With the 2025-26 wrestling season nearly upon us, we’re putting out a list of the Top 30 Big Ten wrestlers going into the season in three segments.
We started with Nos. 21-30 which you can find here. Now, we’re on to Nos. 11-20.
Check back next week for the Top 10.
The Big Ten is by far the superior wrestling conference in the country — the last team to win the NCAA team title that wasn’t out of the Big Ten was in 2006 when Oklahoma State won its fourth straight. Since then, Penn State has won 12 times,
Iowa has won four, Ohio State and Minnesota have each won one title.
Now for the second installment of ten on our list of the 30 best wrestlers returning in the Big Ten next season.
Big Ten’s 30 Best (Nos. 11-20)
Rankings by FloWrestling
20. Angelo Ferrari – Iowa
#2 at 184 pounds
The younger Ferrari — a redshirt freshman — who resides in Iowa City has earned inclusion here. He often wrestled Iowa’s toughest duals while in redshirt a year ago. The #2 recruit in the class of 2025, Ferrari was used in three duals last season while going 10-1 overall.
First, he took on a ranked Evan Bockman of Iowa State and beat him 8-2. He then fell to five-time NCAA Champion Carter Starocci of Penn State via 3-1 decision before downing NCAA finalist Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State 6-3 in sudden victory.
I expect Ferrari to contend for an NCAA title in his first year in the lineup.
19. Christopher Minto – Nebraska
#4 at 174 pounds
After spending his redshirt season at 174 pounds and going 18-4 in open tournaments, Christopher Minto dropped down to 165 as a redshirt freshman a year ago. Midway through the year, he beat out Bubba Wilson for the starting spot.
Minto ended the year with a 24-7 record and a 4th-place finish at NCAAs, earning All-American honors in his first season of eligibility.
Minto was 12-0 when he took over the job — he lost his first dual in sudden victory to UNI’s Jack Thomsen before downing a pair of ranked opponents. As the 12-seed at NCAAs, Minto beat 5-seed Julian Ramirez of Cornell, 4-seed Terrell Barraclough of Utah Valley, and 7-seed Hunter Garvin of Stanford on the way to his podium finish.
This season, Minto is moving back up to his ideal weight of 174 pounds — he was a monster at 165 who was cutting a ton of weight, often leading to him fading in matches (see below a current photo of him and Nebraska’s 157-pounder Antrell Taylor who started at 165 the year before Minto). I expect him to surprise a lot of people in the 174-pound weight class this season, and I fully expect him to go up to 184 at some point in his career.
18. Rocco Welsh – Penn State
#3 at 184 pounds
An incredible talent, Rocco Welsh started his career at Ohio State where he made it to the NCAA final as a true freshman in 2024. He finished that year with a 24-5 record, falling to Penn State’s five-time NCAA Champion Carter Starocci via 2-0 decision in the national final.
Welsh ended up redshirting this past season — a move that seemed to rub him the wrong way — going a perfect 15-0 in open tournaments. This summer, Welsh transferred to Penn State and will be inserted into a stacked Nittany Lion lineup at 184 pounds.
With the past two NCAA champs at this weight now graduated, Welsh is certainly in the conversation as a contender.
17. Patrick Kennedy – Iowa
#2 at 174 pounds
Throughout his career in Iowa, Patrick Kennedy hasn’t always been the most talented guy, but he’s been able to hold off some high-level recruits to be Iowa’s starter the past three years.
Now a senior and ranked #2 in the country at 174 pounds, Kennedy is entrenched as the Hawkeye starter after finishing fourth at NCAAs a year ago. He’s 58-20 in his career. After making it to the round of 16 at NCAAs as a freshman at 165 pounds, Kennedy moved up as a sophomore where he made it to the round of 12 at nationals before breaking through for a podium finish last season.
A big piece of an always high-end squad in Iowa City, Kennedy looks like he could improve on last year’s 4th-place finish.
