THIS WEEK’S ACTION:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025 -- The Penn State wrestling team (1-0, 0-0 B1G) is set for a road-home split this weekend. The Nittany Lions visit Drexel (2-0) on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Philadelphia. Two days later, Penn State hosts Lehigh (3-2*) on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 1 p.m. in Rec Hall. *Lehigh hosts Pittsburgh on Friday night as well. All rankings listed are InterMat/InterMat Tournament Power Index (TPI).
The Nittany Lions last wrestled on Nov. 23 in the Black Knight Invitational at Army West Point. Nine Penn Staters won titles at the event: Nate Desmond (125), Marcus Blaze (133), Shayne Van Ness (149), PJ Duke (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174), Rocco Welsh (184), Connor Mirasola (197) and Cole Mirasola (285).
Penn State has ten wrestlers ranked by InterMat. Luke Lilledahl is 3-0 overall and No. 2 at 125. Marcus Blaze is 5-0 and No. 11 at 133. Aaron Nagao is 4-1 and No. 8 at 141. Shayne Van Ness is 4-0 and No. 1 at 149. PJ Duke is 3-0 and No. 15 at 157. Mitchell Mesenbrink is 5-0 and No. 1 at 165. Levi Haines is 4-0 and No. 1 at 174. Rocco Welsh is 3-0 and No. 4 at 184. Josh Barr is 0-0 and No. 1 at 197, true freshman Connor Mirasola is 4-0 at 197. Cole Mirasola is 4-0 and No. 10 at 285.
A reminder that per NCAA rules, when two wrestlers from the same team meet in a tournament, the result is not official. It does not count as a win or a loss. Please see rule 9, section 6, article 4, found on page 79 of the official 2025-26 NCAA Wrestling rule book.
“Art. 4. Non-Allowable ISRF Matches. Matches between teammates, against opponents who are not listed on an institutional roster, a club-level wrestler, a prospective student-athlete or an armed services student-athlete shall not be counted.”
Drexel, 2-0 in duals, last competed at the Keystone Classic at Penn on Nov. 23. The Dragons have dual wins over Duke (37-4) and Morgan State (38-9). Drexel has two ranked wrestlers. lJasaiah Queen is 5-1 and No. 17 at 174. Ibrahim Ameer is 4-2 and No. 31 at 197. Penn State leads the all-time series with the Dragons 2-0. The Lions won the last meeting, 41-3, last year in Rec Hall on Nov. 17, 2024.
Lehigh heads into the weekend 3-2 in dual meets. The Mountain Hawks last competed on Nov. 15, dropping duals to Nebraska (35-7) and Illinois (21-13) while beating Arizona State (24-18). Lehigh also has dual wins over Duke (38-7) and Virginia (21-17). The Hawks have six ranked wrestlers. Sheldon Seymour is 5-0 and No. 5 at 125. Logan Rozynski is 3-1 and No. 10 at 157. Max Brignola is 4-1 and No. 7 at 165. Rylan Rogers is 6-2 and No. 23 at 184. JT Davis is 4-3 and No. 25 at 197. Nathan Taylor is 0-0 and No. 7 at 285. Penn State owns a 75-34-3 lead in the all-time series with Lehigh, winning the last contest 36-3 at LU on Dec. 8, 2024.
The Nittany Lions head to Laramie, Wyo., for their next contest. Penn State as at Wyoming on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 8 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. local). Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via X/twitter at @pennstateWREST, on Penn State Wrestling’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatewrest. The 2025-26 Penn State Wrestling Season is sponsored by The Family Clothesline. This is PENN STATE. WRESTLING lives here.
PENN STATE DOMINATES BLACK KNIGHT INVITATIONAL
NINE LIONS WIN INDIVIDUAL TITLES, SIX TAKE SECOND
Penn State sent 20 wrestlers to the Black Knight Invitational at Army West Point on Sunday, Nov. 23. Nineteen of those wrestlers placed (one suffered an injury in his second match). Penn State came away with nine of the ten individual champions and six second place finishers. Nate Desmond (125), Marcus Blaze (133), Shayne Van Ness (149), PJ Duke (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174), Rocco Welsh (184), Connor Mirasola (197) and Cole Mirasola (285) all won their weight classes. Luke Lilledahl (125), Aaron Nagao (133, injured in finals), Connor Pierce (149), Joe Sealey (157), William Henckel (174) and Asher Cunningham (184) placed second.
A REMINDER PER NCAA RULES: TOURNAMENT RESULTS
AGAINST TEAMMATES DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS RECORD
When two wrestlers from the same team meet in a tournament, the result is not official. It does not count as a win or a loss. Please see rule 9, section 6, article 4, found on page 79 of the official 2025-26 NCAA Wrestling rule book.
“Art. 4. Non-Allowable ISRF Matches. Matches between teammates, against opponents who are not listed on an institutional roster, a club-level wrestler, a prospective student-athlete or an armed services student-athlete shall not be counted.”
