No matter how you slice it, Penn State Wrestling is going to have a stacked lineup going into next season.
Back in early April, I slapped together a projected lineup based on the information we had at the time. And not surprisingly, many Nittany Lions sites have followed suit, and 2024-2025 projected lineups are flying around like hotcakes. And also not surprisingly, there have been quite a few changes as Beau Bartlett, Carter Starocci, and Greg Kerkvliet have all confirmed they are coming back for one final run.
Then this past week, the fine folks over at Penn State Rivals decided to throw their hat into the proverbial crystal ball ring.
Is #PennState Wrestling’s lineup set now for the 2024-25 season?
https://t.co/70wtgCYzhN pic.twitter.com/CqXVAnVlRs
— Happy Valley Insider (@PennStateRivals) May 9, 2024
So based on everything we now know, how’d they do?
Here is our latest projected starting lineup, and analysis on each grappler’s potential impact on the Nittany Lions in 2024.
The Nittany Lions have a wealth of talent in their wrestling room and Cael Sanderson and company have landed a string of highly-rated recruiting classes. When you combine this with multi-year All-Americans and NCAA champions returning to the lineup, it’s inevitably going to lead to situations like this. Penn State Wrestling is going to have two highly competitive guys duking it out for the starting spot at 133. Both Aaron Nagao and Braeden Davis would start for virtually every D1 program in the country. But, hey, it’s a good problem to have. And when the dust settles on this position battle, my money is also on Davis to occupy the 133 spot next year.
Following his runner-up finish in the 2024 NCAA Championships, Beau Bartlett has one thing and only one thing left to do. And that’s to win the whole f$%&ing thing next year.
No disagreement from me here either. Two years ago Mesenbrink competed at 70 kg at both the U20 Pan American Championships and the U20 World Championships. And while he wrestled at 165 this past season, Mitchell has the ability to make the cut and wrestle at a high level at 157.
Two things were readily apparent last year. -No one in the country was beating Levi Haines this past season. -Levi Haines wrestled his last match at 157 pounds. So again, I completely agree that Haines will be locked and loaded next year at 165.
Cue the Captain Kirk and Bones nodding gif.
Josh Barr was nothing short of spectacular in the 2023-2024 season. He took home titles in the Journeymen Classic, Black Knight Invite, Mat-Town Open II, and Edinboro Open. He won a 13-4 major decision in his only dual meet action and he finished the year 14-0 with a bonus percentage of 73%. His main competition at 184 is most likely true freshman Zack Ryder. And while Ryder is a stud in his own right, something tells me he’s going to redshirt this coming season.Again, no argument from me here. In my lineup prediction, I had this spot narrowed down between Kerkvliet and Cole Mirasola. Mainly because at the time Kerk hadn’t yet announced what he was doing for next year. And now that everyone knows Greg is coming back, Cole can redshirt and get acclimated to the college wrestling scene at his own pace. This loosely translates into him continually getting his butt whooped in the wrestling room by Kerk Kong. Hey, that’s about as good of a learning experience as you can get!
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