursday. Oklahoma State’s Jack Jensen pinned Bomberger in the first round. Bomberger then allowed a takedown with less than 20 seconds remaining during a 4-2 loss to Oklahoma’s Josh Weitzel.

Thanks to Guy Cipriano and the "Centre Daily Times" (State College, Pa.) for the article