Penn State Wrestling Fans!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are back and getting ready to compete again at the end of this week in Lima, Peru and then have guys competing in a ranking series event, the Pan Am Games, and we have 15 guys competing in 3 different World Championships throughout the summer. It has been and will continue to be a busy summer but being busy in the summer means you have guys on World Teams so that is good news. With 15 of the 30 World Team spots being occupied by Penn State Athletes or Nittany Lion Wrestling Club athletes it is safe to say we will be very busy travelling all over the world this summer.
First up we have Connor and Cole Mirasola and Will Henckel competing in the U20 Pan Am Championships this Saturday in Lima, Peru. This trip will be a great opportunity to get some matches before they go compete in the World Championships in about 5 weeks. Will and the other freshmen arrived on campus a couple weeks ago to begin summer school, so it has been fun to have them on campus and watch them scrap. This is going to be a fun group of guys to watch over the next 4-5 years in college and then beyond in their freestyle careers as they love training and competing.
The next event we will have guys competing in will be a ranking series event in Budapest, Hungary on July 17th. These ranking series events allow guys to score points to get seeded at the World Championship so a lot of the guys competing in the World Championship will be there competing. Luke Lilledahl and Levi Haines will be competing in this event for us, and it gives them a chance to wrestle great competition from all over the World.
Next, on the week of August 17-20 we will have 5 guys competing in the U20 World Championships. Marcus Blaze-61KG, PJ Duke-70KG, Will Henckel-79KG, Connor Mirasola-92KG, and Cole Mirasola-120KG will all be representing the United States in what is probably considered the second toughest World Championship- second only to the Senior World Championship trying to bring home a lot of medals. We will also have 2 guys competing in the Pan Am Games around the same time on August 22nd in Paraguay. Mitchel Mesenbrink and Rocco Welsh will be competing in this event that will feature all the sports as it is the games versus just the wrestling championship.
During the week of September 13-16, we will have 3 guys competing in the Senior World Championship. PJ Duke-70KG, Levi Haines-79KG, and Kyle Snyder-97KG will all be competing in Zagreb, Croatia trying to win World Titles. This will be the first time for PJ and Levi to compete in the Senior World Championship and for Snyder, who has competed in many World Championships, it will be an opportunity to try to get back on top of the podium.
Finally, during the weekend of October 24-26, we will have 7 guys competing in the U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia. Luke Lilledahl-57KG, Marcus Blaze-65KG, PJ Duke-70KG, Mitchell Mesenbrink-74KG, Levi Haines-79KG, Rocco Welsh-86KG, and Josh Barr-92KG will all be competing at the final World Championship of the summer. This is going to be a fun trip for sure.
It is going to be an action-packed summer with a lot of competition and many opportunities for our guys to continue to learn, improve and grow. Between competitions most of the guys will be here for much of the summer training as they look forward to another fun year in a Penn State singlet. We have a great group of guys and are really excited about their potential and the goals that they have for themselves and this team. It takes an army to continue to do what these guys are doing so we thank you for all the continued support in all the different ways you have shown it. Let’s keep kicking butt!
GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!
