Nittany Lion Wrestlers Roar to Four Medals U23 World Championships – Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Seven Penn State wrestlers took half within the United World Wrestling U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, this weekend. Four of these seven Nittany Lions introduced residence U23 World Championships and Gold Medals whereas one other received Bronze. The United States U23 World Team featured ten wrestlers, seven of whom had been present Nittany Lions.

Junior Mitchell Mesenbrink received the Gold Medal at 74 kg. Mesenbrink started the match with three straight technical superiority wins. He downed UWW’s Aliaksandr Hulnik 12-2, India’s Parvinder Parvinder 10-0 and Egypt’s Omar Mourad 12-2 to advance to the semifinals. He took on Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi within the semifinals and posted a 7-4 win, advancing to the Gold Medal bout. Mesenbrink took on Turkey’s Muhammed Ozmus within the title match and roared to a 12-2 first interval tech to win the Gold Medal. Mesenbrink went 5-0 in Serbia to convey one other world title again to Happy Valley.

Sophomore Luke Lilledahl received the Gold Medal 57 kg. Lilledahl received his first two bouts on Saturday, 10-0 over Honghang Liao of China and 11-5 over Milad Valizadeh of Iran, to maneuver into the semfinals. He then posted a 7-1 win over Aiandai Ondar (UWW) within the semis to maneuver on to the championship bout. Lilledahl battled Japan’s Yuta Kikuchi within the Gold Medal bout and rolled to a 4-0 win. Lilledahl went 4-0 in Serbia to convey the U23 Championship again to Penn State.

Senior Levi Haines received the Gold Medal 79 kg. Haines received his first two bouts on Saturday, 7-0 over Iran’s Mahdi Yousefihajivar and 10- over Bulgaria’s Aykan Seid, to advance to the semifinals. He then downed UWW’s Davud Daudov 11-4 within the semis to advance to the Gold Medal bout. Haines met Turkey’s Ibrahim Yaprek within the title bout and rolled to an 11-1 technical superiority. Haines dominated his weight with a 4-0 run in Serbia to convey residence the U23 title.

True freshman PJ Duke received a Bronze Medal at 70 kg. Duke reeled off three straight wins to start out his match, downing Begijon Kuldashev of Uzbekistan 7-1, Rostislav Leicht of Germany 10-0, and Kaito Morita of Japan 9-3, to advance to the semifinals. He misplaced a 14-4 match to Kanan Heybatov of Azerbaijan within the semis to slide right into a Bronze Medal bout. Duke confronted off towards Davit Margaryan of Armenia for Bronze and pinned the Armenian on the 2:53 mark within the first interval. Duke went 4-1 in Serbia to convey residence a U23 Bronze Medal.

Sophomore Rocco Welsh went 2-1 at 86 kg. Welsh started the match with two straight tech superiority victories, downing Israel’s Aaron Ayzerov 10-0 and China’s Minghui Liang 10-0. He misplaced a tricky 7-4 bout to Iran’s Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjael within the quarters. The Iranian misplaced a tricky 2-1 match within the semifinals and Welsh’s match got here to an finish with a 2-1 file.

Sophomore Josh Barr went 1-1 at 92 kg earlier than bowing out with an damage. Barr opened the match with an 11-1 technical superiority over Turkey’s Alperin Tokgoz. In his subsequent match, he was beating Iran’s Mohamadm0bin Azimi 3-1 when he sustained an damage whereas being taken down by the Iranian wrestler. Barr misplaced that bout and, though he was pulled into the repechage, withdrew from the match as a result of damage.

True freshman Marcus Blaze competed at 65 kg. Blaze misplaced a tough fought 4-2 bout to Bilol Sharip Uulu of Kyrgyzstan in his first bout. Blaze then wanted Uulu to advance to the finals with a purpose to get pulled into the repechage. Uulu received his subsequent two bouts however misplaced a detailed on within the semifinals, ending Blaze’s match run.

Penn State and the Penn State Olympic Regional Training Center had a really profitable freestyle season profitable a mixed 11 world medals on the Senior World Championships, U20 World Championships and these U23 World Championships. Haines received Silver at Senior Worlds whereas RTC wrestler Kyle Snyder received Gold.  Blaze and Duke had already received U20 Gold whereas William Henckel received U20 Silver and Connor and Cole Mirasola received U20 Bronze. Mesenbrink, Lilledahl and Haines received Gold whereas Duke received Bronze at U23s.

The 2025-26 NCAA season begins for Penn State on Friday, Nov. 14, when the Nittany Lions host Oklahoma within the Bryce Jordan Center.

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