Penn State Wrestling's Levi Haines defeats Carter Schubert by fall (4:15) in Penn State's dual meet against Oklahoma, November 14, 2025 Credit - Lloyd McCully
Penn State Wrestling is only one day away from the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.
In our first installment of “Projecting the Path”, we took a look at what potentially lays ahead for Luke Lilledahl (125), Marcus Blaze (133), Braeden Davis (141), Shayne Van Ness (149), and PJ Duke (157). And if you are guessing this edition is going to wrap up the 165 to 285 groups, then good guess!
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Because that’s what we’re going to do.
So with that, let’s take a look at the back end of the Nittany Lion starting lineup and their projected path to winning some NCAA hardware.
And away we go!
165
Mitchell Mesenbrink (22-0)
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Intermat Rank: 1
NCAA Seed: 1
1st Matchup: No. 32 Cody Walsh (DREX) or No. 33 Ryan Vigil (VMI)
Intriguing Matchup: “Reply hazy, try again” -Magic 8 Ball
Look, at this point about the only intriguing opponent I can think of for Mesenbrink would either be an Uruk Hai (LOTR) or 25 Honey Badgers.
Possible Roadblock: “Outlook not so good” -Magic 8 Ball
When looking up and down the bracket at 165, I just don’t see anyone who can push Mitchell. It would have been very interesting to see a Mesenbrink/Blaze final in the 2026 B1G’s, however that didn’t happen.
This is MM’s bracket and title to win.
Nonetheless, it’s not a foregone conclusion. Because in the end this is wrestling. And just like with life, there are no guarantees.
174
Levi Haines (21-0)
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Intermat Rank: 1
NCAA Seed: 1
1st Matchup: No. 32 Luke Condon (WIS) or No. 33 Grant O’Dell (BELL)
Intriguing Matchup: No. 8 Alex Facundo (OKST) – Quarterfinals
Much like a possible Shane Van Ness/David Evans matchups, it would be interesting to see if these two guys square off. Haines and Facundo know each other very well as they were in the Penn State Wrestling room together for three years.
And while they’ve no doubt duked it out on the mat countless times at practice, they’ve never toed the line in an official match.
Possible Roadblock: No. 2 Simon Ruiz (COR)
Coming off a fifth place finish in the 2025 NCAA Championships, Ruiz has put together an impressive campaign this year.
Below are his wins against ranked guys in this field:
No. 8 Alex Facundo (9 seed) 2-0
No. 15 Jared Simma (17 seed) 18-4
No. 12 Myles Takats (10 seed) 5-2
No. 23 Nick Fine (16 seed) 8-5 & 8-2
No. 26 Holden Garcia (28 seed) 5-1
No. 13 Carter Baer (13 seed) 2-0
No. 6 Matthew Singleton (6 seed) 8-6
So Ruiz is battle tested.
However there aren’t many guys who match both Levi’s offense and his defense.
I guess the entire 174 is going to have to find out this weekend.
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184
Rocco Welsh (20-0)
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Intermat Rank: 1
NCAA Seed: 1
1st Matchup: No. 32 Caleb Uhlenhopp (UVU) or No. 33 Sam Goin (IND)
Intriguing Matchup: No.4 James Conway (F&M) – Semifinals
Conway could present Rocco with an interesting matchup. Mainly because he only faced a small handful of ranked guys during the year.
And the results were all across the board.
He dropped a 7-4 decision to Jaxon Smith (MD – injured early in the year) then picked up a 5-0 win against No. 5 Brock Mantanona in the Cliff Keen. Additionally he got a technical fall against No. 24 Joe Curtis but then dropped an 8-5 decision in the Ivy Finals against No. 10 Caleb Campos.
Couple this with Welsh’s tendency to wrestle tight matches, and this one could go down to the wire.
Possible Roadblock: No. 2 Aeoden Sinclair (MIZZ) or No. 3 Max McEnelly (MINN) – Finals
While Penn State Wrestling fans did see the result of a Welsh/McEnelly match (2-1), things could be completely different the next time they lock horns. Furthermore, Aeoden Sinclair has been incredible this year.
He hasn’t lost a match since dropping a 3-2 TB match to Angelo Ferrari back on November 15th.
However, Rocco Welsh is wrestling at an extremely high level. Both Sinclair and McEnelly can make it a fight. That much is for sure. But in the end Welsh knows how to finish matches.
197
Josh Barr (19-0)
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Intermat Rank: 1
NCAA Seed: 1
1st Matchup: No. 32 Blake Schaffer (KENT) or No. 33 Karson Tompkins (AF)
Intriguing Matchup: No. 8 DJ Parker (OKLA) – Quarterfinals
The only reason I’m pinning this up on my “Intriguing Matchup” board is this: The B1G this year wasn’t exactly star-studded when it came to guys at 197. Now this isn’t to say they don’t have some talent. Because they sure do.
Josh Barr is ranked No. 1 in the country, but do you know who the next B1G wrestler is?
It’s No. 10 Camden McDanel (11 seed). And everyone saw how one-sided that Barr/McDanel match was.
My point is this, Barr hasn’t really been tested like some of the other guys across the country. And I for one am curious as to how he looks in the quarterfinals, assuming he wins both of the opening matches.
Possible Roadblock: N/A?
I’ll reserve any possible roadblocks for Barr following his Friday morning match. If Josh continues to do what he’s done all year, which is literally decimate every opponent he’s faced, then I don’t think there’s anyone who can stop him.
Not Sonny Sasso, not Stephen Little, and not Rocky Elam.
285
Cole Mirasola
Credit – Lloyd McCully
Intermat Rank: 8
NCAA Seed: 9
1st Matchup: No. 24 Connor Barket (DUKE)
Intriguing Matchup: No. 8 Ben Kueter (IOWA) – 2nd Round
In Penn State’s dual against Iowa, Mirasola ended up getting the better of Kueter with a 4-3 decision. However Cole’s wrestling has hit another gear since then. And if this match is an even wider margin of victory, then I believe the young heavyweight can make some noise in his bracket.
Possible Roadblock: No. 1 Yonger Bastida (ISU) – Quarterfinals
Okay, before I get too far ahead of myself, I don’t see many scenarios in which Mirasola takes down Bastida. But when I referred to “noise”, I’m talking about Cole shredding up the consolation bracket with a possibility for an All-American finish.
Cole is another off season away from truly turning the corner at heavyweight. And if he can have a strong finish in the NCAA’s, then I think that would be a huge boost to his confidence going forward.
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Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA
Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.
And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.
Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.
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