Josh Barr injury status, redshirts & more from Penn State wrestling’s media day
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Josh Barr suffered a rib injury at the U23 Worlds and will miss time.
- Connor Mirasola projects to fill Barr at 197 after offseason international medals.
- Penn State plans multiple redshirts, including Ono for sure and Kasak likely.
It was quite the offseason for Penn State’s wrestling team, which had several athletes compete for world titles in freestyle competition.
In all, the Nittany Lions claimed 18 medals during international competition — 13 golds, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Josh Barr could’ve given Penn State a 19th medal during the U23 World Championships, but he wasn’t able to finish his competition after getting injured in his quarterfinals loss.
Tuesday was the first media day for the Nittany Lions’ season that gets underway Friday, and coach Cael Sanderson broke the silence on Barr’s status.
“Barr tweaked his rib in the scramble when he was trying to switch out of that takedown. It’ll take him a while to get back,” Sanderson said. “He’s a tough dude. You saw him come back from a pretty nasty injury at the Big Ten (Championships) to make the finals at the national tournament.”
So, who will take Barr’s place while he recovers?
There are just two other wrestlers on Penn State’s roster listed at 197 pounds in Connor Mirasola and Mason Ellis. Mirasola is the likely choice to fill the void as he collected three medals in the offseason — U23 Pan-American gold, U20 Pan-American Gold and U20 World bronze.
Who’s redshirting for Penn State?
It’s unknown how many wrestlers will redshirt, but Sanderson gave some answers on Tuesday that may surprise Penn State fans.
Tyler Kasak and Braeden Davis have a “good chance” of taking a redshirt season, said Sanderson, who went on to confirm that world champion Masanosuke Ono will redshirt for sure.
“When you have the flexibility that you have in college sports, with redshirts and different opportunities, we can be flexible. You want guys that are team guys,” Sanderson said. “Tyler Kasak is a good example of that. He’s one of the best wrestlers in the country.
“(We) absolutely love watching him wrestle, that’s a tough guy to redshirt. He’s a beast and a gamer. The bigger the match, the better he wrestles.”
Sanderson went on to say that it makes sense to redshirt Kasak this year as the Nittany Lions are loaded at 157 pounds. They have Kasak, freshman PJ Duke and redshirt freshman Joe Sealey listed at the weight.
Duke claimed a U23 bronze medal and a U20 gold medal this offseason, and was highly recruited. Sealey wrestled just twice last year, and both were losses in duals for Penn State. He did compete in last weekend’s Journeymen Collegiate, going 2-1, and had a pin.
National Duals a no-go
The inaugural National Duals Invitational kicks off this weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The tournament has some of the nation’s top teams in the country competing against one another for a top prize of $200,000. All competing teams are getting at least $20,000.
When the tournament was announced in January, Penn State came out right away and said it wouldn’t participate. It sounds like the Nittany Lions may never compete in the event.
“We’re going to do what’s in the best interest of the kids on our team. I think they knew right away, when and where they were putting it we’re probably not (competing), because we’re pretty consistent,” Sanderson said. “We haven’t really changed a whole lot in that regard. We love the national tournament the way it is right now. There’s always been a kind of push to move the team championship to a dual format, which we’d be fine at.
“We do fine in duals, but we just love the format that it is now. We’re just not really interested. We’re always going to do what’s in the best interest of our kids and our team. That’s my job, and that’s what we’re going to do, and that’s what we did.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2025 at 7:06 PM.
