3 Questions That Will Define Penn State Wrestling’s 2025-2026 Season
Penn State Wrestling heads into the 2025-2026 collegiate wrestling season with lofty expectations, but three questions may define their entire year.
The leaves are starting to turn random shades of orange, the air is starting to feel more crisp, and the seemingly endless days of gray skies are upon us. And that means one thing and one thing only!
Penn State Football is smack dab in the middle of its natty-hunting season, baby!
Which is obviously something I would have said if I just woke up from a two-month-long coma.
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Well, unfortunately for my readers, I’ve been awake most of the time in the last 60 days. And regrettably, the Penn State Football team hasn’t exactly had the season most of the fans would have liked to see.
*Sigh*
Thank goodness for Penn State Wrestling, right?
Furthermore, with the season looming ever closer each day, let’s dive into three questions that could define the Nittany Lions’ upcoming season.
Three Questions for Penn State Wrestling heading into the 2025-2026 season
Question No. 1 – Is this the year for Shayne Van Ness?
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Shayne Van Ness has been oh so close before.
In his redshirt freshman campaign (2022-2023), Van Ness gutted his way to the semifinals of the 2023 NCAA’s. Where eventual four-time NCAA champ Yanni Diakomihalis got the best of him 8-3. Shayne then won his next two matches, securing third place in his first-ever NCAA Championships.
And after his sophomore year ended early due to injury, SVN appeared to be a man on a mission last year.
Well, that is, except for when he had to go up against Nebraska’s Ridge Lovett. But in any case, Van Ness looked way more improved on the mat than he did his freshman year. Which is a crazy thing to say considering how well he looked then.
As everyone knows, Shayne again punched his ticket to the semifinals in the 2025 NCAA’s. And just like he did in their previous match during the regular season, Lovett proved he was simply the better man.
Van Ness then went on to destroy his next two opponents to lock up third place for the second time.
However, Ridge Lovett is now out of eligibility.
Additionally, news recently out Blacksburg indicated that pre-season No. 1 Caleb Henson would be redshirting this season. Not that I think Henson would be a huge roadblock for Shayne, but the dude is a national champion and finished runner-up last year.
So, is this the year Shayne Van Ness makes it past the NCAA semifinals? More importantly, is this the year he scales the mountain of greatness and claims his first NCAA title?
My money is on, “Yes.”
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Question No. 2 – Who is going to be the guy at 133?
Credit – Lloyd McCully
The answer to this question is going to be a really fun one to watch play out.
On one hand you have the consensus overall No. 1 recruit in the 2025 recruiting class. A guy who has a proverbial laundry list of accomplishments already adorned to him. Along with winning u17 gold (2023) and u20 gold (2025), he’s currently competing at the 2025 U23’s in Serbia.
Marcus Blaze is the real deal. And he’s going to make an immediate impact on collegiate wrestling.
But then, on the other hand, you have the 2024 u20 and 2024 World Champion at 61kg, Masanosuke Ono.
I would pay way more money than I’d care to admit to watch those two go at it in the Penn State Wrestling room.
However, there are two things to consider when looking at which guy will go this year at 133 pounds.
First and foremost is the question of how much eligibility Ono has. Is it one year? Two years? Who knows …
The other thing to consider is that Blaze has wrestled both freestyle and folkstyle his entire life. Conversely, Ono has only wrestled folkstyle for about a year. This could also play a huge factor in the which guy gets the nod.
Now, if I had to answer this question right this second, my gut tells me that Ono wins out the spot for this coming year. But he’s basically just keeping the seat warm for Blaze.
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Question No. 3 – What is the extent of Josh Barr’s injury?
That did not look great.
Penn State Wrestling’s season starts in less than 25 days. And depending on the actual injury and the severity of the injury, this could be a difficult one to come back from quickly. Especially if the injury is related to Josh Barr’s ribs.
I’m not here to speculate anything, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh misses a good portion of the beginning of the season. Which by itself isn’t the end of the world.
But, it could impact how well Barr gets up to speed as the season rolls into the B1G part of it. Furthermore, it could impact the staff trying to get him to peak in March.
Now, all of this could be a complete moot point if the injury is a nothing-burger. Especially when you consider that the Nittany Lions also have Connor Mirasola and Lucas Cochran as backups at 197.
Obviously time will tell. And I for one hope that Josh heals up quickly and gets back on the mat for Penn State’s opening dual against Oklahoma.
Conversely, his injury could be one that lingers and it could very well affect him the entire season.
I’m betting on the former though.
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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.
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