Penn State Wrestling sensation and junior world champion PJ Duke recently shared his approach to the sport. The teenage wrestler represents the Penn State Nittany Lions in collegiate wrestling and aims to play an important role in another team championship.
The Penn State Nittany Lions are among the most successful teams in the NCAA Wrestling Championships. They have won the NCAA team title four consecutive times since 2022.
PJ Duke Reveals His Approach To Wrestling
In a recent chat with the YouTube channel ‘Locked on Nittany Lions’, Duke revealed his approach to patient wrestling. The 19-year-old wrestler maintained that while he was all for scoring points as quickly as possible, there are occasions when things don’t go as planned.
Duke mentioned in the vlog [3:54 onwards],
“Yeah, I obviously like scoring a lot of points and stuff. That’s the goal is to obviously try and tech or pin everybody I wrestle. But um obviously can be perfect. Not every match is going to be a tech fall or pin, and or uh even bonus points.”
READ MORE: Penn State Wrestling’s PJ Duke Explains His Match Mentality While Staying Consistent And Grounded
The 157 lbs. wrestler added that he approaches bouts with opponents who are not very interested in aggressive wrestling. In his words:
“It’s hard to do bonus points every match when you guys don’t want to really uh wrestler [referring to opponents] too much. So uh yeah, I mean it’s just some matches are just going to go a little slower and you got to be patient.”
Duke experienced a whirlwind season last year. He qualified for all the editions of the World Championships, from U20 to the senior level. While he didn’t leave a strong impression in the seniormost edition, Duke clinched a bronze medal for Team USA at the U23 edition in Novi Sad.
Duke also upgraded his bronze medal from the 2024 U20 World Championships to a gold medal in the 2025 U20 World Championships, held in Samokov, Bulgaria. Duke had previously clinched a gold medal at the 2024 U20 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Lima, Peru.
The Penn State Nittany Lions have been near invincible this season, with 11 straight wins out of 11 duels. They last faced the University of Maryland on Jan. 24, and they won without a sweat, 51-0. The Nittany Lions will now face the previous edition’s runners-up, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, on Jan. 30.
