State College resident competes on reality show

STATE COLLEGE — Tim Yosca, a State College resident, competed on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge show, which recently aired on the Country Music Television network.

The show, hosted by pro wrestler Steve Austin, features eight different competitors each week. The competitors face off in three different challenges, with men being eliminated after each challenge. The last man standing gets the chance to compete in the Skullbuster.

The competitor who completes the Skullbuster the fastest during the whole season will win $10,000.

Yosca competed in three challenges on the show — drag race, pile up and splinter. He said that despite the major Los Angeles dry heat, he enjoyed filming the show and being treated like a television star.

“You become completely deaf to the fact that there are cameras in your face,” said Yosca.

Yosca said he went on the show after his brother became a fan of it and suggested he audition. He had followed Stone Cold Steve Austin’s career when he was a kid, so as a huge fan, he found meeting Austin to be very exciting.

“Shaking his hand was like shaking a catcher’s mitt,” said Yosca, commenting on Austin’s enormous size. “In my mind, he’s the most famous wrestler of all time.”

There is also a whole other dimension to why Yosca went on the show. As a research scientist at Penn State, Yosca is not like the typical competitor on the show. Yosca said that he wanted to prove to the others on the show that he could keep up.

“I am here to set the record straight,” Yosca said about performance.

Yosca graduated form Susquehanna University and attended Penn State for his graduate degree. After he graduated in 2012 with his doctorate, he decided to stay at Penn State to participate in postdoctoral work. Yosca works mostly in the lab researching enzymology.

The episode aired March 6 on CMT. Watch the full episode at www.cmt.com to find out how far Yosca made it in the competition and if he has a shot at the $10,000.