Josh Barr: A Product Of Penn State Wrestling’s Unmatched Strength & Conditioning
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Redshirt freshman Josh Barr has been a pleasant surprise for Penn State wrestling fans this season.
After four-time national champion Aaron Brooks’ last year of eligibility, speculation over who would start in the 197-pound slot was seemingly a toss-up between Lucas Cochran and Barr. Although he’s showing great signs of development, Barr was mostly unknown as a young Nittany Lion, only wrestling in one dual match last season before redshirting.
Now, as a starter, Barr has quickly taken the weight class by storm, going from unranked to No. 4 in the country after winning the Black Knight Invitational and securing ranked wins against No. 6 Michael Beard of Lehigh, No. 5 Stephan Little of Arkansas Little Rock, No. 22 Camden McDanel of Nebraska, and most recently No. 16 Josh Poznanski of Rutgers.
In the match last week against the Scarlet Knight, Barr raised eyebrows with an incredible showing of determination and grit. Tied 0-0 going into the third period, the Nittany Lion scored seven straight takedowns to beat Poznanski by tech fall 22-6.
“Barr’s just wrestling at a high pace,” head coach Cael Sanderson said Monday. “He’s keeping the pressure on and he’s adding technique to that. He’s just got a lot of confidence and he’s just doing his thing.”
Barr’s performance against Nebraska’s Camden McDanel was a similar story where the Nittany Lion landed five third period takedowns to win by tech fall 19-4. With back-to-back third period annihilations, it’s impossible to ignore Barr’s conditioning to seemingly only get better as the match goes on.
“I think our guys are in great shape. That’s something we were very confident in. We know that we’re going to wrestle for seven minutes,” Sanderson said. “I think it gives the other guys in the lineup even more confidence to see that you can just kind of ‘let it rip’ and things are going to work out. Doesn’t mean it’s easy to do that, but it definitely is worth it, and it’s a lot of fun to compete at that speed.”
Ever since Barr stepped foot in Penn State’s facility, he’s shown significant cardio capabilities, earning the respect of four-time national champion and teammate Carter Starocci.
“He’s a lunatic,” Starocci said. “I remember when he first came in here a few years back and when I wrestle the new guys, I just like to see where guys are at with their mentality. We were going for five straight hours. He just kept coming back to the middle, and he was young, too, so I was kind of putting it on him. I was like, ‘Oh damn,’ like ‘I’m getting kind of tired.’ He just won’t stop.”
Sanderson mentioned that this isn’t just Barr’s superpower, but rather the program as a whole takes strength and conditioning seriously.
“I think our conditioning program is great,” Sanderson said. “Coach Mike Schroeder does an awesome job. Coach Cunningham and coach Cody do an awesome job. The guys are in great shape and all of them can compete at that level, in that speed, so they’re all capable of doing that.”
Barr is in the midst of a challenging schedule as he’s set to face No. 1 Stephan Buchanan of Iowa and No. 2 Jacob Cardenas of Michigan in back-to-back weeks.
“He’s got a lot of great opponents coming up. We see him in the room every day, so we know he’s a lot different person today than he was a year ago,” Sanderson said. “He’s just trending in the right direction, and you know he’s going to compete hard, and he’s going to use every second, and if you do that, then good things are going to happen.”
The No. 4 ranked wrestler is only a redshirt freshman, setting the bar high for years to come. At 12-0 with highly ranked opportunities ahead, the secret is out about Barr. No one should be surprised to see the young Nittany Lion compete for a Big Ten or NCAA title this postseason. Starocci sees greatness in the 197-pounder, earning high praise from one of Penn State’s best.
“He’s one of those guys that’s going to be really good,” Starocci said. “He’s gonna be the next four-time champ.”
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