First, let’s acknowledge the need to denote this as the men’s wrestling storylines. That’s because women’s wrestling has been added as the 91st NCAA championship sport. What an accomplishment for the wrestling community
and hopefully there will be many more programs to come, including one for Penn State. On to business…
Penn State Storylines
The Penn State wrestling program may be a known quantity at this point, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas of intrigue within the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex.
International Success
Several Penn State wrestlers spent the offseason shifting their focus to international competition. At the 2025 men’s freestyle world championships, Levi Haines brought home a silver medal at 74 kg for Team USA which also featured PJ Duke on the roster.
Seven Nittany Lions represented Team USA at the U23 men’s freestyle world championships where Lilledahl, Haines and Mesenbrink all brought home gold. The team also featured PJ Duke who brought home a bronze and Marcus Blaze, Rocco Welsh, and Josh Barr.
And on the U20 men’s freestyle team, Penn Staters Marcus Blaze, PJ Duke, Will Henckel, Connor Mirasola and Cole Mirasola all went to Bulgaria where Blaze and Duke won their weights, Henckel earned Silver, and the Mirasola brothers both brought home bronze.
Typically the beginning of the season is when guys start getting back in shape but for most of the Penn State squad, they’re already at their peak. What will be interesting to see is how the staff manages the roster throughout the year to prevent too much wear and tear on guys that didn’t get the full offseason to recover. As mentioned in Cael’s press conference earlier this week, Josh Barr suffered a rib injury and will take some time to get back in the lineup. While some may be disappointed in Penn State not participating in the National Duals tournament, that would have been an aggressive start to the season for guys who may be a bit banged up from the international events.
Redshirts
Which wrestlers will be redshirting is as much of a storyline as which wrestlers will be in the roster this season . In an embarrassment of riches, several weights on the roster feature multiple title contenders. A lot of the intrigue was answered yesterday when Cael mentioned that Ono, Davis, and Kasak would all be redshirting this season, giving a better picture into what the 2025/26 squad will look like, but it will still be something to watch.
National Storylines
David Taylor at Oklahoma State
Outside of Penn State, most of the focus is on Stillwater, Oklahoma where David Taylor looks to improve on the team’s third place finish last year. Taylor and Oklahoma State are making their presence known in several ways including landing transfers including Zach Ryder and Alex Facundo from Penn State, bringing in the #2 recruiting class, and hosting the 2025 National Duals event. Taylor isn’t wasting any time mounting a challenge to the Penn State program he came from.
Big Ten Hierarchy
While Penn State still looks to be squarely at the top of the conference, the real question is who’s next? Nebraska finished 2nd in the NCAAs last year (and they have the rings to prove it!) and is bringing back a loaded squad that added Anthony Ferrari. Pressure in Iowa City continues to mount on the Brands brothers as the Hawkeyes enter the season ranked #4 by Intermat (1 place behind Nebraska). And an increasingly distant Ohio State program isn’t really worth mentioning in this context other than to acknowledge that Tom Ryan’s great program isn’t looking so great despite their great tans.
Iowa State & Increasing Competition
Iowa State comes into the season ranked #2. While Penn State seems like the clear favorite again this year, there’s no doubt the competition continues to elevate. Iowa State features 8 wrestlers ranked in Intermat’s top 10. Nebraska features 7. So while it seems like every year we’re asking whether this could be the best Penn State squad of all time, it’s also worth questioning if this is the best competition they’ve faced.
As mentioned earlier, there is a National Duals Invitational tournament being held in Stillwater this year featuring 16 teams including Nebraska, Iowa, and Oklahoma State. This looks to be the highlight of the early season and a welcome addition to the wrestling calendar that has seen waning interest in the NWCA All Star Dual and staple tournaments such as the Southern Scuffle and Midlands.
Individual Storylines
Jesse Mendez is the only multiple time national champion returning this season which gives him a leg up in the Hodge Trophy considerations even though it’s not supposed to. But Levi Haines and Mitchell Mesenbrink are going to be very much in the mix. Caleb Henson announced he’s redshirting this year but there will be several other returning national champions as well including Vincent Robinson, Lucas Byrd, Antrell Taylor, and A.J. Ferrari.
The most interesting weight to watch this year may be 184 where Penn State will be featuring Ohio State transfer Rocco Welsh who will have his hands full with Minnesota’s sophomore sensation Max McEnelly, Iowa’s Angelo Ferrari and Oklahoma State’s Zack Ryder (who transferred from Penn State).
There are too many other storylines to mention and there’s no doubt others will emerge as a very talented freshman class look to make their mark. It’s going to be a very interesting season both for Penn State and the sport at large.