16. Lachlan McNeil – Michigan
#3 at 149 pounds
One of the best wrestlers in the transfer portal this season, Lachlan McNeil left North Carolina for Michigan for his senior season. A three-time All-American for the Tar Heels, McNeil will again start at 149 pounds after spending three years in Chapel Hill at 141 pounds before moving up last season.
Sporting a 75-23 career record, McNeil placed fourth as a redshirt freshman and sixth as a sophomore — both at 141 pounds. This past season, he moved up to 149 where he went 25-7 and placed fifth.
A guy who’s never placed higher than fourth, I expect McNeil to end his career a little higher on the podium.
15. Joey Blaze – Purdue
#3 at 165 pounds
An anchor for the Boilermakers as a sophomore last season at 157 pounds, Joey Blaze is moving up to 165 for his junior season. Yes, Joey is the bigger brother to Penn State freshman Marcus.
Once conference season rolled around last season, Blaze was nearly unstoppable — he went 14-3 after January 1 with all three losses coming to Antrell Taylor, the eventual NCAA Champion for Nebraska. After a 4-1 loss in the dual to Taylor, Blaze lost to him again in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Championships 4-3. Blaze then got his revenge with a 3-2 win in tiebreakers over Taylor in the 3rd-place match.
At NCAAs, Blaze upset Penn State’s Tyler Kasak 5-4 in the semifinal round before falling to Taylor 4-2 in the NCAA final. Finishing with a 24-6 record on the year, Blaze carries a 41-18 record into his junior year.
A really big 157-pounder a year ago, the move up to 165 should do Blaze some good — especially in a weight class that is more top-heavy than it is deep.
14. Luke Lilledahl – Penn State
#3 at 125 pounds
Now starts the Nittany Lion run — the defending NCAA Champions have six of the Top-14 on this list, including the final four of this week’s set of ten.
The top recruit in the class of 2025, Lilledahl arrived on campus and didn’t miss a beat as he started as a true freshman — he won a Big Ten title at 125 pounds before finishing third at NCAAs. At nationals, Lilledahl’s only loss was in tiebreakers to Lehigh’s Sheldon Seymour. He then pinned NCAA finalist Matt Ramos for 3rd place and finished his first season with a 26-3 record.
In freestyle, Lilledahl has the look of a future World and Olympic wrestler for Team USA. He won a U17 World gold medal in 2022 before earning U20 World silver in 2023 and gold in 2024. This year, Lilledahl won the senior-level U.S. Open for a spot in Final X where he faced Olympic silver-medalist Spencer Lee — a three-time NCAA Champion for Iowa.
Lilledahl fell to Lee in straight matches 7-2 and 6-0, but he seems like the clear-cut No. 2 for Team USA at the moment. It will likely come down to Lee vs. Luke again next summer for the spot at 57 kg.
Looking at this upcoming season, Lilledahl is considered by many to be the favorite to win an NCAA title, but the weight class is deep with talent — highlighted by reigning champ Vincent Robertson who won as a true freshman for NC State.
13. Shayne Van Ness – Penn State
#2 at 149 pounds
A guy who’s been near the top of the country at 149 pounds for a few years, Shayne Van Ness will be looking to make his first NCAA final as a junior after finishing third at NCAAs in his first two seasons of eligibility.
After a redshirt season, Van Ness finished third in 2023 as a freshman with a 24-7 record — he earned wins over Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (now an NCAA champion going into his senior year) and All-American Kyle Parco, but he fell to four-time NCAA Champion Yianni Diakomihalis in the semis.
The next season, Van Ness started the year with three wins via pinfall before sustaining a season-ending knee injury.
As a sophomore this past season, Van Ness started the year 10-0 before falling to Nebraska’s eventual NCAA Champion Ridge Lovett 10-2. His next loss came to Illinois’ Kannon Webster in the Big Ten semifinal via 4-2 decision. At NCAAs, Van Ness again fell to Lovett, this time in the national semi via 14-8 decision. He then beat two All-Americans to finish third.
With Lovett graduated and a 1-0 career record over the top-ranked Henson, Van Ness could very well be the next National Champion at 149 pounds.
