After falling to No. 5 Ohio State on Friday for its third loss in a Big Ten dual meet this season, the No. 6 Illinois wrestling team was dominated by No. 1 Penn State at Huff Hall on Sunday afternoon.

In front of a season-best crowd of 1,247, the Illini dropped their second dual meet of the week 37-0.

The meet started off with the 125-pound weight class in which No. 3 Jesse Delgado took on Penn State’s No. 2 Nico Megaludis. Delgado recorded an early takedown in the first period and an escape in the second to take a 3-0 lead into the final period. Megaludis chose down to begin the third period and recorded an escape to make the score 3-1, just before Delgado was penalized for stalling, giving Megaludis another point, trimming the lead to 3-2. With 15 seconds remaining in the third period, Megaludis turned Delgado on his back and pinned the Gilroy, Calif., native in 6 minutes, 45 seconds to give Penn State the early 6-0 lead.

“Jesse quit being offensive and he put himself in a bad spot trying to hang on,” head coach Jim Heffernan said. “Those two guys are (Nos.) 2 and 3 in the country, they are evenly matched, he’s got a lead, he changed what he was doing and that was the difference in the match.”

At 133 pounds, No. 7 Daryl Thomas was defeated by Penn State’s Jordan Conaway by an 8-6 decision. The Illini’s Steven Rodrigues then fell against the Nittany Lion’s Bryan Pearsall 2-0 at 141 pounds, before No. 7 Andrew Alton of Penn State defeated Caleb Ervin to extend the lead to 15-0.

The 157-pound matchup between Illinois’ Matt Nora and Penn State’s Dylan Alton did not fare any better for the Illini, as Nora fell by a 14-6 major decision.

“A couple of our guys looked like they didn’t think they could win until the last minute and thought, ‘You know what, I got a chance,’ and started pushing the pace a little bit harder instead of doing that right from the get-go, and that’s what’s disappointing to me,” Heffernan said.

At 165 pounds, No. 7 Conrad Polz took on Penn State’s defending national champion No. 2 David Taylor. Polz recorded a near fall at the end of the third period, but Taylor proved to be too much to handle, as he defeated Polz 13-7. No. 8 Jordan Blanton was then taken down by Penn State’s No. 4 Matt Brown at 174 pounds before No. 16 Tony Dallago was pinned by No. 1 Ed Ruth in 47 seconds to increase the lead to 31-0.

The 197-pound matchup proved to be no better for the Illini, as No. 10 Mario Gonzalez was defeated by No. 4 Quentin Wright by a 4-2 decision.

“That guy was a national champ, but I felt like I had him, but I just wasn’t committing on my shots while I was wrestling. At the end, he was exhausted, I felt,” Gonzalez said.

Penn State completed the 10-bout sweep over Illinois, as Jimmy Lawson defeated the Illini’s Chris Lopez 9-4 during the heavyweight match to give the Nittany Lions the 37-0 win.

Due to injury, the Illinois wrestling team was still wrestling without its two-time All-American at 141 pounds, B.J. Futrell.

“It’s definitely hard to be sitting out,” Futrell said. “I want to be able to help my team as much as I can. My hands are kind of tied right now because it’s not up to me. If it was up to me, I’d be out there competing.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @yaboybernie11.