Haines, Forrest, Duke spearhead talented men’s freestyle squad at 2025 U23 World Championships

Three Senior World Team members, including newly minted Senior World runner-up Levi Haines, will lead the U.S. men’s freestyle team into action at the upcoming U23 World Championships being held at SPENS in Novi Sad, Serbia, October 20-27.

Haines competed in his first Senior World Championships last month in Zagreb, Croatia, making it all the way to the championships match. He finished with a silver medal at 79 kg and is now primed for a run at his first age-group World medal.

Joining Haines from the Senior team that represented Team USA in Zagreb are Jax Forrest at 61 kg and PJ Duke at 79 kg. Forrest finished in fifth place at the Senior Worlds, coming moments away from winning a bronze medal. He was a U17 World silver medalist in 2022. Novi Sad will mark Duke’s third World Championships event this year. He was a respectable 11^th place at the Senior Worlds and brought home a U20 World title in Samokov, Bulgaria.

Four more Senior National Team members will take the mats for Team USA in Serbia—two-time age-group World champion Luke Lilledahl at 57 kg, two-time age-group World champion Marcus Blaze at 65 kg, 2023 U20 World champion Mitchell Mesenbrink at 74 kg and 2024 U20 World silver medalist Josh Barr at 92 kg. Mesenbrink is the lone man returning from last year’s U23 World team, where he picked up a bronze medal in Tirana, Albania.

Rounding out the U.S. men’s freestyle lineup are Junior Pan American Games champion Rocco Welsh at 86 kg, Garavous Kouekabakilaho at 97 kg and Daniel Herrera at 125 kg.

The bulk of the U.S. team competes collegiately at Penn State—Haines and Mesenbrink are both past national champions for the Nittany Lions, Lilledahl and Barr earned NCAA All-America status last year as freshmen, Blaze and Duke are entering their freshmen campaigns, and Welsh transferred into State College after previously being an All-American at Ohio State. Herrera is a NCAA qualifier for Iowa State. Kouekabakilaho is a two-time NAIA champion for Grand View. Forrest is committed to wrestle at Oklahoma State following his senior campaign at Bishop McCort.

First selection to the U23 World Team comes from the Senior National Team pool in each weight class. The highest ranked U23 eligible athlete on the Senior National Team gets first choice on accepting a bid to the U23 Worlds. If no Senior National Team athlete meets the selection criteria or accepts the bid, next choice goes to the champion from the U23 Nationals held at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio.

The U.S. finished in fifth place as a team in the men’s freestyle division at the 2024 U23 World Championships with 73 total team points which included two medalists—Mesenbrink’s bronze plus Jacob Cardenas, who earned a silver medal at 92 kg.

Men’s freestyle is the third and final style up in Novi Sad. Athletes will compete in three waves over the course of the event—group one (74-92 kg) starting October 24, group two (57-70-79-125 kg) on October 25 and group three (61-65-86-97 kg) on October 26. Each bracket will be contested over a two-day stretch, running through semifinals on day one, followed by repechage and medal matches on day two.

Those seeking to follow along in real time can reference the event schedule below. Novi Sad, Serbia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.

The U23 World Championships will be live streamed on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results will be provided by United World Wrestling on UWW Arena.