Men’s College Notebook: Summer Abroad For Young U.S. Stars

As fans get ready to follow their favorite teams and wrestlers for the upcoming 2025-26 collegiate season, many of the top stars in college wrestling donned Red, White and Blue singlets this past summer and represented the United State at various age-groups at the World Championships.

Today, we look back at the college wrestlers who competed at both the Senior World Championships and the U20 World Championships and give a preview of those to take the mat at the upcoming U23 World Championships.

Not only did they represent the U.S. well with many medals, but most are expected to fight for the top of the podium of their weight class at the 2026 NCAA Championships this coming March in Cleveland.

The 2025 Senior World Freestyle Team was viewed by many as a changing of the guard with an influx of young talent taking the mat. The squad brought home a medal in five of the 10 weight classes, and two college wrestlers got their first tastes of Senior-level action in Croatia back in September.

79 kg – Levi Haines (Sr. - Penn State) A silver medalist as he represented the U.S. for the first time on the Senior level. He opened with a 5-2 win and 10-0 tech to cruise into the quarterfinals. The scores were tight the rest of the way, advancing to the final with scores of 3-2 and 4-1. In the medal bout, he dropped a narrow 3-2 decision to Georgios Kougioumtsidis of Greece.

College season outlook: Haines starts his final campaign as one of the top pound-for-pound wrestlers and is preseason No. 1 at 174 pounds. Haines was the 2024 national champion at 157 pounds and moved up two weight classes last year and finished third. The 174-pound weight class has cleared out considerably, with 2025 national champion Dean Hamiti of Oklahoma State and two-time NCAA champion Keegan O’Toole of Missouri both exhausting their college eligibility after meeting in last year’s final.

70 kg – PJ Duke (Fr. - Penn State) Claimed the spot for the U.S. after winning the best two-of-three series against former four-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, which might of been the top story coming out of Final X. Diakomihalis took the first bout with a 10-0 tech, but Duke stormed back to even the series with a 17-10 win before his pin in the second period secured the spot on the U.S. team. At the World Championships, Duke went 1-1. He opened with an 11-0 tech but then fell to 2024 World champion Nurkozha Kaipanov of Kazakhstan, 11-7, and was not pulled back into repechage.

College season outlook: Duke enters the Penn State practice room looking to compete for the 157-pound spot. Standing in his way to the starting spot this year is Tyler Kasak, who has placed third at the NCAA Championships each of the last two years – at 149 pounds as a true freshman in 2024, and again last year up at 157 pounds after he entered NCAAs as the No. 1 seed. Like Duke, Kasak also has a redshirt season available.

In addition to Haines and Duke, Penn State wrestling also had three additional current team members reach Final X.

Luke Lilledahl fought Spencer Lee to 7-2 and 6-0 scores at 57 kg, Mitchell Mesenbrink fell to David Carr 4-3 and 4-4 at 74 kg, and Josh Barr fell to eventual World champion Trent Hidlay at 92 kg, 6-1 and 3-2.

With five of the 10 2025 NCAA champions out of eligibility, a new wave of young talent will be on display this upcoming collegiate season. The U20 World Championships, which were held back in August in Bulgaria, contained a few of the future college stars fans should take note of, including the top four wrestlers on FloWrestling’s 2025 Big Board that are entering their freshmen campaigns.

Here is a look at the college athletes that helped the U.S. bring back team gold with a dominating performance at the U20 World Championships – outpacing second place Kazakhstan 185-112.

57 kg – Anthony Knox (Fr. - Cornell) Went 1-1. After a dominating 11-0 opener, Knox fell to eventual bronze medalist Nurdanat Aitanov of Kazakhstan in the Round of 16, 14-3.

College season outlook: The No. 4 recruit in the 2025 class, Knox is the future of the lightweights at Cornell, most likely a career 125-pounder. Like most Cornell true freshmen, he is expected to greyshirt and defer enrollment until next year. Those that greyshirt still live and train at Cornell and have dedicated coaches outside of the Big Red full-time staff – including former NCAA champions Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau.

61 kg – Marcus Blaze (Fr. - Penn State) Cruised to gold winning all five matches by a combined 45-4, which doesn’t include causing a disqualification when he was up 8-3 in the Round of 16. His final bout was his fourth tech, a 10-0 shutout over Ahora Khateri of Iran.

College season outlook: The No. 1 recruit in the 2005 class, all college wrestling fans are waiting to see where he fits into the Penn State lineup. It looks like the Nittany Lions have four wrestlers competing for both the 133- and 141-pound spots. Former All-Americans Braedan Davis (last year at 133 pounds) and Aaron Nagao (2023 at Minnesota at 133 pounds) both bring college experience (and Davis has a redshirt available). Penn State also brought in 2024 World Champion (at 61 kg) Masanoske Ono of Japan as he attempts to transition to college wrestling. It should be noted FloWrestling has Blaze #10 at 133 pounds in their preseason rankings.

65 kg – Luke Stanich (So. - Lehigh) Captured gold going a perfect 5-0 and outscoring his foes 37-18. After an opening 18-8 tech, Stanich went the rest of the way securing close wins thanks in part to stingy defense. He capped off the tournament with a 4-3 win over Japan’s Reiji Uchida.

College season outlook: After earning All-American honors at 125 pounds as a freshman in 2024, Stanich deferred eligibility last year and is moving up to 141 pounds for his sophomore season at Lehigh. He starts the season ranked No. 3, behind two-time defending NCAA champion Jesse Mendez of Ohio State and the wrestler Mendez defeated for the 2025 title in the final, Brock Hardy of Nebraska. In all, the 141-pound weight class could feature 12 former All-Americans.

