Penn State wrestling has added it’s second transfer commitment in the past week in Mitchell Mesenbrink, formerly of Cal Baptist.
Mitchell Mesenbrink announces that he's headed to Penn State 🦁 pic.twitter.com/Ij8Ufq101Y
— Justin Basch (@JustinJBasch) April 21, 2023
Mesenbrink will be in his second year of eligibility.
He wrestled two matches for Cal Baptist this season at 165 pounds and won both.
Although Mesenbrink didn’t get to show much at Cal Baptist this past season— he announced his plans to transfer at the beginning of 2023– he was a decorated high school talent. He won two state championships out of Arrowhead High School in Wisconsin, and was a Fargo All-American. At the U20 world championships in 2022, he won a silver medal, and was also the top dog at Pre-Season Nationals, recruiting showcase nationals and USA Folkstyle nationals.
At the start of this calendar year, Mesenbrink said he intended to enter the portal, telling FloWrestling that Cal Baptist “wasn’t what I expected.”
“(Entering the transfer portal) is a (recruiting) re-do,” Mesenbrink said. “And I’m going to make it count for sure.”
Mesenbrink will be looking to make it count at wrestling’s top program. Penn State’s won 10 national titles in 12 years under coach Cael Sanderson, the most recent coming this past March. Penn State added Cal Poly’s Bernie Truax, a three-time All-American, earlier this week.
Mesenbrink’s generally thought to be in the 157-pound weight class. But Penn State has national runner-up and national Freshman of the Year Levi Haines in that spot, so the team is probably set for next season there. As mentioned earlier, Mesenbrink wrestled at 165 for Cal Poly, but Penn State seems to be in good hands there, too, with national qualifier Alex Facundo set to enter his redshirt sophomore season.
Penn State could be losing three-time national champions Carter Starocci (174) and Aaron Brooks (184). This could end up leading to Haines and Facundo moving up in weight, thus making room for Mesenbrink.
