Penn State Wrestling: How Olympic Redshirt Decision Impacts Nittany Lions’ Championship Hopes
You know Penn State Wrestling is a well oiled machine of dominance when a highly ranked grappler takes a redshirt and a Junior World Champion takes his place. And with the middle weights in the Nittany Lions‘ roster completely chock-full of super competitive guys, there were a lot of questions about how Cael Sanderson would manage his lineup.
But one of these questions has been answered at 165 pounds as Coach Sanderson announced today that Alex Facundo would be taking an Olympic redshirt for the 2023-2024 season.
Cael announces @AlexFacundo20 will Olympic Redshirt this season.
Junior World Champ @Mitch_Mes will be the guy this year at 165. pic.twitter.com/7s3McKpQZG
— Justin Basch (@JustinJBasch) November 16, 2023
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And as predicted in my always spot-on and accurate bold predictions, Mitchell Mesenbrink will be the main man for the Nittany Lions this year at 165.
It will certainly be interested to see how Mesenbrink is able to navigate his first full year on the mat and he will for sure face a lot of difficult competition in Penn State’s upcoming dual meets.
Here is just a sample of guys who could face off against Mesenbrink this year:
No. 32 Jake Logan (Lehigh)No. 8 Matthew Olguin (Oregon State)No. 12 Derek Gilcher (Indiana)No. 3 Cameron Amine (Michigan)No. 9 Caleb Fish (Michigan State)No. 18 Bryce Hepner (Ohio State)No. 5 Mikey Caliendo (Iowa)No. 22 Anthony White (Rutgers)No. 11 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) As you can see, 165 is a meat grinder of a group both in the Big Ten as well as around the rest of the country. But it’s not like I’m the one training these amazing athletes. Thank goodness. It’s the best coaching staff in the country in the best wrestling room in the nation. And based on that, I’m guess Mitchell will do just fine this year.
MORE: Bold Predictions for Nittany Lions’ Wrestling in 2023-2024
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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.