Nine former national champions and seven additional national finalists return to the mat this college wrestling season to begin their quest for the opportunity to wrestle on Saturday night in March once again. This crop of stars make up just a slice of the depth of talent at the Division I level, but their success makes them headliners amongst this year’s athletes to watch.
With more than 70 total returning All-Americans, the field is strong, and narrowing any list down to just 25 names is a challenge. For the purposes of this ranking, though, NCAA titles were weighed most heavily, followed by finals appearances, number of All-American honors vs. years participated in the tournament and positions on the podium. All of the wrestlers on this list have at least one top-five finish. No redshirt freshman or freshman were considered in this list either, as they have not yet competed or placed at the national tournament.
Nothing is predictable in college wrestling, but these are a few title contenders to watch and names to know as the season starts up again in November.
1. Jesse Mendez, Ohio State, 141 pounds
Buckeye senior Jesse Mendez enters the 2025-26 college wrestling season as the only multiple-time returning NCAA champion in the field; he's also a preseason Hodge Trophy contender after winning the 141-pound weight class in 2024 and 2025. Described by the Ohio State wrestling program as the “baddest man alive,” Mendez has become known for his clutch gene and his ability to win big when the lights are the brightest, an attribute that he put on full display in the 2025 championships when he avenged losses to Penn State’s Beau Bartlett and Nebraska’s Brock Hardy on his way to his second title. Over the course of his career, Mendez has accumulated a 77-14 record with just five losses since moving up from 133 to 141 at the start of the 2023-24 season, three of which have come against Bartlett.
SUCCESS FROM THE START: How Jesse Mendez earned All-American honors as a true freshman
His confidence, savviness and grit make him a formidable contender at 141 once again, and if Mendez can run the table and finish on top, he’ll be just the third wrestler in Ohio State history to win three titles, joining Logan Stieber and Kyle Snyder in that elite club. Mendez’s biggest challenger this year will come from a familiar foe in Hardy, and while Mendez won their last bout in a high-scoring war, Hardy is always tricky and has shown he can keep pace with the Buckeye champ. Lehigh's U20 world champion Luke Stanich will also be expected to join the weight class this year and could make some waves after earning All-American honors as a true freshmen at 125 and spending the last year building the necessary strength to make a podium run at 141 pounds. Returning All-Americans CJ Composto, Vance VomBaur, Zeth Romney, Anthony Echemendia, Braeden Davis, Ryan Jack and Nasir Bailey add to the intrigue of 141 pounds, but this is Mendez’s weight until proven otherwise.
2. Mitchell Mesenbrink, Penn State, 165 pounds
Much like Mendez, Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink will be atop the preseason Hodge Trophy favorites, given his status as a returning national champion at 165 pounds and his propensity to dominate everyone else in the weight class. Mesenbrink boasts a 98.18% winning percentage thus far in his career, with his lone loss coming against David Carr in the 2024 NCAA finals, but his most impressive stat is his 80% career bonus rate, including an 88.89% rate last season. He finished third in last year’s Hodge Trophy fan vote behind Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson and teammate Carter Starocci, but both of those athletes have since graduated, leaving the way clear for Mesenbrink.
Only two wrestlers finished within five points of Mesenbrink in a match last year: Cameron Amine of Oklahoma State and Michael Caliendo of Iowa. Amine, however, has since graduated, leaving just Caliendo to push the Nittany Lion junior. In their six matches thus far though, Mesenbrink has outscored Caliendo by more than a combined 50 points. The Hawkeye senior has closed the gap, but Mesenbrink is a winner, and there’s no reason to think he won’t carry that attitude and success with him into the season.
PENN STATE WRESTLING: How the Nittany Lions won the 2025 NCAA wrestling tournament
Mesenbrink also put together a solid summer of freestyle wrestling this year, giving him impressive momentum heading into his third year with the Nittany Lions. He’ll represent the United States next week as the 74kg U23 World Team rep after earning the spot by advancing to Final X back in June, and will look to add to his resume that already includes a U20 silver medal at 70kg in 2022 and a U20 gold medal at 74kg in 2023.
