3 thoughts from three Penn State wrestlers who finished third at the 2025 NCAA Championships

PHILADELPHIA — Three Penn State competitors were among the many athletes from across the college wrestling landscape who ended up at the interview session they didn’t want to on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Luke Lilledahl, graduate senior Beau Bartlett, and sophomore Tyler Kasak joined other third-, fifth-, and seventh-place winners at a makeshift media center just off the floor at the Wells Fargo Center. The goal entering the tournament was to end up in the main press conference late Saturday night after winning a national title, of course. But, each finished as high as he could, given previous tournament outcomes, by winning his final match to finish third.

As we wait for tonight’s championship finals to start, here’s one thought, plus a full video interviews, with each Nittany Lion.

Bartlett is ready for what’s next

The always-smiling Beau Bartlett won his 100th college match in what was also his final one as a Nittany Lion. He took out Penn’s CJ Composto for the second time in this tournament when he beat him by major decison in the third-place match. It puts him in fine company — even he’d prefer not to keep it — as a three-time All-American who has finished third twice and second once at the NCAA Tournament without ever winning a title.

“I’ll make it onto that list that I never wanted to be on of guys that [are] pretty good and didn’t get a title,” Bartlett said. “I’m going to be on that list. But, there’s been guys that have gone on to do really, very, very, very amazing things after that.”

Bartlett hopes to join them in that aspect. He’s never hidden his preference for freestyle over folkstyle (which is what college is) wrestling. And, that’ll be his focus now.

“I love competing,” he said. “I love wrestling. And I’m done; I’m retired from folk-style wrestling now, but I’m just getting started.”

Watch a video of Bartlett’s full interview below. Can’t see it? Visit Blue-White Illustrated’s YouTube channel here.

Kasak feels good at 157

After finishing third at 141 pounds a year ago as a freshman, Tyler Kasak bumped up to 157 pounds as a Penn State sophomore. He earned the top seed in this tournament but was bounced from the championship bracket in the quarterfinals before ultimately wrestling back to finish third by winning four. matches on the backside.

After making a bump in weight following his first season, it does not sound like one is coming this offseason.

“I like ’57,” Kasak said. “This is a weight that I think I can be a national champ for the next couple years. The weight cut’s not really that hard. And I feel like I got a good handle on these guys. I mean, there’s really not much that I feel like these guys can really do to me outside of what I kind of let them do. I feel like, if I take control of situations, they work out really well.”

Watch a video of Kasak’s full interview below. Can’t see it? Visit Blue-White Illustrated’s YouTube channel here.

Penn State freshman Lilledahl will turn his focus to freestyle season

Lilledahl, like Kasak, entered this tournament as the top seed. He ultimately finished third at 125 pounds. He wrestled well, though, and will now set his sights on the freestyle season. The Nittany Lion will compete in the senior U.S. Open tournament in April and the U20 World Team Trials in May. He is the defending U20 World Champ at 57 kilograms (125.6 pounds).

“I just like to compete, right? So I want to compete in everything, and I want to compete at the highest level,” Lilledahl said. “So if I win the Senior Open and I wrestle in Final X, that’d be great. That’d be really amazing. But, yeah, just not really focused on all that stuff just yet. Going to recover this week. You. And then we’ll get to that.”

Final X, of course, is the senior level event that sets the U.S. World Team. That event is set for June.

Watch a video of Kasak’s full interview below. Can’t see it? Visit Blue-White Illustrated’s YouTube channel here.