Penn State wrestling: How did three Nittany Lions perform at the U23 Pan-Am games?
Three Penn State wrestlers competed at the U23 Pan-American Championships on Saturday. All of them came home with a gold medal. Luke Lilledahl, Levi Haines, and Connor Mirasola all qualified to compete for Team USA at the 2025 Junior Pan American Games. Those will be held later this year in Paraguay.
Lilledahl outscored his opponents 31-0 before earning a medical forfeit in the 57-kilogram finals from Treye Trotman of Canada. It marked the sophomore-to-be’s fourth Pan-Am medal. He won every match by technical fall. The same can be said for Mirasola. He won his four-man 92-kilogram bracket on the strength of two 10-0 technical fall victories. As for Haines, he took the 79-kilogram gold by going 4-0 with two pins and a pair of technical fall triumphs.
All three are expected to compete at the U.S. Open later this month. The event, which finishes on Blue-White weekend for the football team, helps set the stage for this summer’s Final X event, which will set the U.S. Senior national team. The junior level portion of the tournament will set that age group’s national team, as well. Lilledahl said following a third place finish at the NCAA championships that he intends to wrestle in both tournaments.
“I just like to compete, right? So I want to compete in everything, and I want to compete at the highest level,” Lilledahl said. “So if I win the Senior Open and I wrestle in Final X, that’d be great. That’d be really amazing. But, yeah, just not really focused on all that stuff just yet. Going to recover this week. You. And then we’ll get to that.”
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More Penn State wrestling offseason news
Penn State has lost wrestlers to the portal (and, to Oklahoma State in particular; Zack Ryder, Alex Facundo, and Gary Steen are all now Cowboys) and also gained former Ohio State All-American Rocco Welsh out of it. He will compete at 184 pounds for the Lions.
Head coach Cael Sanderson’s side has also made recruiting splashes. They added reigning 61-kilogram World champ Masanosuke Ono to an already loaded Class of 2025. After that, the team flipped top Class of 2026 recruit Jayden James from Virginia Tech. And, this weekend, the freestyle season kicks off as Luke Lilledahl, Levi Haines, and Connor Mirasola will wrestle for Team USA at the U23 Pan-American games on Sunday.
Get caught up on the latest Penn State wrestling off-season news below:
What is Penn State wrestling getting in 2026 commit Jayden James? His coach offers a scouting report
PSU offseason transfer tracker after Zack Ryder picks Oklahoma State
Penn State wrestling has a National Duals Invitational spot if it wants it; will it accept?