3. Levi Haines, Penn State, 174 pounds
There’s no 1-2 punch in the country quite like the duo of Mitchell Mesenbrink and Levi Haines for the Nittany Lions. Haines, a 2023 NCAA runner up, 2024 NCAA champion and 2025 third-place finisher, has competed one weight class apart from Mesenbrink for the last two seasons, first wrestling before him down at 157 pounds and now jumping up two weights and following his teammate’s pace with his own precision and power up at 174 pounds. The added size has benefited Haines on the international scene as well, as he too posted stellar freestyle results this summer and earned a silver medal at the 2025 senior world championships in Croatia earlier this fall.
Haines enters his senior season as the far and away favorite at 174 pounds, especially given the graduation of the only two athletes to beat him last year: national champion Dean Hamiti and two-time NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy finalist Keegan O’Toole. With an impressive 73-4 record from his first three seasons in Happy Valley that includes victories over 12 different All-Americans, Haines has already cemented himself as a champion upperweight. This final season will give him one last chance to add to that legacy.
4. Caleb Henson, Virginia Tech, 149 pounds
Relentless. That’s how the Virginia Tech Hokies describe Caleb “The Hitman” Henson.
Over his three years in Blacksburg, Henson has been a winning machine, posting a 79-8 record while earning All-American honors as a true freshman in 2023, a national title in 2024 and a runner-up finish in 2025. He’ll now look to become the first two-time NCAA champion in Virginia Tech program history and lead a 149-pound weight class that includes All-Americans Shayne Van Ness of Penn State, Lachlan McNeil of Michigan and Ethan Stiles of Minnesota.
In addition to his success on the mat, one element of Henson’s defining legacy with the program will be his outward gratitude towards his team and his contributions towards a family culture at Virginia Tech that has attracted the attention of two of the nation’s top recruits: Bo Bassett and Melvin Miller. Virginia Tech preaches a motto of #ThisisHOME. Henson has shown how that home breeds champions.
5. A.J. Ferrari, Nebraska, 285 pounds
Few wrestlers generate the kind of attention that A.J. Ferrari attracts every time he posts on social media, participates in an interview or competes in a match. After winning a title at 197 pounds in 2021 for Oklahoma State, Ferrari then wrestled unattached for Iowa before transferring to Cal State Bakersfield and finishing third last season. He’s now found a new home at Nebraska, where he’s planning to move up a weight class and make a run at another title at heavyweight. Ferrari comes into the year with a 50-2 record — his only varsity losses have come against Stephen Buchanan last season and Noah Adams of West Virginia in 2021. Strength has always been his biggest asset, too, and he’ll now have a chance to test himself against the largest men in the sport.
Ferrari joins a Nebraska squad that already includes an NCAA champion in Antrell Taylor as well as All-Americans Jacob Van Dee, Hardy, Christopher Minto, Silas Allred and Camden McDanel. The addition of Ferrari to the Husker lineup gives head coach Mark Manning an even greater opportunity to build upon his team’s successful runner-up finish at last year’s NCAA tournament and fight for another team trophy.
6. Lucas Byrd, Illinois, 133 pounds
Lucas Byrd has always been an elite wrestler. He came into college as one of the top recruits in his class and finished on the podium in fifth as a redshirt freshman and redshirt sophomore with a combined 44-9 record across those two seasons.
But in 2025, Byrd took another step forward. He went from being one of the best athletes in his weight to the best, proving himself not only at the Big Ten tournament when he pinned Iowa national finalist Drake Ayala in the finals, but then again at the NCAA finals when he outscored Ayala and brought a title back to Champaign. Those wins avenged Byrd's also only loss of the season to Ayala from the dual.
This version of Byrd is going to be hard to stop, even as he leads a deep weight that once again includes Ayala, as well as 2024 third place finisher Ryan Crookham, NCAA champion Richard Figueroa and All-Americans Jacob Van Dee, Tyler Knox, Dylan Shawver and Evan Frost. U20 world champion Marcus Blaze could also be in contention for national honors as a freshman for Penn State.
While Byrd's placement at six on the list might seem high, he gets a bump because of his NCAA championship and his conference title, something that has eluded the two NCAA champs behind him — Vincent Robinson and Antrell Taylor. Winning a Big Ten title is a no easy feat, and Byrd will look to capture his second one on this quest to finish on top of 133 pounds nationally as well this year.
