UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Athletics saw a trio of student-athletes garner College Sports Communicators At-Large Academic All-America honors on Wednesday, with men’s gymnastics graduate all-arounder Kellen Ryan picking up First Team laurels while wrestling secured a pair of Second Team accolades in senior 174-pounder Levi Haines and junior 165-pounder Mitchell Mesenbrink.
Ryan, a graduate student from Janesville, Wisconsin, finished out his career in remarkable fashion, earning NCAA All-America honors in the all-around with a seventh-place finish in the event at the 2026 NC Championships. Just two weeks prior, in just his third-ever all-around event at day one of the 2026 Big Ten Championships, he finished with a career-high 76.700, good for third place overall. His bronze medal also earned him an All-Big Ten First Team distinction. A two-year varsity athlete with the Nittany Lions after graduate-transferring to PSU from the Minnesota men’s gymnastics club program, Ryan maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA in two different engineering master’s programs. For his efforts in the classroom, he was named a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Haines, a native of Arendtsville, Pennsylvania, closed the book on a storied collegiate career in Happy Valley in the 2025-26 academic year. The four-time All-American and Big Ten Conference champion went 26-0 during his final year with the Blue & White, amassing 21 bonus-point victories highlighted by six pins, 13 technical falls and a pair of major decisions. The veteran Penn Stater took home his second NCAA Championship title and first at 174 pounds, registering four bonus-point wins in his five NCAA Tournament bouts. Haines went 15-0 in dual meets, earning the start at 174 pounds in every Nittany Lion dual during the 2025-26 season while booking 74 dual meet points. Academically, Haines clocked a 3.71 grade point average while wrapping up his degree in Recreation, Park & Tourism Management in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development.
Hailing from Hartland, Wisconsin, Mesenbrink cemented his place in collegiate wrestling history in 2025-26 by becoming the sixth man in Penn State history to win the Dan Hodge Trophy, the top honor in the sport, while logging PSU’s eighth Hodge win all-time. Mesenbrink collected his third All-America honor and third Big Ten title at 165 pounds in addition to picking up his second NCAA Championship crown in Cleveland. The junior standout went 27-0 individually during the 2025-26 season, racking up 26 of those victories in bonus-point fashion behind eight falls, 11 technical falls and six major decisions with one additional dual victory by forfeit. Mesenbrink logged a 15-0 dual meet record and led the Blue & White in dual meet points with 78 on the year. In the classroom, Mesenbrink recorded one of the loftiest GPAs among the 2025-26 CSC Academic All-America class, publishing a 3.93 mark in his Psychology degree program in the Penn State College of Liberal Arts.
For PSU, Ryan brought home his first career College Sports Communicators Academic All-America honor in his final year of eligibility. Both Haines and Mesenbrink earned their second career Academic All-America laurels, with Haines garnering Second Team Academic All-America honors in 2024 and Mesenbrink earning Second Team Academic All-America accolades a year ago. Haines and Mesenbrink joined eight additional student-athletes from across NCAA Division I as repeat At-Large Academic All-Americans.
ABOUT ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA
Established in 1952 and selected by College Sports Communicators, Academic All-America is the longest running and premier award for athletic and academic success across championship college sports at all NCAA levels, the NAIA, two-year colleges and Canadian Institutions. Teams are announced year round and amplified by CSC member colleges, universities, and conference on a wide local, regional, national and even international scope.
ABOUT COLLEGE SPORTS COMMUNICATORS
CSC is a diverse organization comprised of more than 4,700 sports communications professionals throughout all levels of college sports in the United State and Canada. Formerly known as CoSIDA, CSC is the proud provider of the Academic All-America program since 1952.
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Under the leadership of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft, Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). The Nittany Lions' 31 programs are tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
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