UNIVERSITY PARK — Quentin Wright and David Taylor had shown up early to Tuesday’s wrestling practice.

With classes to attend later in the afternoon, they needed to get in a few practice rounds with one of the more vaunted opponents in the entire Penn State wrestling room — assistant coach Casey Cunningham.

Taylor briefly watched as Cunningham and Wright rolled around, working on technique and various positions before the trio called it quits as the remainder of their teammates walked into the room.

Cunningham, in a pair of gray sweat pants and a gray Penn State wrestling sweatshirt, was soaked in sweat after the session. He goes hard with everyone he wrestles and it’s earned him a fierce reputation — one that takes many cues from his days as a two-time All- American at Central Michigan — amongst his Nittany Lion pupils. Cunningham, who won the 157- pound national championship at the Bryce Jordan Center in 1999, usually works with Penn State’s middle weights. But he’ll provide lessons for any of the Nittany Lions should they ask him.

Oftentimes, his lessons aren’t always easy teachings.

“I try to stay away from Cunningham now,” Penn State 149-pounder Frank Molinaro said. “To keep my confidence up.”

Taylor battles Cunningham often. The latter rarely shoots, relying more on counter offense, Taylor said, and Cunningham is not afraid to hammer on anyone who challenges him in practice.

“They over-exaggerate that stuff a little bit,” Cunningham said with a grin. “I try to train as hard as I can to stay with these guys. I think this is a huge advantage. I don’t know that there’s a lot of programs where their coaches are wrestling with their kids every day. But I think that’s a big advantage for our kids and we’re still young enough that we can do it. I might not be able to do this for another 15 years, hopefully for another 10 years or something, but we still enjoy it and we can give our guys a different feel and a different look.”

While Cunningham insists he trains just as hard to keep pace with wrestlers — in most cases more than 15 years younger than him — Penn State wrestlers insist Cunningham usually always has the upper hand.

“Casey’s just a crusher. He’s just an animal out there,” associate head coach Cody Sanderson said. “He’s just so strong and so good that he just makes it tough on the guys. But if you wrestle Casey Cunningham, you’ve got to be ready to go. He’s not just going to give you a takedown because you do the technique right, he’s going to make you get the takedown and legitimately get the takedown. Those guys know that and they’re going to be better because of it.”

Cunningham, Sanderson and their boss, Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson, all work with different groups and contribute different things to the Penn State lineup.

Cael Sanderson, in addition to former Nittany Lion heavyweight Aaron Anspach, usually works with Penn State’s group of upper weights while Cody takes charge with the lighter guys. Meanwhile, Cunningham can usually be found battling with Penn State’s middleweights.

This was a formula Sanderson envisioned when he was hired by Penn State to take over for Troy Sunderland in 2009.

When Cael Sanderson was offered the job, he didn’t have to think twice about who he wanted on his staff in State College. He was well aware of his older brother’s skills as Cody had been on Cael’s staff for three seasons at Iowa State and had lent his time and abilities to creating the Utah Valley State (now Utah Valley University) wrestling program from scratch in 2003.

Cael Sanderson was also quite familiar with Cunningham, his hard-edged style and work ethic from their days of competing together on the same team at the University World Championships in the early 2000s. They also happened to be roommates at the Olympic Training Center in 2000.

While Sanderson jokingly said he has tried to forget those days of having to room with Cunningham, he never forgot his former teammate’s work ethic or wrestling ability, and asked Cunningham to join his staff at Iowa State in 2008. From there, Cunningham followed Sanderson to Happy Valley.

“Part of the deal, when I was coming here, I was talking to Coach Cody and Coach Casey and it was definitely a packaged deal,” Sanderson said. “I wasn’t going to leave (Iowa State) if they weren’t coming with me.”

The three have formed a dynamic coaching trio, one that has mentored the current team to an unprecedented level. The No. 2 Nittany Lions, the defending Big Ten and national champions, haven’t lost since Nov. 20 and are fresh off demolitions of No. 5 Iowa and No. 6 Ohio State in which Penn State outscored those teams 56-21.

Results like those lend themselves to the work Sanderson and his assistants put in with their team on a daily basis.

Most of their weeks are spent focusing on Penn State’s upcoming opponents, the styles their wrestlers employ and the pace at which they compete. They’ll then bring that into the room in order to prepare the Nittany Lions.

“We just try to give them certain feels,” Cunningham said. “If there’s a certain feel they need to have for that weekend based on a guy, we’ll kind of adapt (to) that style for a couple of days so that they can feel a left-leg lead or a left-hand shot, or a right-leg lead, right-hand shot, whatever it is. So we kind of adapt to what we feel those guys need.”

Before Sanderson was finished talking with reporters on Tuesday, he made it known that sophomore 174-pounder Ed Ruth would be his opponent later in the session. For Ruth, it gave him another chance to accomplish one of his main collegiate goals — beat Sanderson, the man who never lost in college.

“Casey’s a little bit more hardcore. Cael’s a little bit laid back but he still gets you easy, like it’s nothing,” Ruth said. “And Cody, he’s so tricky. His skill level is just crazy. When I wrestle him, whether I end up on top or he ends up on top, I still feel like I’m at a disadvantage.”

Wright said sometimes Cael Sanderson will give up a takedown in order to let on the appearance that his students are getting closer to his level.

But when asked if the team’s most talented wrestlers are getting closer to his level, Sanderson just smiled.

“It depends on the day,” Sanderson said.

Taylor quickly responded to the question, asking “What kind of question is that?”

“He wins all the time. It doesn’t matter how much he allows us to think we get a takedown,” Wright added. “Coach Cael definitely wins all of the time. Coach Cael will let us, if we do it right, we get the takedown. Coach Cunningham, he won’t let you score a point. He’s not fun to wrestle. Casey, he’ll try to make you quit. Put it that way.”

They haven’t quit yet, however.

“If you compare us three, you’re going to get some consistency,” Cody Sanderson said. “I think we have a lot of the same attitudes and we have the same expectations for the team. We expect these guys to work hard and give us everything they’ve got. Individually, we’re all different. We wrestle different weight classes, we have different experiences. So when it comes to actual on the mat teaching, you’re going to get a reflection of those differences and those experiences.”

Travis Johnson can be reached at 231-4629.