Penn State Wrestling Fans!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are almost a month removed from the NCAA tournament now so this will be the final update of the folkstyle season as we move into the heart of the freestyle season. This will be a season that will be remembered for a long time for many different reasons but most importantly because of the fight these guys showed week in and week out. Every guy fought like crazy, and every guy contributed to the Big Ten tournament championship and also to a record-breaking National tournament which is very cool. The Saturday morning session at the NCAA tournament was a lot of fun to be a part of with every guy that wrestled winning their last match and every guy scoring bonus points in doing so. Some of the stats from this NCAA tournament have been posted on several different sites so I will list post of few of those here:
—Penn State broke the tournament scoring record for the second straight year scoring 177 points.
—The Nittany Lions racked up 34.5 bonus points — a figure that, by itself, would’ve tied 13th-place.
— Penn State became the second team in Division I history with 10 All-Americans. All 10 placed sixth or better with two champs, a runner-up, five wrestlers who placed third, another who finished fifth and one who placed sixth. No previous team has had 8 wrestlers in the top 3 or all 10 in top 6 in NCAA history.
—The previous All-American high for Penn State under coach Cael Sanderson was eight (2018, 2023 and 2024).
—This was Sanderson’s 12th NCAA title.
—With two champs and 10 All-Americans, Sanderson has coached 40 NCAA Champions and 96 All-Americans in 15 trips to the NCAA Championships with the Nittany Lions.
— Mitchell Mesenbrink’s title at 165 pounds is the fifth for the Nittany Lions at that weight since 2012.
—Carter Starocci becomes the first and only 5-time National Champion in NCAA history beating the returning- undefeated National Champion, and his title at 184 pounds is the ninth for Penn State at the weight since 2011.
These guys accomplished some amazing things in what was a historic season but eight of them still left wanting more. Three of our ten starters will move on in their career paths and try to accomplish great things, but the other seven will return and try to build on what they accomplished last year. We lose three amazing, consistent seniors who will be greatly missed with 6 NCAA titles, 9 Finals appearances, and 13 All-American honors amongst them. We will not be able to replace what these guys have done for or have meant to Penn State, but we are excited for them and what is next in their journey. We are also excited for the guys that will now get an opportunity in our room to step up try to go accomplish their goals. We have some incredible guys in our room and some pretty incredible guys joining the program in the next 2 years so we are very excited about the future and trying to figure out how we can get better.
In freestyle news we had three guys compete in the U23 Pan Am Championship last weekend with all of them winning Gold Medals. Luke Lilledahl, Levi Haines, and Connor Mirasola dominated their way to titles. All three of these guys have big goals for freestyle so this was a nice competition to get back into the freestyle mindset before their next competition. Next up we will have 12 guys from our team and/or NLWC that will be competing next weekend in Las Vegas in the US Open or the U20 Nationals. We also have several of our incoming guys competing in the event so the Nittany Lions will be well represented in Vegas. This would be a fun trip for fans as you can usually get very close to the action and will get to see our guys wrestle a bunch of matches against some of the best guys in the World. After the US Open the World Team Trials are May 16th in Kentucky, U23 and U20 trials are May 30th in Ohio, and Final X is in June in New Jersey, so it is a busy time ahead.
Lastly, we just want to say thank you for all the continued support. As college sports continue to change your help and support has been and will be huge as we continue to move forward. We look forward to continuing to try to improve and put a product on the mat that people are excited about.
GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
