Throughout his career, Dan Vallimont has had to constantly refine the finishing aspect of his trademark single- leg takedown. Each time someone devised a defense, Vallimont adapted and improved. Until Saturday night. On the blue mat with the giant NCAA logo in the middle, on top of the raised platform in front of more than 15,000 wrestling junkies in the Qwest Center, Vallimont’s latest revisions weren’t quite good enough. Vallimont lost 9-3 to Wisconsin No. 1 seed Andrew Howe. The Nittany Lion senior was in on several single attempts, but the Wisconsin sophomore countered all but one. “I’m disappointed, obviously, but I had a great tournament overall,” Vallimont said. “I can’t be disappointed with how I wrestled. I just couldn’t get it done in the finals. I slipped up on a couple of my shots in the finals and he was able to capitalize on it and he was able to get points.” Howe, although he’s just a sophomore, had experience wresting on the raised mat. Last season as a freshman, Howe advanced to the final only to fall to Edinboro’s Jar-rod King 3-2. After Vallimont had defeated King on Friday in the semifinals, the Nittany Lion said the key to defeating Howe, who he had lost to three times before, was to finish his patented single quickly.

“He went out and fired his shots but the setup wasn’t quite there and he kind of hit his belly on the shot,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “Howe, if you hit a bad shot, he’s going to take advantage of that because he’s a kid who hustles and you’ve got to hustle right back. That’s it, right there, and you’ve got to get off the bottom. “Vallimont had a great tournament. He came in here sixth seeded and he exceeded everyone’s expectations. He really wrestled well.” Just 41 seconds into the first period, Vallimont shot a single and Howe was ready for it, stopping Vallimont’s momentum. A half-minute later, Howe countered a Vallimont shot and converted it into a takedown of his own and a 2-0 lead. Howe rode Vallimont the rest of the period. Howe chose bottom to start the second and, just 14 seconds in was on his feet, trying to escape. Vallimont decided to cut him loose but relaxed for a split second. Howe escaped and quickly was right back in on Vallimont’s legs for another takedown and 5-0 lead.

“I just relaxed a little too much there. The same thing happened in the dual meet,” Vallimont said. “I guess I didn’t learn from it. I didn’t make the adjustment,” Vallimont said. A minute later, Vallimont escaped and with 15 seconds left in the period, Howe countered another of Vallimont’s shots for a 7-1 lead and 3:02 in riding time at the end of two periods. “I’m sure anybody who’s scouted me knows I’m going to be shooting for that leg,” Vallimont said. “I was still confident that I could get to it. I don’t think the problem was getting in on it. I just didn’t finish.” The Nittany Lion chose neutral to start the third and immediately tried desperately to penetrate Howe’s defenses. Finally, with a minute to go Vallimont shot and emerged from the ensuing scramble with a takedown. “I knew there wasn’t too much time left and I knew I had a lot of work I had to do. He had to play good defense and it made it hard for me to do that,” Vallimont said. Howe escaped five seconds later and held off Vallimont the rest of the way. A riding time point set the 9-3 final.

Vallimont ended his season at 30-8 and his career mark was 108-35. He is the 25th Nittany Lion to win 100 matches in his career. Howe was one of 10 undefeated wrestlers to start the tournament and one of seven to reach the finals unscathed at 40-0. The Badger sophomore went 30-5 a year ago after losing to King. During his breakout 2007-08 season, Vallimont put together a 32-3 record on his way to earning a third-place finish at the NCAA tournament. All three of those losses were to Big Ten champion and NCAA runner-up Michael Poeta of Illinois, including the 2008 national semifinals. In addition to his two All-America finishes, Vallimont twice lost in the All-America round, during his freshman campaign and last season, in which he moved from 157 to 165 in mid-season and didn’t emerge from a host of personal issues until too late in the season. So, Vallimont started this season saying that his head was on straight and his only goal was to win a championship. He fell one win short. “I’m happy with how a majority of the season went,” he said. “I was happy with how I wrestled out here. I’m disappointed. I’m not satisfied, but overall, it was a good tournament other than that.”

The same could be said of Sanderson’s attitude about Penn State crowning three All- Americans out of his six-man contingent and finishing ninth in the team race. “I don’t know if we’re pleased because we didn’t reach our goals, but we saw a lot of good things,” Sanderson said. “In November, if we thought we’d have a Top 10 finish, that would have been a stretch at that time. We had guys who stepped up and continued to make progress. “We had opportunities here. We had three All-Americans and the guys who didn’t all won two matches and were in there scrapping. “We’re coming along. I don’t expect us to finish this low ever again. It is a building process and these guys did a good job. We’ve got to learn and keep moving forward and we will.”

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