Landon Sidun is one of the best wrestlers in Pennsylvania from his class, and a former Penn State wrestling star who came from Pennsylvania caught his eye at a young age.
Penn State has had plenty of great ones to come from PA– Carter Starocci, Ed Ruth and Jason Nolf are three of them.
But the guy Sidun, who comes out of Norwin High School in the Pittsburgh Area, grew up admiring might be Penn State’s best, either from PA or any other state.
It was none other than two-time Hodge Trophy winner and Benton, Pennsylvania, native Zain Retherford.
“That guy was a beast on top,” Sidun told Zach Seyko of Locked on Nittany Lions in an exclusive interview. “I want to wrestle like that guy. I want to be like him on top because that dude was so dominant. It was unreal.”
Sidun still has two years of high school wrestling left, so it will be a while before we know if his legacy compares at all to Retherford’s.
But what we already know is that Penn State would love to have him and that his style is reminiscent of a current Penn State star.
“I like to score points,” he said. “I don’t like wrestling slower matches. I like the more intense matches.”
Does that remind anybody of Mitchell Mesenbrink?
PENN STATE’S CHANCES
If Penn State– which has won 12 of the last 14 national titles under Cael Sanderson— wants a wrestler, that means everybody else does, too.
For the 2027 class, only Bishop McCourt star Melvin Miller (also considering Penn State) is ranked higher.
Sidun burst onto the scene as a true freshman, going 42-2 and winning the state title at 114 pounds.
He almost certainly would have won another state title this past season but suffered a broken hand in February that cost him a chance to repeat.
Still, Sidun is 72-2 overall in high school, and as a result, Penn State wrestling, Iowa and Oklahoma State– led by PSU legend David Taylor– are among those after him.
The recruiting process has plenty of negatives, but overall, Sidun is enjoying it.
“It’s a very exciting time,” Sidun said. “Like, I’ve wrestled all my life, now I finally get to talk to these (schools?)”
“You grew up watching these programs all the time. So, you finally get to talk to the Sandersons, you get to talk to all the coaches. So it’s almost surreal. These guys are talking to you because they want you to be a part of their team. So, I’m just super privileged about that.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.So what does Sidun want in a school?
“I look for a program to help me reach where I could be,” he said. “I want to win NCAA titles, I want to go on after that and do the freestyle stuff like Worlds and Olympics. So I’m just looking for a program to help push me to be the best I can be so I can go on and do my goals.”
Sidun’s opinion on Penn State is, well, the same as everybody else’s.
“Top program in the country year in and year out,” he said. “Always have guys wrestling in the NCAAs, they’re winning it. Then they also have a lot of success on the world stage.”
Sidun was impressed at Nittany Lion Wrestling Club’s Final X showing, in which it had seven competitors in final matches.
“They have so many people in Final X this year competing for a (world team spot),” he said. “So it was awesome.”
Granted, several of those NLWC members who competed, such as Mesenbrink and Levi Haines, will be out of eligibility by the time Sidun gets to college.
But the nation’s top two recruits from the 2025 Class– Marcus Blaze and PJ Duke— will be in the fold, and Sidun knows the dynasty isn’t slowing down.
BEST IN THE WORLD
Some people don’t like to set long-term goals for themselves.
They’re either content with being average or so focused on the task of the day, they’re not thinking about what will happen in the future.
Sidun isn’t one of those people.
“Olympic Gold would be the highest thing you could do in this sport,” he said. “I put my goal there so I have something to look forward to every day.
Zain Retherford never won Olympic Gold, and the only Penn State wrestling star to do so was David Taylor.
It takes a big-time talent to set that as a realistic goal, and Landon Sidun is a big-time talent.
