Penn State wrestling show: Roster updates, U23s recap, and season preview talk

Penn State wrestling returns to the mat next weekend to start the 2025-2026 season. That means this week, following a mostly successful trip to the U23 World Championships in late October, the Nittany Lions put out their new roster for the year. We cover all of that and more on a new episode of The Blue-White Illustrated Penn State wrestling show.

Host Thomas Frank Carr and reporter Greg Pickel kick things off by looking back at U23 Worlds. Luke Lilledahl, Levi Haines, and Mitchell Mesenbrink all won gold medals. Freshman PJ Duke finished third then. Rocco Welsh, Marcus Blaze, and Josh Barr all also competed but ended up off the medal stand. Barr suffered an injury at U23 Worlds that ended his tournament early. The show uses that as a jumping off point to transition into a look at the 2025-2026 season and the new roster. A written version of our top takeaways is available here.

From there, Carr and Pickel look ahead to the season that starts next Friday when Oklahoma comes to the Bryce Jordan Center.

You can watch this week’s BWI Penn State wrestling show in the embedded player in this article. It is also available on YouTube. And you can find the audio-only version wherever you get your podcasts.

Penn State wrestlers in the rankings: Nov. 4

Here is the second rankings update of the season:

Weight	Name	FLO	InterMat	The Open Mat
125 pounds	Luke Lilledahl	No. 3 (3)	No. 3 (3)	No. 3 (3)
133 pounds	Marcus Blaze	No. 9 (10)	NR	No. 7 (8)
141 pounds	Braeden Davis	No. 8 (8)	No. 9 (9)	No. 7 (7)
149 pounds	Shayne Van Ness	No. 1 (2)	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)
157 pounds	Tyler Kasak	No. 2 (2)	No. 2 (2)	No. 2 (2)
165 pounds	Mitchell Mesenbrink	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)
174 pounds	Levi Haines	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)
184 pounds	Rocco Welsh	No. 3 (3)	No. 2 (2)	No. 2 (2)
197 pounds	Josh Barr	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)	No. 1 (1)
285 pounds	Cole Mirasola	No. 11 (12)	No. 11 (12)	No. 13 (13)