7. Vincent Robinson, NC State, 125 pounds
Vincent Robinson is the only athlete on this list with the potential to be a four-time NCAA champion, and while that's enormous pressure to put on a sophomore lightweight, it shows the significance of Robinson's national title last year. The NC State star came into the national tournament last year as the No. 4 seed after posting an 18-2 regular season record and finishing second in the ACC to All-American Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech. His best win earlier in the year came against eventual NCAA finalist Troy Spratley, 7-3, in a match that showed what Robinson was capable on, but even then, the expectations for Robinson to string together five of those kinds of matches at the NCAA tournament was likely unexpected for anyone outside of the NC State wrestling room.
But that's exactly what Robinson did. He beat Iowa's Joey Cruz 12-1, topped Princeton's Marc-Anthony McGowan 6-4 and then took down Rutgers veteran Dean Peterson 4-2 to secure his first All-American honor. His gutsy 4-2 win over Lehigh's Sheldon Seymour sent him into the national finals where he met Spratley again, this time outscoring the Cowboy 2-1 in tie-breakers and sending the NC State bench into a frenzy.
For Robinson to repeat this effort, he'll have to navigate a similar field that will once against include Spratley, Ventresca and Seymour, as well as Peterson, McGowan, and third-place finisher Luke Lilledahl, along with All-Americans Stevo Poulin and Jore Volk. The only thing harder than winning a national title is defending it, but Robinson is the only one in this group who has done it before his career. He's the rightful owner of the No. 1 spot in the weight until proven otherwise.
8. Antrell Taylor, Nebraska, 157 pounds
The 2025 NCAA tournament turned out to be a historic one for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as the team put eight athletes on the podium, led by two champs: Antrell Taylor and Ridge Lovett. With Lovett graduating, Taylor steps in as the returning face of the program, though transfer teammate and fellow champ A.J. Ferrari also brings some extra spotlight to the program as the Huskers gear up to chase another team trophy.
Individually, Taylor has been a valuable asset for the Big Red since he stepped into the varsity lineup. As a redshirt freshman, Taylor dramatically improved on his 4-5 record from his redshirt season and posted a 23-10 record to accompany his eighth place finish at NCAAs. The following year, of course, he jumped another level, going 26-4 with wins over All-Americans Ethan Stiles and Joey Blaze in the regular season and then national tournament victories against James Conway, Jude Swisher, Matt Bianchi, Meyer Shapiro and Blaze, again.
Now that he has one title under his belt, Taylor's primed for another run. The biggest concern for Taylor will be Penn State's Kasak, an athlete Taylor is 0-2 against in his career. Stanford's Daniel Cardenas also returns from redshirt this season and could also be issue. There's a special kind of confidence that comes from being a national champion, though, and that confidence belongs to Taylor.
9. Richard Figueroa, Oklahoma State, 133 pounds
Richard Figueroa might have one of the most unique careers amongst returning NCAA champions on this list.
The California native came into college with high expectations as the No. 1 pound-for-point recruit in the country but then spent his first two years — one in redshirt and one as a redshirt freshman — sitting behind NCAA finalist Brandon Courtney, waiting his turn to compete under the lights. The moment came the following year in 2024, when Figueroa found his stride just in time for the postseason. Despite taking losses to Jore Volk, Troy Spratley, Maximo Renteria, Nico Provo and an injury loss to Ashton Johnson earlier in the year, Figueroa flipped a switch in March, won Pac-12s and beat Ethan Berginc, All-American Pat McKee, All-American Anthony Noto, eventual All-American Braeden Davis and Iowa's All-American Drake Ayala to capture a national title at 125 pounds. He really went from not having a starting spot on his team to being the best in the country in just one year.
The 2025 season looked a little different for Figueroa as he struggled to return to form and posted a 17-4 record with a 1-2 performance at the NCAA tournament. A few weeks later, Figueroa announced his decision to transfer to Oklahoma State. Under the leadership of head coach David Taylor, who just last season took a Round of 12 finisher in DJ Hamiti to the top of the podium, Figueroa will look to recapture the magic that propelled him to the top in 2024. He'll aim to accomplish this at a new weight, too, moving up to 133 pounds to follow Spratley in the lineup. The Cowboys had a special season last year. Adding a national champion, even two years removed, to the squad never hurts.
10. Brock Hardy, Nebraska, 141 pounds
Brock Hardy's brand is a simple three-word phrase: wrestling is fun. It's the bio he uses for himself on his Instagram account, and it's the phrase he uttered in his press conference after advancing to the NCAA finals last year following a win over Cael Happel. This is a motto he expresses on the mat too through his all-gas, no-breaks wrestling style and his frequency of competition.
