After one session of wrestling at the NCAA Championships, seven Nittany Lions are alive in the championship bracket. The team’s 7-2 performance Thursday afternoon totaled 16.0 points for Penn State, which sits in third-place in the team race behind Iowa’s 18.5 and Ohio State’s 17.0.

The tournament couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for Penn State.

Unseeded Corey Keener registered a couple takedowns early on, locked a cradle, and was tied with Pitt’s Dom Forys, the eleven seed, before he was reversed and pinned in a surprising turn of events.

Nick Lee followed on the same mat after Keener’s disappointing loss and had the same outcome. He was leading Maryland’s Ryan Diehl, who was unseeded at 141 lbs. and who Lee had majored in the team’s dual meeting in January, 4-1, before Diehl threw the true freshman to his back for a crushing upset.

After Lee’s loss, Zain Retherford finally got the Nittany Lions on the board with a 16-1 technical fall win over Eastern Michigan’s Kyle Springer. Retherford only led 5-1 after the first period, before he found his stride in the final period, outscoring Springer 11-0 in a dominant finish.

Jason Nolf followed suit by adding a technical fall of his own. And like Retherford, he opened up with a slow first period, only leading 4-1. In the final two periods however, he appeared to get stronger and more comfortable, as he built up his lead to the eventual final score of 22-7, a hopeful indication for Penn State as the reigning national champion advances.

After Nolf’s win, the bonus points continued to come for the Nittany Lions, who tacked on four straight major decisions.

Vincenzo Joseph handled Princeton’s Jonathan Schleiffer with ease at 165 lbs. in a 15-4 win. Mark Hall used a four-point third period to pull away from Drexel’s Austin Mueller, who had managed to keep the bout relatively close for the first two periods. Bo Nickal jumped out to a 6-0 first-period-lead and rode South Dakota State’s Martin Mueller for nearly five minutes, en route to a 16-4 win.

At 197 lbs. Shakur Rasheed entered the third period tied with The Citadel’s Sawyer Root, who was unseeded heading into the tournament. After appearing to be distracted by the skullcap he was wearing for the first time this season throughout the first five minutes of the bout, Rasheed returned to true form with a big third period. He used a reversal, four near-fall points, a takedown, and a riding time point to outlast Root and emerge with the 13-5 win.

The session concluded with Nick Nevills earning the team’s first fall of the weekend. Nevills led Stephen Suglio of Kent State 2-0 after the first period, before the opponents began the second period on their feet, and he scored six fast points off a takedown and near-fall.

As the bout progressed, Nevills, who usually grinds out gritty, low-scoring wins, was looking for the fall he came one count from securing. He found it early in the third period to close out the afternoon for Penn State.

Wrestling resumes Thursday at 7 p.m.