It’s getting close to Hodge Trophy time, and Penn State wrestling hasn’t had as many winners recently as one would think.
The Hodge is wrestling’s version of the Heisman, and since Penn State has been the most dominant force in the sport for the 2020s, one would think the school would have more than one Hodge winner over the last five years.
But aside from Aaron Brooks in 2024, the Hodge has been vacant from Penn State’s trophy cabinet in recent years.
That might change this season, as Penn State has multiple contenders for the award.
Before breaking down who has the best chances of winning the Hodge, we must understand the criteria.
The first and most important part of the criteria is the record. Wrestlers who don’t go undefeated almost never win the Hodge, with the lone exception being Iowa’s Brent Metcalf in 2008.
The second part of the criteria is how dominant a wrestlers wins are. Although Penn State starters Luke Lilledahl (125) Shayne Van Ness (149) Levi Haines (174) and Rocco Welsh (184) are all undefeated, none of them have a bonus rate above 78%.
Part three is quality of competition.
The stronger opponents a wrestler has, the more impressive his wins are.
Part four is sportsmanship, which is self explanatory, and part five is past credentials, which is also self explanatory.
Right now, there are three wrestlers considered favorites for the top individual honor in the sport.
Two of them are Penn State’s finest.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.MITCHELL MESENBRINK
Right now, Mesenbrink is the guy most Penn State fans are pulling for. Although PSU does have another horse (more on him later), the two people being talked about the most are Mesenbrink and Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez.
Those are the two that have done everything there is to do in college wrestling but win the Hodge, with Mesenbrink winning his first national championship last year at 165 and Mendez winning the last two titles at 141.
Mesenbrink has followed up last year’s title win with a 22-0 start and 22 bonus point wins, with nine of his wins being against ranked opponents.
A big difference in Mesenbrink this year vs. last year is pins. He has eight pins this season. Last year, he had zero. He also has four wins against top 10 competition and two wins against Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo, who is ranked No. 2.
JESSE MENDEZ
Penn State fans know Mendez well through his battles with former PSU star Beau Bartlett over the last several years. Bartlett is graduated, but Mendez is still kicking, and dominating everybody at 141. Mendez is 22-0 with an 86.36% bonus rate. The only two opponents who held Mendez to a decision were Iowa State’s Anthony Echemendia, who is ranked No. 3 in the country, and Nebraska’s Brock Hardy, ranked No. 4. Mendez beat Hardy by decision twice, with the most recent being this past weekend at the Big Ten Championships.
10 of Mendez’s are against ranked opponents, and of those ten, eight are in the top 10 and four are in the top five. He has six pins on the season.
JOSH BARR
Of these three, Barr is the long shot. It’s true that he’s won 19 matches, all by bonus point, 10 by tech fall, and 11 against ranked competition. But Barr is currently third in WrestleStat’s standings, and contributing to this is the fact that Barr has wrestled three fewer matches than Mesenbrink, who is in first, and Mendez, who is in second. Barr missed time early in the season with a rib injury he suffered during the U23 World Championships in October.
Another thing Barr has going against him is, although he has plenty of ranked wins, the Big Ten isn’t as deep at 197 as it as at the other weights.
Mesenbrink has Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo, the No. 2 wrestler in the nation, to push him at 165 and Mendez has Hardy at 141. The Big Ten’s top ranked wrestler at 197, aside from Barr, is Nebraska’s Camden McDanel, who is ranked No. 10.
Lastly, although it isn’t an official part of the criteria, Barr not having the pre-2026 resume of Mesenbrink or Mendez probably won’t help him in the voting.