In the 2024-25 season, Hardy wrestled 31 matches, averaging 12 points per bout in wins that didn't end in a fall. His pace and intensity made him a fan favorite, and he carried that energy with him into the postseason, where he won his first Big Ten title by fall over Minnesota's Vance Vombaur and earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Hardy ultimately finished second to Jesse Mendez at nationals in a 12-9 battle, but his performance gave him his third All-American honor after finishing sixth and third in the previous two seasons.
Hardy will start his senior season ranked No. 2 behind Mendez, but a national championship is certainly within reach. His career wins over Mendez and NCAA finalists Real Woods and Beau Bartlett prove that.
11. Drake Ayala, Iowa, 133 pounds
Drake Ayala has been so close. Twice. The Hawkeye senior has one last chance for collegiate national championship glory after finishing second the last two seasons, and he's going to have to make that happen in a deep weight class, led by the man who beat him twice in the postseason in 2025. But Ayala only continues to get better.
Ayala's first NCAA finals appearance in 2024 came at 125 pounds, where he navigated past Eli Griffin, Nico Provo, Troy Spratley and Eric Barnett in the national tournament before dropping to Figueroa. Earlier that year, Ayala dropped matches to Brandon Kaylor, Michael DeAugustino and Matt Ramos, none of which were bad losses considering the All-American status of all three of those athletes, but the results just highlighted the depth and unpredictability of the weight that year. Ayala was one of many All-American contenders that year who had a chance to break, but he was the one who paved a path to the finals.
In 2025, up a weight, Ayala looked stronger and even more consistent. He took an early season loss to All-American Tyler Knox and then went on a tear, putting up 11 points against All-American Evan Frost, teching All-American Zan Fugitt and beating eventual NCAA champion Lucas Byrd. This was offense-minded Ayala, and he looked great. His finals appearance that year came as much less of a surprise.
In his second year at 133 pounds and his fifth year in the Iowa program, Ayala is poised for yet another breakthrough. The Hawkeye Wrestling Club's videos of him training with Spencer Lee in the lead up to Lee's participation in the 2025 senior show a strong, intense 133-pounder ready to make a move. He can compete with the best at his weight. The quest to do so on a Saturday night in March in Cleveland begins now.
12. Michael Caliendo, Iowa, 165 pounds
Much like teammate Drake Ayala, Iowa senior Michael Caliendo has made huge strides over the last three years and has come within margins of winning his own national title. He finished seventh as a freshman with North Dakota State, fourth as a sophomore with Iowa and second last season. The difference between Caliendo and Ayala, however, is the depth of the weight class and the distance between himself and the returning champ at the weight. Ayala's beaten his opponent before in the last eight months — Caliendo's opponent hasn't lost a folkstyle match since March 2024.
Caliendo will come into the season ranked No. 2 behind Penn State's Mitchell Mesenbrink, an athlete he's has wrestled six times — three of resulted in a loss by major decision. In their last two meetings, Caliendo kept the score within six but did not score an offensive point. Mesenbrink has become known for his relentless pace, and Caliendo wrestles him smart. But the gap still remains. Mesenbrink will be a leading contender for the Hodge Trophy, and for Caliendo to have a shot against the Nittany Lion, he'll need to figure out how to slow him down and pick up a takedown.
Outside of Mesenbrink, Caliendo can stop anyone at 165 pounds. He majored All-American Cameron Amine last season, put up 14 points against All-American Peyton Hall and scored 17 points on All-American Hunter Garvin. He also handled No. 3 Chris Minto 5-1 in their lone meeting last year and teched Illinois' Braeden Scoles. Caliendo's a safe prediction favorite to make the national finals again, but clearing the Mesenbrink hurdle is no easy task.
13. Josh Barr, Penn State, 197 pounds
Josh Barr showed last season that his potential is limitless. After an 14-0 redshirt freshman year at 184 pounds, Barr bulked up to 197 to create a starting spot for himself in a lineup that also included NCAA champion Levi Haines at 174 pounds, NCAA champion Carter Starocci at 184 pounds and NCAA champion Greg Kerkvliet at 285 pounds, and he nearly won his own title in his first season. He posted a 22-4 record with a 69.23% bonus rate in 2025 and advanced to the national finals before he ran into Iowa's Stephen Buchanan and suffered a 5-2 loss.
