The college wrestling fan’s guide to the 2025 U23 World Wrestling Championships

While the start of college wrestling competition is still a few weeks away, fans don’t even have to wait quite that long to see some of the biggest names in the sport compete.

Thirty athletes on the U23 World Wrestling Championships team — many with NCAA ties and long resumes full of collegiate and international accolades — will take to the mat in Serbia on October 20-27 to wrestle for their chance at international glory. Here’s what you need to know about their backgrounds, their NCAA connections and what their freestyle success thus far says about their potential to win a national championship come March. 

First, let’s meet the team: 

MEN’S FREESTYLE

MEN'S GRECO-ROMAN 

WOMEN'S FREESTYLE

Over a dozen athletes prepare for their second (or third) world championships of the cycle 

The U23 age group has historically been made up of college juniors, seniors or recent graduates — athletes who have already achieved folkstyle success and are looking ahead to bridge that transition from NCAA titles to senior-level accolades. This year’s group, though, is uniquely young; four of them also qualified for the U20 World Championships. 

Their talent, though, is undeniable and has already been displayed in bursts this summer. Ten of the 30 athletes on this U23 squad wrestled up and represented Team USA at the senior world championships, with two of them, Penn State’s Levi Haines and Iowa’s Kylie Welker, winning medals. Age is no longer an inhibitor in qualifying and thriving on the international stage. 

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Haines and Welker both competed internationally before, and their success highlights the value of working through USA Wrestling’s development system and putting in reps at each level to gain enough international experience to have comfort on this stage.

Haines notched a silver at the senior world championships in 2025 and has previously competed at a Cadet World team, while Welker, who has been a staple of the women’s circuit for years, won a bronze medal at the 2024 senior world championships and a gold at the U23 world championships in 2024. She’s also been medaling in age group world championships since 2019, a fact that highlights her longevity and consistency. Haines and Welker have both won collegiate titles as well, with Haines’ win coming in 2024 and Welker notching titles in 2024 and 2025. 

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The fact that this year’s U23 team includes so many athletes who not only had previous experience in their careers wrestling internationally but also tested themselves earlier this year against international competition suggests good things about their readiness for the U23 field.

For Lehigh sophomore Audrey Jimenez and Penn State freshman PJ Duke, the summer and early fall has been particularly busy, balancing the competition schedule for U20 World Championships, senior World Championships and now U23s. This schedule took them to Bulgaria in mid-August and then over to Croatia a little under a month later. Their international circuit wraps up in Serbia where Jimenez and Duke will both look to add a second medal to their collection. 

Duke addressed this balance — and the pressure associated with being Team USA’s rep at each level — earlier this summer after winning U20 Worlds. He told Justin Basch on the Baschamania podcast the following: “Being on the senior team and going to U20 worlds, it’s kind of expected for me to perform and win just because I’m already pretty accomplished on the senior level and just especially such a country like the U.S., it wouldn’t very good if our seniors athletes are going out to U20s and losing, so I had a little bit of pressure on me to do well.” 

Duke did indeed win U20s before finishing 11th at the senior world championships. His Penn State teammate Marcus Blaze also won gold at U20s, though Blaze did not compete at the senior world championships after dropping to two-time NCAA champion Jesse Mendez at the senior world team trials. Blaze did earn a spot on the senior national team, however, with his Final X true-third match win over NCAA finalist Brock Hardy. 

The Duke-Blaze duo will be expected to make an immediate impact for the Nittany Lions this season after they return from Serbia, and they are two of seven Penn State student-athletes on the men’s freestyle in particular to represent Team USA. 

Penn State success continues into the freestyle space again this cycle 

At the DI men’s college level, Penn State has won 12 of the last 14 NCAA titles. These winning ways have translated to the international scene as well. Duke and Blaze are simply the latest examples. 

Seventy percent of the men’s freestyle roster has ties to Happy Valley, and all of those athletes will be in the mix for NCAA titles later this year when they return from Serbia. No college team has ever put more than five athletes on the top of the podium in one NCAA tournament, and only two teams in history (Minnesota in 2001 and Penn State in 2025) have ever finished with all 10 starters in the top eight. The depth of the Penn State team, evidenced by the number of athletes on the U23 world team, gives this year’s group the potential to add to that history. But before they battle it out in Cleveland at NCAAs for top honors, they’ll have to overcome the world in Serbia.

All-American and 2025 Big Ten champion Luke Lilledahl jumpstarts the U23 lineup for Team USA (and the Nittany Lion contingent) at 57kg. Lilledahl earned the No. 1 seed at NCAAs last year before being upset by Lehigh’s Sheldon Seymour in the quarterfinals and bouncing back for third. This year will mark Lilledahl’s second time representing the Nittany Lions internationally, as he won U20s last year just weeks into his freshman year. Lilledahl also wrestled in Final X this summer, dropping two matches to Iowa's three-time NCAA champion and senior world team member Spencer Lee but avoiding tech falls against the Hawkeye legend. He currently sits at No. 2 on the senior national team and will come into the NCAA season as one of the top-three ranked athletes at his weight. 

Blaze and Duke, along with transfer teammate Rocco Welsh, have not wrestled a varsity match yet for the Nittany Lions in their collegiate careers, though Welsh did advance to the NCAA finals in 2024 while representing Ohio State before making the decision to transfer. Adding these three title contenders to the lineup only strengthens an already impressive Penn State team. The Nittany Lion roster has so much talent that if Blaze and Duke opt to redshirt this season, Penn State could start All-Americans Aaron Nagao or Braeden Davis or world champion Masanosuke Ono at 133 pounds instead of Blaze and two-time All-American Tyler Kasak at 157 pounds instead of Duke. 

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The 157-pound discussion is particularly interesting because Penn State has been in this position before with a logjam of talent. Kasak, who stepped in for All-American Shayne Van Ness during his true freshman season in 2024, earned the starting spot again last season at 157 pounds over teammate Alex Facundo, ultimately leading Facundo to transfer to Oklahoma State in the offseason. Kasak has two years of eligibility left, as does 149-pound two-time All-American Shayne Van Ness and two-time NCAA finalist Mitchell Mesenbrink and fellow U23 world team member at 165 pounds. Duke, of course, has his full four years remaining to compete. This is a team with elite caliber options, and regardless of how lineup decisions play out, the Nittany Lions don’t look to be slowing down. 

Penn State’s depth continues into the upperweights, both on the college roster and the U23 roster with Haines at 79kg. Haines has one year of eligibility remaining and will be a heavy favorite to win his second title and his first at 174 pounds this season after finishing third behind Dean Hamiti and Keegan O’Toole last season. 

Rounding out the Penn State representation on the U23 men’s freestyle team is NCAA finalist Josh Barr at 92kg. Barr wrestled at 197 pounds last season and posted a 36-4 record with his only losses coming against NCAA champion Stephen Buchanan in the Iowa dual and the NCAA finals as well as U23 world silver medalist and All-American Jacob Cardenas and All-American Isaiah Salazar in the Big Ten tournament. Following Barr in Penn State’s folkstyle lineup is expected to be U20 world bronze medalist Cole Mirasola. If the Nittany Lions wanted to exclusively flex their international experience in the lineup this year, they could have eight members of a 2025 world team (U20, U23 or senior) across their 10 weights. 

Athlete experience, coaching expertise inspires high expectations

Duke referenced the pressure and expectations upon him as a U20 and senior athlete in his interview with Basch, and part of those expectations come from the winning culture created by USA Wrestling. Since 2021, Team USA has won 30 medals at the U23 world championships across all three styles and crowned 11 champs. Four of those medals have been won by athletes on this year’s team. 

At the senior and U20 levels earlier this year, Team USA won 10 and eight medals respectively, with five of those coming from members of this year’s U23 squad. Expectations will be similar in Serbia. Seeds have not yet been released, but given that over a dozen of the 30 athletes on this year’s team have previously won world medals at the U20 level or higher, the potential for this year’s group to outpace the U20 team from 2025 and the senior team from 2025 is there. 

Six coaches will accompany this 30-person squad to Serbia, with three coaches — Herb House, Nate Engel and Joe Warren — leading the Greco-Roman men, Tonya Verbeek guiding the women and the duo of Joe Russell and Abdur Numeri carrying the responsibilities of the freestyle team. 

Team USA has won only two U23 world team titles in the last nine years: one in 2023 on the men’s freestyle side headlined by individual gold medals from NCAA champions Keegan O’Toole, Aaron Brooks and All-American Isaac Trumble, and one in 2024 on the women’s side thanks to a gold from Welker. 

The 2025 championships could be historic for Team USA.