70 kg – PJ Duke (Fr. - Penn State) Before he competed at the Senior World Championships and will be competed at the upcoming U23 World Championships, the #2 recruit in his class captured a gold medal at the U20s. In the final, it was an exciting 7-5 win over Alexandr Gaidarli of Moldova.

74 kg – Ladarion Lockett (Fr. - OK State) Captured fifth place going 3-2. Opened with a 10-0 before falling to eventual gold medalist Ismail Khaniev representing UWW, 5-2. Pulled back into repechage, he won two more before falling in the third-place bout.

College season outlook: Born and raised in Stillwater, the No. 3 recruit in his class, Lockett appears to have the Cowboy’s starting spot at 165 pounds locked down as a true freshman. Competition will be heavy in the Big 12 at 165 pounds, with four other wrestlers ranked in the top 15, including two in the top eight.

79 kg – Will Henckel (Fr. - Penn State) Brought home a silver medal. Won each of his first four bouts to make the final but dropped a close 8-6 decision to Mohammad Yousefihajivar of Iran.

College season outlook: Another upper weight for Penn State, the No. 13 recruit in the class will take a redshirt season for the Nittany Lions. Projections have Henckel at either 174 or 184 for his collegiate career.

86 kg – Max McEnelly (R-So. - Minnesota) Dominated his way to the gold medal, outscoring his four foes 33-5, including an 8-0 win in the final over Bozigit Islamgereev representing UWW.

College season outlook: The Minnesota native is the preseason No. 1 at 184 pounds entering his second season in the lineup. One of the top breakout wrestlers last year, as he placed third at the NCAAs and was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Two of his top challengers are both coming off redshirt, Angelo Ferrari at Iowa and Rocco Welsh, who redshirted at Ohio State but transferred to Penn State in the offseason.

92 kg – Connor Mirasola (R-Fr. - Penn State) Came home with a bronze medal. He opened with a 10-0 tech, but fell to eventual silver medalist Kamil Kurugliyev of Kazahstan, 7-5. He closed out with back-to-back techs for bronze, 12-2 and 10-0.

College season outlook: Another question for the Penn State lineup – where does Connor Mirasola fit? At 197 pounds, Josh Barr reached the NCAA finals last year as a R-Fr. and went on to compete at Final X this summer. If Mirasola wants to go down to 184 pounds, 2023 NCAA finalist Rocco Welsh transferred into the Nittany Lions program after wrestling at Ohio State, and like Barr, has three years of eligibility remaining. During his redshirt season last year, he went a perfect 8-0 highlighted by winning the Southern Scuffle outscoring his foes 69-17 with a fall.

97 kg – Justin Rademacher (R-So. - Oregon State) Coming off a redshirt season at Oregon State, perhaps nobody made a bigger name for themselves at this tournament than Rademacher as he captured gold. He won all four bouts, two ended early with a pin to start and then a 16-5 tech and earned the top spot with a 4-1 win over Magomedgadzhi Magomedov representing UWW in the final.

College season outlook: An Oregon native, Rademacher is one of many young talents in the 197-pound weight class. As a true freshman in 2024, he was the Pac-12 runner-up and a NCAA Qualifier. He sat out last year as a redshirt but is ranked sixth nationally by both Win Magazine and FloWrestling to start the year.

125 kg – Cole Mirasola (R-Fr. - Penn State) A second Mirasola brother with bronze. After back-to-back shutouts (13-0 combined), he fell in the semifinals to eventual gold medalist Yedige Kassimbek of Kazakhstan before coming back to claim victory in the bronze medal match with a 12-2 tech.

College season outlook: Mirasola takes over at heavyweight after the graduation of 2024 national champion and five-time All-American Greg Kerkvliet. Ahead of his first season in the line-up, Mirasola is ranked in the top 15 in every major poll. Like his younger brother, Cole also won the Southern Scuffle last year.

Prior to the 2025-26 collegiate season getting underway, there is one more international tournament that will feature many of the top college wrestlers. The U23 World Championships will be held Oct. 20-27 in Serbia.

Of the 10 freestyle weight classes, nine feature current college wrestlers, including an astonishing seven members of the Penn State roster.

Haines (79 kg) and Duke (70 kg) will once again represent the U.S. at the U23 level after both competed at the Senior World Championships. This also marks Duke’s third time this year representing the U.S. – U20s, U23s and Seniors.

After reaching Final X and nearly claiming a spot on the U.S. Senior World Team, Lilledahl (57 kg), Mesenbrink (74 kg) and Barr (92 kg) will don the Red, White and Blue in Serbia looking for world teams.

At 65 kg, Blaze already won gold at the U20 World Championships and looks to repeat the feat at the next age level.

One of the biggest stories of the NCAA offseason was the transfer of Rocco Welsh from Ohio State to Big Ten rival Penn State. Welsh was a NCAA finalist as a freshman in 2024 at 174 pounds for the Buckeyes and redshirted last season going 15-0 unattached up at 184 pounds. He is an instant title contender, starting No. 3 in the preseason rankings, and Nittany Lions fans will see him in freestyle action at 86 kg at the U23s.

The two non-Penn State collegiate wrestlers will be Garavous Kouekabakilaho at 97 kg from Grand View and Daniel Herrera at 125 kg from Iowa State. Kouekabakilaho, entering his senior season, has won back-to-back NAIA national championships at 197 pounds, and became the first-ever freestyle World Team member coming from Grand View. As a true freshman last year, Herrera was thrust into the lineup for the Cyclones and was an NCAA Qualifier. After burning his redshirt last year, Herrera is on pace to redshirt this season as Yonger Bastida returns from injury and starts the year ranked No. 3 at heavyweight.