As Beau Bartlett’s collegiate career winds down, the Penn State senior is realizing more and more how much he’s going to miss this when it’s all over.

Sure, the ultra-talented 141-pounder will eventually chase Olympic and World team opportunities, but as Bartlett tells it, there’s something special about being part of a college team that’s been undefeated for more than five years.

Take the scene inside Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Friday for example.

While fans that packed the school’s basketball arena cheered ravenously as Josh Barr dealt Michigan’s second-ranked Jacob Cardenas an overtime loss at 197, Bartlett exceeded their energy. As Barr worked for the match-sealing reversal with five seconds left, Bartlett was flailing his arms and jumping over chairs alongside the mat.

“Moments like that really make it feel like a team sport,” Bartlett said. “You don’t really get this after college. After college it’s really just try to make the World Team, an Olympic Team, you’re on teams but it’s really just individuals. Here is the last bit of my team career as a wrestler, and seeing moments like that really makes me appreciate all the people around. That’s really special.” 

All in all, it’s been a special season for Penn State, capped most recently by a remarkable weekend of action in which the Nittany Lions didn’t give up a single takedown to either Michigan or Maryland. 

Bartlett improved to 15-0 on the season after he edged Michigan’s Sergio Lemley on Friday before overpowering Maryland’s Dario Lemus on Sunday. 

He’ll headline Penn State’s next dual, a Friday showdown at Ohio State, where reigning 141-pound NCAA champ Jesse Mendez will be waiting. 

The Buckeye junior is 22-0 on the season and is 2-1 in collegiate matches to Bartlett, 3-1 if you count the NWCA All-Star exhibition that kicked off this season. Despite their history, Bartlett doesn’t consider the Buckeye star a rival. 

“I think my greatest rival is myself, clearly,” Bartlett said. “You don’t know what I’m going to do when I go out there. I’m hard to scout. There’s a lot of different things I can do.”

 After losing to Mendez 4-1 in the NCAA finals last year, the pair butted heads again in the exhibition, where Bartlett said he was probably too fired up. It cost him. 

“I think I put extra pressure on myself, so really just thinking (Friday’s match) is another match is the right direction,” Bartlett said. “I think I’m doing everything right.” 

He appeared to take the same approach in last season’s finale, where points were hard to come by for both wrestlers. Mendez scored first in the second period before Bartlett tied it with a third-period escape. Bartlett worked a double-leg attack and wound up behind the Buckeye, but Mendez hit a standing Granby and came out on top for a takedown with just one second left. 

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson’s advice for Bartlett in this rematch is simple.

“He’s just gotta score more points,” Sanderson said. “You just have two of the best guys in the country and he’s just gotta do what he does. Wrestle the match in your positions and score points when you have opportunities and create those opportunities with your hustle and your effort.”

Raising The Barr 

It didn’t take long for Barr to avenge his first collegiate loss. The fact that he did so against near-equal competition is promising to Sanderson and the rest of the coaching staff. 

A week after dropping a 4-1 match to #1 Stephen Buchanan of Iowa, Barr responded with the 3-2 tiebreaker win over Cardenas. It was the Michigan big man’s first loss since he fell in last season’s third-place match to Buchanan at the NCAA Championships. 

But the fact that Barr, in his first year of attached competition, is right there with two wrestlers who’ve combined for seven NCAA tournament appearances and five All-America seasons isn’t enough for the blue-collar Nittany Lion.

“Honestly, I thought I could’ve wrestled a lot better (against Cardenas),” Barr said. “Just another opportunity to get better and grateful for the opportunities, obviously, the Big Ten brings, so just taking it getting better from it and moving on.” 

As Barr was analyzing his own performance with a critical eye, teammate Levi Haines looked over his way when he was asked about Barr’s overtime win and the reaction of their teammates like Bartlett. 

“Makes me think about wrestling (Barr) in practice on Monday, knowing that it’s going to be tough,” Haines said.

Patience On Top 

Haines has steadily increased his output from the top position.

It’s something that he’s been working on all season as opponents tend to turtle up, belly out or simply try to impede his ability to score from the top.

So far, it hasn’t been a great strategy for them. Haines is second only to heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet in backpoints and leads Penn State with six falls. He flattened his most recent foe on Friday, working a tilt from the top against Michigan’s Joseph Walker into a fall in just 2:37. 

“Learning to be patient on top has been a big learning curve,” Haines said. “A lot of times I get excited when I start getting a guy toward his back, I go to run him over and he kind of flips out of it, so it’s been just part of the learning process and just committed to trying to get some turns on top.” 

Davis, Kasak Questionable

If the Big Ten tournament was this weekend, there’s no doubt 133-pounder Braeden Davis and 157-pounder Tyler Kasak would be in the lineup.

With the luxury of time, however, Sanderson may hold both out as they are both dealing with nagging ailments. Davis hasn’t wrestled since Jan. 24 while Kasak took a hand to the face in a match against Maryland’s Ethen Miller on Sunday, forcing the Penn State sophomore into concussion protocol. 

He had to take an injury default for his first loss of the season. 

Both are questionable for Penn State’s final Big Ten duals of the year. The Nittany Lions travel to Illinois on Sunday after their match with the Buckeyes on Friday. 

“There’s different kind of injuries,” Sanderson said. “There are season-ending injuries, there are things that are going to be a nuisance for him at the nationals, like Carter (Starocci) dealt with last year. But we don’t feel like we have anything like that. Davis, there’s a good chance he’ll wrestle this week and there’s a chance he won’t wrestle this week.”