Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547107
4 6 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M C ollege wrestling fans have a passion for the sport, but the vast majority don't see the daily struggles of wres- tlers making weight, what it takes to cope with a heartbreaking loss or how an ath- lete deals with an illness that strikes at a most inopportune time. A trio of Penn State wrestlers — sopho- mores PJ Duke and Marcus Blaze and ju- nior Rocco Welsh — can tell those stories eloquently. Duke, who as a freshman placed third at the NCAA Tournament at 157 pounds, hit a wall about midseason last year when it came to weight maintenance. "Before I figured out the diet thing, it was right around the Michigan dual when I really was at the peak of hurting pretty badly cutting weight," he said. "Once I figured it out, my conditioning and my mentality were way, way better. Once you figure out how to eat right, it's kind of crazy how much of a difference it makes." Maintaining weight for a wrestler is virtually a year-round job; cutting weight in-season is a more intense, five-month task. "When you're cutting weight, it makes everything in life suck," Duke explained. "You come to practice and you're hungry during practice. You go home and you're still hungry, you're still thirsty. You go to bed thirsty and hungry, and you've got to wait all day to go work out again … hun- gry and thirsty. And just going to class hungry and thirsty, it really stinks having to do that." Duke eventually righted his nutri- tional wrongs, such as eating too much on weekends and not enough during the week. After that, the process became easier. "Once you adopt that proper balance, it's something you just do all the time and it's easier to maintain that every day," he said. Duke wasn't the only Penn State wres- tler who found himself struggling with physical challenges last season. At the NCAA Tournament in March, Blaze was dealing with a strength-sapping case of the flu. He lost in the semifinals to Ohio State's Ben Davino and in the third-place final to Virginia Tech's Aaron Seidel, plac- ing fourth in a loaded 133-pound weight class. "I think it affected me the most in my Perseverance Has Been One Of PSU's Underappreciated Virtues J I M CA R L S O N | B L U E W H I T E C O N T R I B U T O R Rocco Welsh lost to Minnesota's Max McEnelly in the 184-pound final at last season's NCAA Tournament, but he looks back on that experience as motivation for an even better season as a junior. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS