FloWrestling’s preseason pound-for-pound rankings are out, and yeah, Penn State wrestling dominated.
Here’s a breakdown.
THE BEST
Right now, it’s impossible to dispute that Mitchell Mesenbrink is the best wrestler in the country. He’s won 54 straight matches, two national titles and is the reigning Dan Hodge Trophy winner. He’s projected to compete at a new weight class, moving from 165 to 174. But we have no reason to believe Mesenbrink won’t be just as dominant, if not more so, in his last college season.
RAISING THE BARR
There’s no debate that Mesenbrink is America’s best, but there’s some debate as to who’s No. 2. Flo has Oklahoma State’s Sergio Vega, who won the national title at 149 last season, ranked second. Plenty of Penn State people would argue that spot belongs to Josh Barr, who is No. 3. Barr wasn’t quite as dominant as Mesenbrink last year, but he was close, and had he ended the season with a 100% bonus rate, there would have been some debate over the Hodge Trophy voting. Even with Mesenbrink’s return, Barr’s Hodge candidacy shouldn’t be dismissed.
USE THE FORCE, LUKE
Luke Lilledahl won his first national title at 125 last season, and there’s no reason to think he won’t do it again. Flo has Lilledahl ranked first at 125 and sixth in the pound-for-pound rankings. Remember when Penn State was “cursed” at 125? Yeah, those days are over.
SUPER SHAYNE
Shayne Van Ness hasn’t won a national title yet, but he’s close. Last year, he came within one bout of glory before falling to Vega in the national title match. This year, Vega is still there, as are Stanford’s Aden Valencia, who is ranked No. 2 at 149 and No. 16 in the pound-for-pound, and 2024 national champion Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech, who is ranked No. 4 at 149 and No. 9 in the pound-for-pound. Van Ness is No. 3 at 149 and No. 8 in the pound-for-pound, and remember, he was No. 1 seed going into the national championships last season, so there’s no reason to believe he won’t be right there again.
ROCCO
Similar to Van Ness, Rocco Welsh came into the national championships as the No. 1 seed at 184 and made it to the national title bout before falling to Minnesota’s Max McEnelly. McEnelly is still in school, so he was the fairly obvious choice for No. 1 at 184 (he’s No. 5 pound-for-pound). Right behind McEnelly is Welsh, so a national title rematch is quite possible.
Welsh is No. 10 on the pound for pound, which means that half of the top 10 consists of Penn Staters.
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IT’S HONESTLY SCARY
If Penn State having five of the top 10 pound-for-pound wrestlers in the country wasn’t scary enough, they also have No. 11 and No. 12. PJ Duke is No. 11 and is ranked No. 1 at 165. Tyler Kasak is No. 12 and ranked second at 157. Each of the two is a bona fide national title contender.
We haven’t even gotten to Marcus Blaze, who only qualified for the Senior World Team over the summer. Blaze is ranked No. 19 overall and No. 4 at 133, which argues for the most competitive class in the country (Hodge contender Jax Forrest is No. 1, and reigning national runner-up Ben Davino is No. 2).
As good as the eight wrestlers mentioned above are, none of them are senior world champions. Masanosuke Ono is, and if he starts at 141 ahead of Braeden Davis (who is no slouch himself, ranked No. 12 at his class), there’s no telling what he might do in the folkstyle world.
Not counting Ono, who doesn’t even factor into Flo’s rankings, the only projected Penn State starter not in the pound-for-pound top 20 is Cole Mirasola, who is ranked fifth at heavyweight.
Yep, 10 All-Americans seems quite possible.
