Beau Bartlett has wrestling contacts all over the country.

Some he’d consider buddies while others are more akin to acquaintances. 

At least two will join him in Rec Hall this weekend when Penn State tries to stay unbeaten against Ohio State.

The Nittany Lions’ outgoing 141-pounder is looking forward to catching up with former high school teammate Nic Bouzakis, who’ll represent the Buckeyes at 133 pounds, just before he reconvenes with another former teammate.

But Bartlett won’t be seeking out Buckeye Jesse Mendez to stroll down memory lane. They have current business to attend to with a looming bout at 141 pounds.

It could be the first of many meetings between the two NCAA championship hopefuls. It’ll definitely be the most anticipated match of the afternoon.

The two last connected as members of the 2021 Junior World Championships. Now they’re two of the Big Ten’s preeminent lightweights with a pair of All-American seasons under their belts. 

“I know he's really good,” Bartlett said. “And it's really cool to see guys that come up from the age-level World teams move on and continue to find success. But it doesn't really change anything for the match. I'm gonna get in my routine, do everything the way I want to do it. Make sure I'm dialed in, and I'm going to go compete the way I want to compete.”

Mendez will enter Rec Hall with a single loss on his record. He dropped a 4-2 decision to Pitt’s Cole Matthews in early December. Bartlett is unbeaten, but was pushed hard in two of his last five bouts dating back to Jan. 1. 

He needed sudden victory to put Oregon State’s Cleveland Belton away 8-5 and clipped Michigan’s Sergio Lemley 7-5 on Jan 19.

Despite the close bouts, Bartlett feels he’s progressed this season. His focus has been a hallmark of his style and approach in past seasons and he feels it’s even stronger in this, his junior season.

Chalk it up to his ability to compartmentalize. 

Bartlett doesn’t allow obsessive thoughts about wrestling, opponents, or other minutiae to spoil his outlook.

“I think I try to do my best to separate myself as an athlete and as a fan,” Bartlett said. “I love wrestling. I love watching wrestling. And I want to watch all my teammates’, my friends’ matches, I want to watch all of them. I have friends on every other team, at least I'm close with members on every single wrestling team, but that takes a lot of energy. It drains me emotionally, mentally.”

Video games help dampen some of the extra competitive urges.

“I make sure I’m playing some Mario, like Smash Bros. and the Nintendo Switch the night before instead of watching wrestling or doing something that I think gets my heart rate up,” Bartlett said. “Just doing something very casual. The whole team is playing Super Smash Bros. right now.”

The Other Champ

Bartlett hasn’t lost a wrestling match since his semifinal loss to eventual NCAA champion Andrew Alirez last March, but he did recently lose the intrasquad Smash Bros. title. 

As Bartlett lamented his recent Nintendo failings despite switching from Kirby to Samus and finally to a Pokemon trainer, the current champ was walking into practice.

Bartlett called him out — teammate Marco Vespa — as Vespa grinned, held up one finger toward assembled reporters and proclaimed his reign.

“No one can beat me,” the 125-pounder said before slipping through the glass doors into the wrestling room.

Taking From The Rookie

Recently, Bartlett has sought out redshirt freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink in the room.

Bartlett loves his new teammate’s style and Mesenbrink’s results have raised eyebrows throughout the facility. He leads the team with 14 wins, 36 dual-points scored and six technical falls.

“His attack rate’s really high, he's always moving forward,” Bartlett said. “And I want to emulate some of those things, bring them into my style, so been wrestling with him like once a week.”

On Sunday against Maryland, Bartlett found himself jokingly giving Mesenbrink a hard time. The 165-pounder needed just 50 seconds to pin Terp Ryan Money and by the time Barlett emerged from his post-match cool-down, Mesenbrink’s match was over.

“I come back out. He's off the mat,” Bartlett said. “I was like, ‘Mitchell, what's going on? Why didn’t you let me watch your match? You’re being selfish!’ It’s a good joke. (We were) laughing.”

149 Coming Into Focus

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson isn’t ready to publicly name a starter at 149 pounds, but freshman Tyler Kasak took a big step with a tournament win this past weekend.

Kasak won Lock Haven’ Mat-Town Open II and looked good doing it. He went 4-0 with a fall and a major decision before beating teammate David Evans in the finals 4-2. Evans and Kasak have both been trying to nail down the spot vacated by Shayne Van Ness when Van Ness was lost to injury earlier in the season.

Either way, Kasak and Evans both needed to get multiple matches in this weekend to have a chance, should either one earn the spot, to clinch an auto-qualifier spot for the Big Ten at 149.

“I think they both had three or four matches, which kind of helps their match count, gives us a little bit of flexibility and takes a little bit of the urgency off of that decision,” Sanderson said. “But obviously, head-to-head and being in the same event, plays a big role in where we'll go with it. Yeah.”

Penn State has five duals left before the Big Ten Tournament begins on March 9.

“It's not something that we have to decide by Friday night,” Sanderson added. “We could we could let it play out a week or two.” 

Hungry Dog 

It’s been a relatively low-key season so far for star 174-pounder Carter Starocci. 

The Nittany Lions’ outspoken captain hasn’t really been tested on the mat where he’s wrestled only eight matches. 

The real test for the three-time NCAA champ has been dealing with the relative lack of action. 

A virus that made its rounds through the team after the holiday break cost a number of wrestlers matches. Starocci was among those infected later than others. He was forced to miss duals at Michigan and Michigan State but was able to return against the Terps. 

Starocci earned his third fall of the season when he pinned Mason Stein in 4:26. It wasn’t as surgical as his last two falls, but it got the job done, nonetheless.

“I think our guys would like to have more matches,” Sanderson said. “I know Carter keeps talking about that. He wasn't real happy about not wrestling and missing two matches a couple weekends ago but you know, just moving on, you know, it is what it is.”