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Josh Barr injury update: Penn State All-American will 'take a little while to come back' after injury at U23s

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel11 hours agoGregPickel
NCAA Wrestling: DI Wrestling
Josh Barr of Penn State wrestles Tucker Hogan during NCAA Wrestling championships at Wells Fargo Center. (Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)

Returning Penn State All-American Josh Barr will likely not be available for the No. 1 Nittany Lions when they open their 2025-2026 dual meet season on Friday night against Oklahoma. The redshirt sophomore from Davidson, Mich., finished second at 197 pounds at last year’s NCAA tournament. He enters this season as InterMat’s top-ranked wrestler in that weight class. But, after hurting himself at the U23 World Championships in late October and injury defaulting out of the tournament, questions lingered about whether or not Barr would miss time at the start of the college wrestling season. And, as it turns out, that is likely going to be the case.

“It’ll take him a little while to get back,” Lions coach Cael Sanderson said Tuesday, per The Daily Collegian. “But he’s a tough dude.”

Sanderson was speaking at the team’s media day event. BWI’s Thomas Frank Carr was on hand. And more updates from it will be posted here at Blue-White Illustrated and on The Wrestling Room message board throughout the day. A video of Sanderson’s comments will be posted later Tuesday on the BWI YouTube page, as well.

For however long Barr is out, redshirt freshman Connor Mirasola figures to compete in the 197-pound spot of the Penn State starting lineup. He went 8-0 last season, wrestling at various tournaments. A four-time Wisconsin state champ, he won the Southern Scuffle back in early January of this year.

Penn State results from the Journeymen Collegiate Classic

Penn State sent a number of non-starters to Sunday’s Journeymen Collegiate Classic tournament in Bethlehem, Pa. Wrestlers were grouped into various pools to compete in the round-robin event before being assigned to different brackets for placement matches. You can read how each Nittany Lion did below:

149 pounds: Connor Pierce

Went 2-1 with two technical fall wins and a combined scoring day of 44-14.

157 pounds: Joe Sealey

Went 2-1, including a fall that erased a 7-4 defecit in his first match.

165 pounds: Sam Beckett

Went 2-1 with a pair of decision victories.

285 pounds: Dawson Bundy

Went 1-2.