Penn State wrestling freshman PJ Duke has concluded his first appearance in the Senior World Championships berth
Duke, who is the youngest of four Penn State wrestling/Nittany Lions Wrestling Club members competing in Croatia over the next week, beat China’s Shuang Chen 11-0 in his first match but lost to Kazakhstan’s Nurkozha Kaiponav in his second match Saturday morning.
Kaipanov then beat Austin Gomez of Mexico in the next bout to move onto the semifinals, which begin at 1 ET today.
If Kaipanov won that match, he’d have gone for Gold, which meant that Duke would go into the repackage tournament and have a chance to wrestle for Bronze.
Unfortuentley, Kaipanov lost.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Duke is the guy Penn State wrestling fans will probably be most interested in seeing because, frankly, this has been a dream freestyle season for the teenager.
From beating multiple national champions at the World Team Trials to beating a four-time champ twice at Final X, to winning a U20 World Championship, Duke is simply on a heater.
What’s crazy is, he might not even start for Penn State this season.
Tyler Kasak entered the National Championships last season as the No. 1 seed at 157, which is Duke’s projected weight. If Duke can medal at the World Championships, it will be even more difficult to keep him out of the lineup.