12. Tyler Kasak/PJ Duke – Penn State
#2 at 157 pounds (Kasak)
As of now, it’s unclear who will be Penn State’s starter here, but their two options seem to be both interchangeable and extremely talented — the decision could be based on eligibility and future lineup synergy.
On one hand, there’s Tyler Kasak who is the returning starter that won a Big Ten title and finished third at NCAAs for the second time — he also took third in 2024 as a true freshman at 149 pounds when he lost his first match and won seven in a row on the back side. A 141-pounder to start the year, Kasak was thrust into the lineup at 149 when Van Ness sustained his knee injury, burning Kasak’s redshirt. Kasak is 48-7 for his career after going 24-2 as a sophomore.
On the other hand, there’s incoming freshman PJ Duke who was the #2 recruit in the 2025 class behind only his teammate Joey Blaze. In the mind of many, Duke is the superior talent. A U20 World bronze (2024) and gold medalist (2025), Duke went through three NCAA champions this summer to earn the Senior World Team spot at 70 kg — he beat both Lovett (3-2 decision) and Taylor (9-6) at the World Team Trials before downing Diakomihalis (a World silver medalist) in a best-of-three series at Final X. After dropping the first match 10-0 via technical superiority, Duke beat Diakomihalis 17-10 then by pinfall in straight matches. Duke went on to go 1-1 at the World Championships, falling to returning World Champion Nurkozha Kaipanov of Kazakhstan 11-7.
Those are two incredibly good options — two of the best in the country on the same team.
Here’s why it’s unclear who will be the starter: Kasak is going into his junior season, but he still has a redshirt season available. Duke is an incoming freshman, but he’s obviously ready to go right away — he’s also still growing and may only be able to make 157 pounds for one season before settling in at 165 pounds. It’s also relevant that Penn State has the returning NCAA champion at 165 pounds in Mitchell Mesenbrink who still has two years of eligibility.
The idea is that for the sake of preserving and maximizing eligibility, Penn State could redshirt Kasak this year for Duke to start while he can still make 157 pounds. Then Duke could redshirt next season during Mesenbrink’s senior year, giving him three seasons to start at 165 without having to waste a year of eligibility as a backup. Kasak would still have two seasons to start at 157 after taking his redshirt.
Duke is slated to wrestle at the U23 World Championships for Team USA later this month at 70 kg, giving him the opportunity (along with Marcus Blaze) to earn the triple-crown — world gold medals at the U17, U20 and U23 levels.
Oh, what a great problem to have.
If it was my decision, I’d go with Duke here. Otherwise, even with a redshirt this season, Duke would spend next year on the bench because he is not beating Mesenbrink out for his senior season and won’t be able to make 157. It would be inexcusable to not have Duke in your starting lineup all four years he’s eligible.
Regardless of who takes the mat, they’ll be one of the favorites to win an NCAA crown. The only reason they’re not higher on this list is because Kasak has stumbled twice at NCAAs, and Duke is still a true freshman.
11. Josh Barr – Penn State
#1 at 197 pounds
It wasn’t a surprise that Josh Barr is so good, but it was maybe a surprise that he was so dominant right out of the gate.
After going 15-0 as a redshirt at 184 pounds, Barr moved up for his redshirt freshman season to 197 where he went 22-4 on the year. That record is deceptive though because one of his losses came via injury default at the Big Ten Championships — he medically forfeited out of the tournament.
Barr’s only losses on the year came to three-time All-American Jacob Cardenas of Michigan in sudden victory and two losses to Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan, the eventual NCAA champion. After losing a 4-1 decision in their dual matchup, Barr fell via 5-2 decision in the NCAA final.
In freestyle, Barr won a silver medal at the 2024 U20 World Championships at 86 kg. This summer, he wrestled at 92 kg and made it to Final X where he took on Trent Hidlay — Hidlay beat Barr 6-1 and 3-2 before going on to win world gold last month. For a guy who’s going to be a sophomore, that’s pretty damn good.
The favorite to win an NCAA title with both Buchanan and Cardenas gone, Barr will be a leader for this Nittany Lion squad.
