Penn State wrestling is the best program in the country— surely in wrestling and arguably in any sport.
Top recruits want to come to top schools, and for the second straight recruiting class, Penn State’s landed the top-ranked recruit.
Luke Lilledahl, an in-state product from Wyoming Seminary is the second-ranked 24 prospect, and he committed last October. Joseph Sealey, another Penn State commit, is ranked No. 3 in that class.
This evening, the top-ranked ‘25 prospect, PJ Duke, announced his commitment to Penn State on the Baschamania Podcast. Duke is a standout at New York’s Minisink Valley High School. He won titles at both Super 32 and Fargo, two of the biggest high school wrestling showcases.
College coaches have been able to communicate with Class of 2025 recruits since June 15. On that day, FloWrestling reported that Duke picked up more than 30 phone calls that day and spent more than five hours on the phone. While all this was going on, per FloWrestling, Duke was getting ready for a history final exam, which ran from 7:45 a.m. until noon.
It was a wild day.
“I would be on the phone with one coach,” Duke told FloWrestling, “and another one would call in the middle of our conversation.”
It turns out that the coach Duke wants to wrestle for is the great Cael Sanderson himself. Considering Sanderson has won 10 national titles in 12 seasons at Penn State, it doesn’t take the second-coming of Albert Einstein to see why Duke made his decision.
FloWrestling reported that Duke sees himself wrestling at the 157-pound weight class in college. That class is currently occupied by Levi Haines, who was a Big Ten champion and national runner-up as a true freshman this past March.
