NCAA D1 Wrestling Championships
- © Keystone Sports Extra
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Cleveland, OH - March 21, 2026: The 2026 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were held March 19-21 at Rocket Arena. A thirty-four man double-elimination tournament bracket was in place for ten weight classes. The more than 300 wrestlers represented seventy different teams. Along with a team title, the individual wrestlers were vying to be crowned as a National Champion and/or All-American.
Penn State University, who once again went undefeated in the regular season, came into the tournament as the overwhelming favorite. In the end, the Nittany Lions scored a record 181.5 points to easily win their 14th championship in program history. The Nittany Lions beat their record of 170 points from last year in Philadelphia. Oklahoma State, who some say is closing the gap on Penn State, was second with 131 points. The University of Nebraska was third with 100.5 points.
The Nittany Lions brought all ten wrestlers to the championships. Four out of those ten won an individual title while four others placed and were named an All-American. Leading the way for the Nittany Lions was Mitchell Mesenbrink. Mesenbrink, who went 27-0 on the season, won the 165 pound title for the second consecutive year. He was also named the Outstanding Wrestler for the 2025-2026 season and is the frontrunner to win wrestling’s highest honor, the Hodge Trophy.
Penn State sent a total of six wrestlers to the finals Saturday night. In addition to Mesenbrink winning a title, Luke Lilledahl won his match at 125, Levi Haines won his match at 174, and Josh Barr won his match at 197.
Penn State, under Head Coach Cael Sanderson, has now claimed thirteen of the last fifteen titles while this year’s was their fifth in a row. Many coaches are wondering how they can catch up to the Lions with one coach recently stating: “It won’t be easy to beat this dynasty.”
Second-year Oklahoma State Head Coach David Taylor, nicknamed the “Magic Man,” have his Cowboys on a path to challenge the Lions. The Penn State alumni, Olympic and World Champion, had eight All-Americans this year, four of which were finalists.
Leading the way for the Cowboys was Pennsylvania native Jax Forrest. Forrest won the 133 pound title over Ohio State’s Ben Davino by decision 5-2. Forrest, up until December of 2025 was still in high school in Johnstown, PA and is a freshman “phenom.” The Cowboys’ Sergio Vega won at 141 and Landon Robideau won at 157.
As the Cowboys chase Penn State for the team title, Coach Taylor has said in the past that’s it’s nice to win an individual title but he needs a total team effort, everyone needs to contribute, in order to win the team title. It should be interesting to see if the Cowboys can chase down Penn State in the next couple years.
Locally, Lehigh University sent six wrestlers to the championships. The Mountain Hawks’ top finisher was Luke Stanich who took third place at 141 pounds. Also qualifying were Sheldon Seymour at 125 pounds, Logan Rozynski at 157 pounds, Max Brignola at 165 pounds, Rylan Rogers at 184 pounds, and Nathan Taylor at 285 pounds.
There were three wrestlers this year from the Lehigh Valley area.
Lenny Pinto of Stroudsburg High School/Rutgers University wrestled at 174 and went 1-2. Pinto, who wrestled at the University of Nebraska last year and transferred to Rutgers, lost his first match, won his second, and lost his third.
Ayden Smith of Notre Dame Green Pond High School/Rutgers University, a freshman, wrestled at 125 pounds. Smith went 0-2 on the weekend.
Collin Gaj of Quakertown High School/Virginia Tech was the area’s highest place winner. Gaj placed 5th in the 149 pound weight class. He won his first match but lost his second which dropped him into consolations. The freshman was able to fight through consolations and the “blood rounds” to win four tough battles in becoming an All-American. He eventually lost to Nebraska’s Chance Lamer for the second time in the tournament. Gaj has a bright future.
There were 50 qualifiers from Pennsylvania, the most from any state. The majority of those fifty were from western PA. Ohio and New Jersey followed with 28 wrestlers each.
The NCAA said that over 103,000 fans attended the tournament this year. Rocket Arena and the City of Cleveland were great hosts. Next year’s championships are in St. Louis at the Enterprise Center from March 18-20.
Final Individual Results:
125 - (1) Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) over (10) Marc-Anthony McGowan (Princeton) by Dec 2-1.
133 - (1) Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State) over (2) Ben Davino (Ohio State) by Dec 5-2.
141 - (2) Sergio Vega (Oklahoma State) over (1) Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) by Dec SV 4-1.
149 - (10) Aden Valencia (Stanford) over (1) Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) by SV-1 8-5.
157 - (5) Landon Robideau (Oklahoma State) over (2) Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) by Dec 4-2.
165 - (1) Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) over (3) Mikey Caliendo (Iowa) by TF 20-4.
174 - (1) Levi Haines (Penn State) over (3) Christopher Minto (Nebraska) by Dec 2-1.
184 - (3) Max McEnelly (Minnesota) over (1) Rocco Welsh (Penn State) by Dec 4-3.
197 - (1) Josh Barr (Penn State) over (7) Cody Merrill (Oklahoma State) by Dec 6-3.
285 - (2) Isaac Trumble (NC State) over (1) Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) by by Dec 5-0.
Final Team Standings:
Penn State - 181.5
OK State - 131.0
Nebraska - 100.5
Iowa - 92.5
Ohio State - 84.5
Stanford - 67.5
Michigan - 66.0
Iowa State - 52.0
Minnesota - 48.5
NC State - 44.5
