Penn State Wrestling's Josh Barr is a national champion

Penn State Wrestling’s Josh Barr wins his first NCAA title Saturday night in Cleveland, Ohio.

With Barr’s 6-3 win over Oklahoma State’s Cody Merrill, the undefeated Nittany Lion wins his first NCAA title. Furthermore, Penn State Wrestling picks up their third NCAA title of the night inside the thunderous Rocket Arena crowd.

Penn State Wrestling, Josh Barr — Penn State Wrestling’s Josh Barr falls to Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan 5-2 in the 197 finals at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Credit: Lloyd McCully

Following up on a 20-4 record last season where Barr finished runner-up to Stephan Buchanan, Josh started this year off strong. He competed in the Journeymen Collegiate National Duals before winning a Southern Scuffle. And his dominant season continued into the B1G portion of the season as Barr piled up bonus point win after bonus point win.

Going into this match, Josh was the only wrestler left in the NCAA Championships with a bonus point rate of 100%.

So with this win in the 197 finals, it’s no doubt that Barr will be a serious contender for the Dan Hodge Trophy. However there may be some other guys in that mix as well. Of course this also includes his teammate, Mitchell Mesenbrink.

But whatever happens at the end of the season, it doesn’t really matter. Because with the step forward that Josh made this year, that is some super bad news for the rest of the nation next year.

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Chris Snyder

Penn State Wrestling Beat Reporter at NittanyCentral

Expertise: College Wrestling, College Football, Lays Chips
Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA

Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.

And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.

Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.

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Chris Snyder
Expertise: College Wrestling, College Football, Lays Chips Education: Penn State University Location: State College, PA Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network. And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long. Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.

Chris Snyder

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Expertise: College Wrestling, College Football, Lays Chips Education: Penn State University Location: State College, PA Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network. And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long. Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.

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