In recruiting news, a Penn State commit has won the top individual honor in high school wrestling.
WIN Magazine has named PJ Duke its Junior Hodge Trophy winner.
The Junior Hodge is the high school version of the Hodge Trophy, which is college wrestling’s version of the Heisman.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that Duke won. This year, he wrapped up a legendary high school career at New York’s Minisink Valley, winning his fourth state championship (one of those came when Duke was in the seventh grade, and you did not misread that).
He’s also been dominant in the senior ranks.
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Here’s what PJ Duke did earlier this month: He beat two reigning national champions in the same day. At the Senior World Team trials, Duke took out Antrell Taylor, who won it all at 157 pounds for Nebraska this March, and Brock Hardy, who did the same at 149. As a result, Duke is going to Final X in Newark June 14, we’re he’ll have to beat four-time national champion Yianni Diakomihalis in a two out of three series to make it to the world team.
“He is 19 and he just beat… of all the other senior-level wrestlers we have available, he beat them,” Diakomihalis said. “This is the No. 2 guy in America. So I’m going to come in there and wrestle him like my World Championship is on the mind. Because it is.”
NOT THE FIRST
Duke isn’t the first Penn Stater to win the Jr. Hodge and won’t be the last. In 2024, Luke Lilledahl won the award. He proceeded to finish third at nationals as a true freshman.
We’ll see what the future holds for Duke.
