Which Penn State wrestlers are competing for Team USA during the World championships?

Penn State wrestling will not kick off its 2025-2026 season, when it will chase its fifth consecutive NCAA championship, until sometime in November. But, you will not have to wait until then to see a number of Nittany Lions in action. That’s because wrestlers who either currently or will compete for head coach Cael Sanderson’s squad make up a large contingent of the total number of Team USA wrestlers participating in various World championships this summer and fall.

Class of 2026 recruit Jayden James will be on the mat first. He’s the Team USA starter at 71 kilograms (156 pounds) for the U17 World Championships July 28 – Aug. 3 in Greece. The defending New Jersey state champion at 150 pounds will wrestle in a bigger weight class during his senior season of high school wrestling, though where exactly he’ll compete is not yet clear.

“We project him probably either 165 or 175 next year,” Delbarton coach Bryan Stoll told Blue-White Illustrated earlier this year. “He’s going to wrestle what he weighs. New Jersey weights are different than the PA weights. So, we project him between 65 and 75 but who knows. If he hits a growth spurt and gets to 190, he may wrestle 190. He’s capable of competing with anybody in any of those weight classes, I think, just looking at a skill set.”

Which other Penn State wrestling connections are competing in a World championship as a member of Team USA?

Here’s the list:

World Wrestling Championships (Sept. 13 – 21 in Zagreb, Croatia)

PSU ties on Team USA include PJ Duke (70 kilograms), Levi Haines (79 kilograms), and NLWC member Kyle Snyder (97 kilograms)

U23 World Wrestling Championships (Oct. 20-26 in Serbia)

Penn State ties include:

57 kg – Luke Lilledahl (St. Charles, Mo./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

65 kg – Marcus Blaze (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg WC/Titan Mercury WC)

70 kg – PJ Duke (Slate Hill, N.Y./KD Training Center)

74 kg – Mitchell Mesenbrink (Bellefonte, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

79 kg – Levi Haines (Arendtsville, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

86 kg – Rocco Welsh (Fredericktown, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

92 kg – Josh Barr (Davison, Mich./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

U20 World Wrestling Championships (Aug. 14-18 in Bulgaria)

PSU ties include Marcus Blaze (61 kilograms), PJ Duke (70 kilograms), William Henckel (79 kilograms), Connor Mirasola (92 kilograms), and Cole Mirasola (125 kilograms)

U17 World Wrestling Championships (July 28 – Aug. 3 in Greece)

Penn State Class of 2026 commit Jayden James will compete for Team USA at 71 kilograms.

Thoughts on the World teams list

The biggest question for many is whether or not incoming Penn State freshman Marcus Blaze will actually compete at U23 Worlds at 65 kilograms (143.3 pounds) in October, which is obviously very close to the start of the college season, after competing at U20 Worlds at 61 kilograms (134.4 pounds) in mid-August. Blaze is on the record as saying he walks around at about 63 kilograms (138 pounds) and that 61kgs is both more natural to him and closer to the weight class he wants to start his college career in, which is 133 pounds. So, we’ll see how all of that plays out.

Besides Blaze, we’re also interested in seeing Rocco Welsh, the newcomer via the transfer portal, in action at U23 Worlds prior to his first season at Penn State.

What interests you about the Penn State connections across the various age groups of Team USA? Discuss it with us inside of The Lions Den forum.