3 early Penn State wrestling thoughts on the Lions' big stay-or-go decisions
Penn State wrestling returns a big chunk of its starting lineup in 2024-2025. But, three big stay-or-go decisions remain.
3 early Penn State wrestling thoughts on the Lions' big stay-or-go decisions
- Thread starter GregPickel
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I’m slightly surprised you are still leaning toward Bartlett moving on.3 early Penn State wrestling thoughts on the Lions' big stay-or-go decisions
Penn State wrestling returns a big chunk of its starting lineup in 2024-2025. But, three big stay-or-go decisions remain.www.on3.com
My rationale, at least in part, is built around this quote from Bartlett at NCAAs:
"A lot of high-level athletes have been touching more on mental health recently. I think that's very important. It's hard out here and if I were to make my entire life just about wrestling and how my wrestling success is, which is what I've done most of my life, it sets you up for failure. You can only win so many matches. You're going to win, you're going to lose, but really it's about enjoying it, being present. No matter what, Olympic Trials is in a month, NCAA doesn't matter. NCAA is awesome, I'm going to do my best, but I'm already qualified. Everyone in the Olympic Trials is already an NCAA champ. This is going into a larger and larger pond. This is part of the process and I'm going to give my full effort, but I know it doesn't stop here. No matter what happens tomorrow, I go right into training for the Olympic Trials and the next thing."
And also this one:
"I'm happy I performed well. I'm happy I was firing some shots. I got a turn -- that's the highlight of my day! Highlight of my day was getting a turn in a folk-style match. I'm more of a freestyle guy. They're not letting me lock hands for a gut wrench. So figuring that out, that's pretty fun."
It's not hard to conclude that he might be ready to be done with folkstyle to focus solely on freestyle. Sure, he could get a nice NIL deal and come back and wrestle a limited schedule. That can't be ruled out. But I'm not sure how anyone could read those quotes and then conclude he's guaranteed or even more likely than not to come back simply because he hasn't won an NCAA title yet.
I'm very confident in one returning. I'm more confident than not on another returning. I'm not very confident in another.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.
If Bartlett does come back, I don't think he wrestles a limited schedule. He is an all or nothing guy. Not sure how many matches he has missed in his career, but I am pretty sure it is a very small amount.
I'm of the belief that all 3 return. Not really based on anything, but until they say no, I think they come back. I don't think money will be an issue so it comes down to desire. In a month or two, whenever the olympic stuff dies down a little, and they start to miss it, I think returning wins out.
Yeah, I should have made that point in the story: There is positively no rush to make these decisions.
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