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Penn State wrestler Mitchell Mesenbrink wins U20 gold medal

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•08/16/23•

GregPickel

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The Penn State logo. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

Penn State added wrestler Mitchell Mesenbrink out of the transfer portal from Cal Baptist earlier this year. The Wisconsin native is showing why the Lions wanted him by starring on the International stage. Mesenbrink won his first gold medal at the U20 World Championships on Wednesday. He beat Hossein Mohammad Aghaei of Iran in the 74 kilograms (163 pounds) finals in Amman, Jordan by a final score of 16-5.

Mesenbrink rolled through the elite international freestyle tournament. He beat his first four opponents on Tuesday by a combined score of 43-1 while notching four straight technical fall victories and finished the tournament 5-0 with a point differential of 59-6. This year’s result is an improvement over last year, when he finished second at 70 kilograms. The new Nittany Lion also won the U20 Pan-American 74-kilogram title earlier this year.

Mesenbrink was one of two Penn State connections to hit the medal stand at this year’s U20 event. Class of 2024 commit Luke Lilledahl finished second in the 57-kilogram weight class. After winning his first three matches by a combined score of 23-6, the senior-to-be pinned his semifinal opponent with just 10 seconds left in the match to complete an incredible comeback. But, his magical run ended in the championship bout, which he lost 5-0 to Yuto Nishiuchi of Japan. Lilledahl, like Mesenbrink, also won a U20 Pan-Am title earlier this year.

Looking to the future, Mesenbrink will compete for the 157 or 165-pound jobs at Penn State this season unless he takes an Olympic redshirt. Lilledahl, meanwhile, will start his time in State College as an official member of the roster ahead of the 2024-2025 season.

Penn State 2023-2024 schedule takes shape

Penn State will wrestle Rutgers, Nebraska, Indiana, and Ohio State at home during the Big Ten portion of its 2023-2024 schedule. The team will travel to Iowa, Michigan, Maryland, and Michigan State for conference duals. It will also host Lehigh for a non-conference shown in State College on Dec. 3. And, per a report, it is scheduled to return to the Journeymen Collegiate Classic in November for the first time since 2021, when it went 3-0 at the Bethlehem, Pa., event.

Led by longtime and legendary head coach Cael Sanderson, the Lions aim to defend their Big Ten regular and postseason titles and also their team NCAA crown this winter.

“It’s not my dynasty,” Sanderson said in March. “It’s a program. Our assistant coaches are unbelievable. Coach Cody [Sanderson] and Coach Casey [Cunningham] and Coach [Jimmy] Kennedy, they work really, really hard.

“And I mean we just gotta keep getting better, and we’ve got a lot of things we can work on moving forward. That’s what you do. You come here and you’ve got to be quick to observe and figure things out, what can we do better. And that’s what we’ll do.”

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