What does Josh Barr’s injury mean for Penn State Wrestling?
Diving headfirst into what Josh Barr’s injury in the 2025 B1G Wrestling Championships means for Penn State Wrestling.
At roughly 3:05pm EST on Sunday, March 9th, the entirety of the Nittany Lion Wrestling faithful let out a collective “Oh no!”.
Barr was only 45 seconds into his match against Minnesota’s Isaiah Salazar.
The winner of the bout would advance in the consolation bracket to the third place match in the B1G’s. And at this point it was hard to tell exactly what happened, however Josh was favoring his left leg.
Credit – Lloyd McCully
The officials temporarily halted the match for blood-time on Salazar.
During the stoppage Barr tried as best he could to shake off the injury while hopping around the mat. After a quick visit with trainer Dan Monthly and Cael Sanderson and crew, Barr decided to give it a go.
But only a few seconds after the restart, Barr was quickly taken to the mat. And at this point it was time to throw in the towel as the Penn State Wrestling coaching staff indicated they were medically forfeiting the match.
So just like that, Josh Barr’s 2025 B1G Championship run came to an end.
What is Josh Barr’s injury?
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Well, your guess is about as good as mine.
However, from what I could see on the screen, it appears he suffered an injury to either his left knee or his left ankle. Obviously an ankle injury would be much more favorable over a knee. But I highly doubt anyone outside of the Penn State Wrestling room will have any concrete information.
The Nittany Lions are great at many things.
Namely winning NCAA individual and team titles. And they are also incredibly good at keeping in-house information, in-house. As in if they don’t want anything to come out to the public, then it for sure won’t.
As I just mentioned, the best case scenario is that he sprained his ankle. Now depending on the severity of the sprain, this is anywhere from a two (regular sprain) to eight (high ankle sprain) week recovery timeline.
If it’s a knee injury then the waters become even murkier.
Because the recovery time for even a regular knee sprain could be anywhere from four to six weeks. Additionally, if there is any ligament damage then the timeline is lengthened significantly and surgery may come into the picture.
Which does not bode well for the 2025 NCAA Championships less than two weeks away.
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What does the injury mean for Penn State Wrestling?
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Now, if you’re new to collegiate wrestling then you may not know this.
If Josh Barr is unable to compete in the 2025 NCAA’s, then Penn State will not be able to replace him. This is because none of the backups at 197 (Lucas Cochran and Connor Mirasola) participated in enough matches this year to be eligible. Furthermore, the only Nittany Lion to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA’s based on his finish in the B1G’s was Josh Barr.
So the only guy who can go for Penn State at 197 is Barr.
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As far as what it means for the team?
Well before I get into that, I know there has been a precedent set where a Penn State wrestler suffered a serious knee injury late in the year and then came back to win an NCAA title. Most recently it was Carter Starocci last season.
One massive difference between the herculean feats of both Jason Nolf and Carter Starocci is the fact they injured their knees much earlier in the season. Nolf went down roughly two months prior to the 2018 NCAA’s. And Starocci got injured almost a month prior to last year’s NCAA Championships.
In Barr’s case, we’re talking less than two weeks.
So here’s the deal. If he’s unable to go then it will certainly be tougher for Penn State to bring home their fourth straight NCAA team title. However, I want to make a distinction. I’m saying it’s going to be “tougher” not “it’s going to be tough”.
Because at the end of the day, this Nittany Lion lineup is still stacked at a handful of weight classes. And in my opinion, the end result won’t change between a healthy Josh Barr and an injured Josh Barr.
Penn State Wrestling will be the overwhelming favorite at the 2025 NCAA Championships. It just might mean they won’t be breaking any additional records in the process.
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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.