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After suffering his third loss of the year - and second at the hands of Penn State wrestler Phil Davis - Terrapin star Hudson Taylor knew he had to bounce back.

The No. 7-seed Taylor started the NCAA tournament last weekend with two wins at 197 pounds, and even a quarterfinals loss to No. 2-seed Davis could not stop the redshirt sophomore. He finished the tournament with four-straight wins in wrestleback rounds, garnering third place in his weight class and All-American honors.

In doing so, Taylor helped the Terps earn a tie for 21st place in the nation, their highest finish since 1992.

"Taylor had been there before," coach Pat Santoro said. "He understood the intensity level and the level of competition."

The finish capped off a 16-4 season for the Terps where they set a program-record for winning percentage. The team sent five ACC Champions and one wildcard to the tournament, the most in more than a decade.

While the body of work was impressive throughout the season, the NCAA tournament was always the ultimate goal.

"It's every team's goal to get wrestlers to the nationals - as many as possible," Santoro said. "We worked for this all year, and we tried to wrestle as well as we can."

Of the team's six competing wrestlers, only Taylor placed, and three Terps fell in the first round.

But even one making it so deep into the tournament was an improvement for the Terps, who have not had an All-American since Jim Guzzio in 1997 and have not had a wrestler finish higher than third place since 1992.

"This is what we've been wrestling for," Taylor said. "It's good to see it pay off."

On the way to his third-place finish, Taylor upset No. 1-seed Josh Glenn of American and came from behind to force overtime and beat Nebraska's No. 8 Craig Brester in the wrestleback finals.

The rest of the Terrapin team struggled, unable to match Taylor's success.

Freshman Eric Medina and sophomores Steven Bell and Jon Kohler all lost in the first round. Sophomore Mike Letts, a 10-seed in his second-straight year as a qualifier, and freshman Brian Letters made it one round further, but none made it deep into the wrestlebacks.

Coach Santoro did not make excuses for his team's struggles.

"In the tournament, every match you have, you wrestle someone good," Santoro said. "There are no weak opponents. But they [should have been] prepared for the grind. It's hard, but every team's in the same boat."

But even the wrestlers who struggled helped rack up the points that gave the team its 21st place finish. And coming from the ACC, with only a few wrestlers qualifying, that is an accomplishment.

"I just hope they had a fun experience," Santoro said. "They worked for it; they deserve it."

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