Penn State crowns four NCAA champs, claims fifth straight team title
CLEVELAND – Penn State clinched its fifth consecutive team title and 13th in 15 tournaments Saturday afternoon at the Division I Wrestling Championships. Four Penn State wrestlers won individual crowns as the Nittany Lions broke the scoring record for a third straight year and claimed their fifth consecutive team title Saturday. “Happy for the team,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said.
“Just really an incredible group of guys, outstanding year. Our staff is, they're all unicorns, really, up and down the lineup – director of ops, our general manager – every one of them, our trainer, obviously (assistant coaches) Cody (Sanderson) and Casey (Cunningham) and Nick Lee, and the whole crew. We’re very blessed, very grateful.
” Mitchell Mesenbrink – who is a favorite for the Hodge Trophy, which is wrestling’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy – posted a dominant victory in the finals while Levi Haines, Josh Barr and Luke Lilledahl also claimed championships for Penn State. Penn State finished with 181. 5 team points to top the record 177 scored by 2025’s squad.
The Nittany Lions finished with eight All-Americans, as Shayne Van Ness (149 pounds) and Rocco Welsh (184) finished second. P. J.
Duke (157) placed third and Marcus Blaze (133) was fourth. “I think this was an incredible year,” Sanderson said. “Obviously, our hearts and minds are with kids who didn’t reach their goals, and we’re here thinking about ‘Hey, what can we do better?