UNIVERSITY PARK — It’s no secret that David Taylor, Quentin Wright and Ed Ruth constantly try to outdo each other in the Penn State wrestling team’s practice room.

Lately, their quest inside Rec Hall has been to see who can get the loudest ovation after a big win.

Take your pick of any one of them from Sunday. All three earned bonus points in dramatic fashion at 165, 174 and 184 pounds, respectively, each sending another capacity crowd to its feet as No. 2 Penn State throttled No. 5 Ohio State, 34-9.

“You can’t really get that feeling that you get when everyone jumps up and goes crazy really any other way,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “These guys did a great job. The dual meet had potential to be a very close dual meet, but when you get in those big matches and you start getting the tech falls, I think David got us started. ... He can kind of open it up there, and then fall, fall and having that leadership from our older kids is a big deal.”

The Stieber brothers, Logan and Hunter, whom Ohio-native Taylor spoke highly of early in the week, spotted the Buckeyes a 9-3 lead after Logan pinned Frank Martellotti in the first round of their 133-pound bout and Hunter won a grueling 9-5 decision over Bryan Pearsall at 141.

That would be the last time the Buckeyes had the upper hand, as Penn State swept the remaining matches, earning bonus points in all but two.

The Buckeyes wrestled without Cam Tessari, ranked No. 14 at 149 pounds, who is still recovering from an injury suffered against Minnesota earlier in the season and aggravated during the Buckeyes’ upset of No. 6 Iowa last week. The Buckeyes also were without No. 10 C.J. Magrum at 184.

Ohio State coach Tom Ryan wouldn’t use the absences of two of his best wrestlers as excuses, however.

“They just outworked us today,” Ryan said. “I don’t think it takes someone that’s coached for 20 years to know what passion looks like. We saw passion at home a week ago and we saw a lack of passion today.”

For the Nittany Lions, it was quite the opposite.

Nico Megaludis, constantly on the attack to begin the dual, earned a 6-2 decision over Johnni DiJulius at 125 before the Stieber brothers went to work. Frank Molinaro had no trouble with Tessari’s replacement, Alex Gordon at 149, majoring the Buckeye freshman to cut Ohio State’s lead to 9-7.

Dylan Alton put Penn State ahead for good with a 4-0 decision over Josh Demas at 157.

Then, Penn State’s “Murderer’s Row” — a nickname starting to catch on for Taylor, Ruth and Wright — did its thing.

Taylor, No. 1 at 165, used 6:20 to score an 18-3 technical fall against Derek Garcia and furiously pumped his fist as the referee raised his hand.

“It’s always nice to beat those guys,” Taylor said. “I grew up as friends and working out with a lot of those guys. We’re friends off the mat but on the mat you’ve got to beat them.”

Then, No. 2 Ruth needed just 2:05 to pin No. 8 Nick Heflin at 174.

Fans inside Rec Hall were standing as Ruth, on his feet against Heflin, locked his cradle in against the Buckeye sophomore and rolled him to his back for the fall. It was a dramatic improvement from when Heflin stood toe-to-toe with Ruth in last season’s Big Ten tournament championship, an 8-5 decision for Ruth.

“That definitely made a statement there,” Ruth said. “The second time wrestling him, I just felt more experienced. I felt a little bit more comfortable on the mat. The first time out we were both freshmen, we were both fresh at it. It definitely made a difference the second time.”

Not to be outdone, No. 2 Wright immediately went after Magrum’s backup, freshman Craig Thomas.

Seconds in, Wright covered nearly the entire diameter of the mat as he speared Thomas, who is listed as a 165-pounder on Ohio State’s roster, to the mat for the first of three takedowns. Wright added four nearfall points in the first period to take a 9-1 lead into the second.

Wright chose down and quickly escaped and landed another lunging double-leg takedown before Thomas worked back to his feet. But before Thomas could slide out from Wright’s control, the Bald Eagle Area alum put Thomas in a headlock and threw him to his back.

The referee’s hand slapped the mat just seconds later and the crowd went wild — again.

“It’s definitely the best atmosphere in the country,” Wright said. “To have back-to-back weeks like that, it makes it so much fun for us as wrestlers. We get excited for that and I just think everybody enjoys it. It was a lot of fun. It’s always fun when you get to throw someone.”

Soon after Wright’s domination of Thomas, the majority of the Penn State fans went eerily silent as freshman 197-pounder Morgan McIntosh looked to have injured his right knee — the same joint that he hurt earlier in the season at the Nittany Lion Open.

No. 12 McIntosh hopped up off the mat after a brief injury timeout and consulted with team trainer Dan Monthly and Sanderson. He would resume the bout, earning 5-4 decision over No. 20 Andrew Campolattano.

“That was good to see,” Sanderson said of McIntosh’s ability to finish the bout strong. “He’s got flexible knees and sometimes that’s good and sometimes it’s not because you put yourself in bad positions more because you’re used to being able to do that. But yeah, he’ll be fine.”

No. 6 Cameron Wade closed the dual with a 9-0 major over No. 16 Peter Capone at 285.

Notes: Penn State won the takedown battle 16-4. ... A group of Penn State wrestlers gathered Saturday night to watch former Penn State standout Phil Davis’ UFC fight against Rashad Evans, a bout Davis lost by unanimous decision. Davis weighed in for his fight in a white Penn State singlet. ... Molinaro’s match gave him his 11th shutout win of the season. ... Gordon chose down to begin the third against Molinaro, a decision that drew audible laughs from the Rec Hall crowd due to Molinaro’s prowess in the top position. ... Ruth won the Ridge Riley award as the Lions’ best wrestler on the afternoon.

Travis Johnson can be reached at 231-4629.