UNIVERSITY PARK — Cameron Wade is used to being one of the biggest guys on his team.

But by the end of the Penn State senior heavyweight’s junior season, Wade grew weary of the prospect that oftentimes his opponents could be bigger than him.

So Wade took action over the summer.

He hit the weights and the Chipotle.

“I put on about 15 or 20 pounds. I was actually bigger at the beginning of the season,” Wade, the nation’s No. 8-ranked heavyweight said. “I think I might have put on a little bit too much weight. I wasn’t feeling like myself. But I’m weighing about 270, 275 right now and I feel comfortable there.”

Wade will look to secure his second straight win today when the No. 5 Nittany Lions trek up to Lock Haven to take on the Bald Eagles (3-2). It’ll be an important bout for Wade, likely against Lock Haven junior Harry Turner, as the Penn State senior is still getting used to his increased mass.

Wade got a slow start to this season after a left knee injury hindered his NCAA run last spring. While Wade wouldn’t need surgery to repair his knee, he’d have to take a good portion of the summer off and wasn’t able to start wrestling live until early in the fall semester.

Teammates realized Wade wasn’t able to put as much work into his craft as he had been known to do.

“I didn’t have a great preseason. I had to take a little bit of time off and wasn’t really just in the best shape that I possibly could’ve been in,” Wade said. “And I feel like I’m starting to get to that point now.”

For Wade, the wait was frustrating. But his frustrations weren’t relieved when he stepped on the mat. He would still have to learn how to wrestle with his added weight.

For Wade, he had to find a happy medium between being bigger and stronger and being able to tilt some of the bigger heavyweights — his primary goal in gaining weight — and maintaining his quickness in order to strike against some of the more nimble opponents.

“It’s real mental with me. Some days I’ll weigh 278 and I’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m big. I won’t be able to move,’” Wade said. “And then some days I weigh in and I’m 275 and I’m like, ‘Oh.’ It’s only three pounds less but I just feel like I can move a lot faster. At the end of the day I have to be comfortable with it and it gives me a mental edge for myself and I know my biggest opponent is me.”

Starting the season as the country’s No. 5 heavyweight, Wade saw his stock fall after a humbling defeat to Minnesota’s then-No. 3 Tony Nelson in the Nittany Lions’ first Big Ten dual this season. Nelson’s win clinched the team win for the Golden Gophers.

After that, Penn State coach Cael Sanderson put his wrestlers through the ringer. Before Thanksgiving break, the Nittany Lions had what many of the described as their toughest practice sessions of the season, geared toward eliminating the mistakes Penn State committed on the mat that led to the loss to Minnesota.

Ironically, Sanderson’s message that week really sunk in with Wade who was still trying to find his comfort level with his new weight.

“They were tough practices and it was all about being mentally tough and just pushing past your comfort zone,” Wade said. “You can go hard in practice but you have to really push yourself through your comfort zone to the point where you want to try to get exhausted every day because then you come out at a match and it’s only seven minutes and it’s nothing.”

Wade was able to rebound, however and posted six dominant wins at the Nittany Lion Open to take the tournament’s heavyweight crown.

But another speed bump was not far away.

Wade met a familiar foe, No. 3 Zach Rey of No. 11 Lehigh in his next bout. While Penn State had already clinched the dual win, Rey was able to keep Wade at bay and win a 3-2 decision.

Immediately after the bout, Wade retreated to a darkened end of a corridor inside Lehigh’s Stabler Arena where he sat alone for a few moments, back against teh cold cinderblock wall, his head between his knees.

“I came off the mat and I wasn’t even really breathing hard,” Wade said. “I felt like I had a lot left in my tank and it was kind of frustrating that I didn’t use my energy to get him more tired and maybe things would’ve opened up more.”

Luckily for Wade, he’d get another chance a day later.

Against West Virginia, Wade was able to get his offense going early and beat Brandon Williamson by major decision, 11-0. It was a confidence win for Wade in what has quickly become an early-season quest to rediscover that confidence.

“I definitely feel comfortable with it now. In the beginning of the season, I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to make that as an excuse of why I wrestled poorly because that wasn’t it at all. It was bad wrestling,” Wade said. “But I feel a lot more comfortable than I did. I think just getting acclimated to the new weight. I’m not going to be as quick and nimble, but just having the feeling that I’m as fast and can still set up my shots and can still ride on top and still escape from the bottom.”

While Wade has needed a few months to rediscover his confidence, his teammates have had faith in their big man all along.

“He had a lot of down time and he had a lot of recovery so he wasn’t training as hard as he probably wanted to be,” Senior Frank Molinaro said. “He needed to get his timing back and his confidence back and I’m pretty sure that after that last match he’s ready to go now.”