Penn State Wrestling is officially in the collegiate off-season, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to completely tune out your wrestling feeds.
And no, I am not alluding to the 2024 USA Olympic Team Trials slated to take place on April 19th and 20th at the Bryce Jordan Center. Because if you’re a fan of freestyle wrestling, then you will certainly have these dates circled on your calendar.
So, before I get to my main point, take a look at the list of talented guys below and tell me what they have in common.
–Greg Kerkvliet
-Drew Hildebrandt
-Max Dean
-Kurt McHenry
-Erik Gibson
–Aaron Nagao
–Bernie Truax
–Mitchell Mesenbrink
Yeah, yeah, I know. It was easy, right?
I highly doubt the services of Magnum P.I. or Columbo were needed in solving that mystery.
And if your answer was “None of those guys started their career at Penn State“, you would be correct!
The last handful of years, Cael Sanderson and his coaching staff have hit the transfer portal hard, and the Nittany Lions and its fans have reaped the rewards.
There are multiple All-Americans and two NCAA Champions from that list. And every single one of them has contributed one way or another to the team’s overall success.
Early on in his tenure in Happy Valley, Coach Sanderson rarely used the transfer portal. Granted, there were much different rules regarding eligibility back then.
But that simply hasn’t been the case lately. As the Nittany Lions have seen holes emerge in their lineup, they’ve simply gone out and snagged a competitive guy to immediately fill it.
Rinse and repeat.
And all of this culminated in last year’s ridiculous haul of Aaron Nagao, Bernie Truax, and Mitchell Mesenbrink.
I mean, can you blame any of them? The best wrestling program in the country with the best coach in the country wants you to come and wrestle for them.
Not exactly a tough sell.
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Setting Penn State Wrestling Transfer Portal Expectations
So at this point you might be asking yourself, what studs are Penn State Wrestling bringing in this year?
Without owning a crystal ball or a DeLorean I can 100% confidently answer: No one.
Braeden Davis, Aaron Nagao, Tyler Kasak, Shayne Van Ness, Levi Haines, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Alex Facundo, Josh Barr, and Lucas Cochran are all returning next year. Combined with the likelihood of both Beau Bartlett and Greg Kerkvliet coming back, the Nittany Lions are going to be absolutely stacked yet again.
And this is before you add in the guys from the 2024 recruiting class (rankings based on FloWrestling).
No. 2 Luke Lilledahl
No. 5 Joe Sealey
No. 6 Zack Ryder
No. 8 Mason Gibson
No. 9 Connor Mirasola
No. 18 Cole Mirasola
Now add in the guys already committed for the 2025 class.
No. 1 PJ Duke
No. 8 William Henckel
No. 18 Nathan Desmond
No. 25 Dalton Perry
No. 92 Asher Cunningham
The conclusion is very evident.
Cael Sanderson and Penn State Wrestling have a problem.
However, it’s a problem that every single coach in every single sport in the country would take every day and twice on Sundays.
The Nittany Lions have an overabundance of talent and not enough slots for everyone to fall into. And they have otherworldly talent set to enroll this year and next.
Will Penn Stae Wrestling Sit Out the Transfer Portal?
Are there some highly competitive guys in the portal? Oh, for sure.
Two-time All-American Dean Hamiti transferred from Wisconsin to Oklahoma State and 2024 All-American Yaraslau Slavikouski just entered. Then you have guys like Tommy Askey and Caleb Fish still out there.
But Penn State doesn’t need any of them. With the Nittany Lions’ success on the mat the past decade plus and with their loaded recruiting classes, State College will continue to be the epicenter of collegiate wrestling. And unless something really goes wrong, I just don’t see this program needing to dip into the new world of free agency anytime soon.
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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.