Penn State wrestling commit Luke Lilledahl went 4-0 Monday at the 2023 U20 World Championships in Amman, Jordan.
Luke Lilledahl pulled off one of the CRAZIEST comebacks ever at U20 Worlds with this insane finish to make the World finals! pic.twitter.com/p9Y527Wooe
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) August 14, 2023
Lilledahl, competing at 57 kg in the tournament, defeated Lev Pavlov of the Individual Neutral Athletes, 9-2, in the qualifier. He then bested Tolga Ozbek of Turkiye, 6-1, in the round of 16 before beating Armenia’s Edik Harutyunyan, 8-3, in the quarterfinals. He finished his day with a 9-7 victory over Azerbaijan’s Ruslan Abdullayev in the semifinals.
Lilledahl will face Japan’s Yuto Nishiuchi in the finals on Tuesday at 11 a.m. eastern time.
He already has a couple of medals from the past two years when competing in the U17 Championships. Lilledahl took a silver medal in 2021 before winning gold last year.
Lilledahl is a Missouri native who has competed at the Wyoming Seminary the past two seasons, posting a 46-3 record. He won the Super 32 meet last fall, the Walsh Jesuit Ironman meet by defeating Jax Forrest, and finished the season by winning the 2023 National Prep title.
Lilledahl is a highly touted freestyle wrestling competitor.
Lilledahl will join Penn State wrestling for the 2024-25 season. He projects to be either a 125 or 133-pounder in college.
Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez, who finished sixth at the NCAA Championships this season, is also in the U20 finals at 65 kg. He also went 4-0 on the day and will face Mohammad Shakeri of Iran in Tuesday’s finals.
Also for Team USA, incoming Cornell freshman Meyer Shapiro also went 4-0 and will go for a gold medal at 70 kg on Tuesday. North Carolina State’s Matthew Singleton went 3-1 and will go for a bronze medal at 79 kg, while Camden McDanel went 2-1 at 97 kg and will also go for third place.