NITTANY LIONS SHUT OUT #22 OKLAHOMA 45-0
IN BJC TO OPEN UP SEASON
Penn State rolled to a 45-0 shutout win over visiting Oklahoma in the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, Nov. 14, in the season opener for the Nittany Lions. Penn State tallied eight bonus point wins in the victory, the teams third shutout win in its last four duals in the Jordan Center. The Lions had a pin (Levi Haines), five technical falls (Marcus Blaze, Shayne Van Ness, Joe Sealey, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Rocco Welsh) and two majors (Luke Lilledahl, Connor Mirasola) as well as two decisions (Aaron Nagao, Cole Mirasola) to round out the shutout. Connor Mirasola majored #8 DJ Parker 13-3 at 197, Cole Mirasola downed #24 Juan Mora at 285 and Haines pinned #33 Carter Schubert (4:15) for three ranked victories.
LUCAS COCHRAN WINS HITCHCOCK INVITATIONAL;
HAYDEN CUNNINGHAM TAKES THIRD
Four members of the Penn State wrestling team competed in the Floyd ‘Shorty’ Hitchcock Invitational at Millersville University on Sunday, Nov. 15. Lucas Cochran won the 285 pound title, going 3-0 with another win over a non-collegiate wrestler. Hayden Cunningham went 3-0 and 1-1 vs. non-collegiates to take third place at 141. Sam Becket went 3-1 and 1-1 vs. non-collegiates to take sixth at 165 and Brock Weiss went 2-2 at 149.
PENN STATE CONCLUDES OUTSTANDING
FREESTYLE SEASON with four u23 medals
Seven Penn State wrestlers took part in the United World Wrestling U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, this weekend. Four of those seven Nittany Lions brought home U23 World Championships and Gold Medals while another won Bronze. The United States U23 World Team featured ten wrestlers, seven of whom were current Nittany Lions. Junior Mitchell Mesenbrink won the Gold Medal at 74 kg, sophomore Luke Lilledahl won the Gold Medal 57 kg, senior Levi Haines won the Gold Medal 79 kg, true freshman PJ Duke won a Bronze Medal at 70 kg, sophomore Rocco Welsh went 2-1 at 86 kg, sophomore Josh Barr went 1-1 at 92 kg before bowing out with an injury and true freshman Marcus Blaze competed at 65 kg. Penn State and the Penn State Olympic Regional Training Center had a very successful freestyle season winning a combined 11 world medals at the Senior World Championships, U20 World Championships and these U23 World Championships. Haines won Silver at Senior Worlds while RTC wrestler Kyle Snyder won Gold. Blaze and Duke had already won U20 Gold while William Henckel won U20 Silver and Connor and Cole Mirasola won U20 Bronze. Mesenbrink, Lilledahl and Haines won Gold while Duke won Bronze at U23s.
FOUR NITTANY LIONS COMPETE IN JOURNEYMEN
COLLEGIATE ROUND ROBIN EVENT
Four members of the Penn State wrestling team opened up the 2025-26 season by competing in the round robin portion of the Journeymen Collegiate on Sunday, Nov. 9. Connor Pierce went 2-1 with two technical falls at 149, Joe Sealey went 2-1 with a pin at 157, Sam Beckett went 2-1 at 165 and Dawson Bundy went 1-2 with a major at 285.
HAINES AND MESENBRINK NAMED TO
B1G PRESEASON WRESTLER TO WATCH LIST
The Big Ten released, for the first time, a pre-season Wrestler to Watch list that featured a maximum of two wrestlers per school. Penn State Nittany Lion National Champions Levi Haines (2024) and Mitchell Mesenbrink (2025) were included on the list.
#FUNSTATS AFTER THE 2025 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
// Most Individual NCAA Titles Since 2011 -- PENN STATE 40, Cornell 14, Oklahoma State 12, Ohio State 11, Iowa 8
// Penn State National Finalists Since 2011 -- 59
// Penn State in NCAA Finals Since 2011 -- 40-19 (Since 2011, winning percentage in NCAA finals is .678)
// Penn State in NCAA Semifinals Since 2011 -- 59-12 (Since 2011, winning percentage in NCAA semis is .831)
// Penn State Team Championships Since 2011 -- 12 (of 14, no NCAA tournament in 2020)
// Penn State Percentage of Team Titles Won Since 2011 - .857 (no NCAA tournament in 2020)
// Penn State has 13 NCAA Championships (12 under Sanderson), third most in NCAA history
// Penn State is the only team in the nation to win at least one individual title at EACH WEIGHT in the last decade
// Penn State is one of only two teams in NCAA history to have five individual champions in one year TWICE.
// Penn State is one of only two teams in NCAA history to have 10 All-Americans in one year.
// Penn State’s Cael Sanderson has won 12 NCAA titles as a coach, second most in NCAA history.