Penn State wrestling was represented at the Poland Open this weekend, and as anybody who knows anything about Penn State wrestling would guess, it went well.
Six wrestlers with ties to PSU competed, five medaled, and four took home gold.
Like Lilledahl (57 KG), Marcus Blaze (61 KG), Zain Retherford (70 KG) and Levi Haines (79 KG) were the four champions.
GREASED LIGHTNING
Lilledahl is one of the best wrestlers in the world and showed that again this weekend. He took care of his first two opponents in dominant fashion, beating Balazs Racz (Hungary) and Thomas Epp (Switzerland) by a combined 21-0.
He had a much tougher time in the finals against Darian Cruz (Puerto Rico) but gutted out a 2-0 win.
There’s a chance Lilledahl competes at the U23 championships in Las Vegas, scheduled for Oct. 12-18.
BLAZE OF GLORY
Lilledahl won his first national title this past March, and Blaze might not be too far behind. The sophomore has a fantastic freestyle season, which is why he’ll be competing at the Senior World Championships in Kazakhstan this fall. He kept it up in Poland, starting with an 11-0 technical superiority win over Poland’s Yaroslaw Hurskyy. In the next round, he took on an American in Austin DeSanto, who was a four-time All-American at Iowa. All Blaze did was shut him out 5-0. Next up was fellow American Josh Rodriguez, who was a Pan American champion in 2019. Blaze pinned him to get to the gold medal match.
There, he met Kyle Burwick, a three-time national qualifier who wrestled at Wisconsin and North Dakota State. Blaze dominated 11-0 and took home the Gold.
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THE ZAIN TRAIN
At 31, Retherford still has it. The two-time Hodge Trophy winner qualified for the World Championships after a near two-year absence from the world stage, and kept things going in Poland. First up was American Alec Pantello, who was an All-American at Michigan before becoming a two-time Pan-American champion. Retherford took care of him, 8-2. He then rolled over Ukraine’s Narek Pohosian (tech superiority) and Hungary’s Marton Varga (pin) for the chance to win a gold medal.
Retherford cashed in on that chance, getting a pin with less than a second left to beat Arman Andreasyan (Armenia).
Yep, the Zain Train is rolling along.
LEVI, LEVI
It remains to be seen whether Haines will be allowed to compete for Penn State wrestling this season. But whatever happens won’t stop him from continuing to make a name for himself in freestyle. Last year’s Senior World silver medalist added a gold medal this weekend. First, he pinned Fabian Niedźwiedzki (Poland). Then, he took on a familiar foe in former Iowa wrestler Patrick Kennedy, who Haines went 4-0 against in folkstyle. Freestyle proved no different, with Haines beating Kennedy via technical superiority.
All that stood between Haines and a gold medal was Germany’s Stas David Wolf, and Haines took care of him 11-0.
Current Penn State heavyweight Cole Mirasola competed at 125 KG and made it to the bronze medal match but fell to former Lehigh wrestler Jordan Wood 11-0.
Beau Bartlett, a three-time All-American and 2024 NCAA finalist at Penn State who no longer trains at Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (he moved to New York City Regional Training Center last Summer), competed at 65 KG and won a bronze medal, pinning Georgia’s Mikheili Berdznishvili to seal the deal.