The season as a whole, though, spoke to Barr's confidence and commitment. He picked up early season wins against former Nittany Lion All-American Michael Beard by major, All-American Stephen Little by decision and All-American John Poznanski by tech fall, performances that skyrocketed him in the rankings. By late January, Barr was considered a title threat. He came into the Big Ten tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Buchanan but ultimately fell to sixth after dropping a match to Jacob Cardenas, taking an injury default loss to All-American Isaiah Salazar and medically forfeiting against 2025 All-American Camden McDanel. Barr's ability to rally at the NCAA and advance to the finals on Saturday night shows what he's is capable of and why he could be so dangerous when fully healthy. Before Barr begins his title quest, he'll have the opportunity to represent Team USA at 92kg in the U23 World Championships, where he'll look to pick up his second world medal in as many years.
14. Rocco Welsh, Penn State, 184 pounds
Rocco Welsh made a huge splash nationally as a true freshman for Ohio State when he pushed his way into the NCAA finals in 2024 at 174 pounds and battled tough against then four-time All-American Carter Starocci. His runner-up performance should not have been surprising, given his 15-3 regular season record that year and the grit he showed in his earlier matches against NCAA champions Starocci and Shane Griffith. Nonetheless, his ability to step into that big moment under the lights and finish that high in the weight in a bracket that also included three NCAA champions in Starocci, Griffith and Mekhi Lewis showed the wrestling world what Welsh was capable of. He wasn't just a talented freshman anymore. He was a title contender.
Two years and one weight class later, Welsh is back and coming for that same title.
A Pennsylvania native, Welsh announced his decision to transfer from Ohio State to Penn State this spring, and he'll now have the chance to chase NCAA championships in his home state while competing in one of the best wrestling rooms in the country.
He'll be sandwiched in the Penn State lineup between NCAA champion Levi Haines and NCAA finalist Josh Barr, giving Welsh elite partners at either weight. Welsh and Barr, along with teammates Luke Lilledahl, Marcus Blaze, PJ Duke, Mitchell Mesenbrink and Levi Haines will also all travel to Serbia to compete in the U23 world championships together next week, again demonstrating the depth and talent associated with Welsh's new team.
Welsh will start the season ranked No. 2 at 184 pounds behind U20 world champion Max McEnelly, and while he won't see McEnelly during the dual season, he will have Iowa's No. 3 Angelo Ferrari, Maryland No. 4 Jaxon Smith, Nebraka's No. 5 Silas Allred and Ohio State's No. 6 Dylan Fishback on his schedule. The 184-pound weight class is fun, and the added intrigue around how Welsh develops at Penn State only adds to the excitement.
15. Troy Spratley, Oklahoma State, 125 pounds
Troy "Sparkplug" Spratley's growth at Oklahoma State is representative of the kind of impact coach David Taylor has had on the program. Spratley came to Stillwater as a strong recruit, having already won a US Open title at 57kg and earned a runner-up finish at the junior world team trials in 2022. He then put together a solid 7-2 redshirt year and followed that up with a Round of 12 finish as a redshirt sophomore in a year where he posted wins against All-American Luke Stanich and NCAA champion Richard Figueroa.
The next year he made the national finals. Spratley entered the 2025 NCAA tournament as the No. 7 seed after dropping to West Virginia's Jett Strickenberger in the Big 12 finals, but he dug deep in Philadelphia when the stakes were the highest and rattled off wins over Keyveon Roller, Stevo Poulin, Matt Ramos and Ventresca to book his rematch with Vincent Robinson of NC State, an athlete that beat him earlier in the year 7-3. Spratley's win over Poulin and his win over Ventresca on the path to that finals match both came by less than two points. This was a journey of pure toughness.
While Robinson pulled out the win, Spratley has two more seasons, starting with this one, to jump to that next level, and he has the coach that can help him get there in his corner. Momentum is building in Stillwater, and Spratley continues to serve as the spark plug that gets this team going.
16. Joey Blaze, Purdue, Purdue, 165 pounds
The 2025 season was a breakout one for Purdue's Joey Blaze.
As a true freshman, the Boilermaker posted a 17-12 record overall and finished with an 0-2 performance at the NCAA tournament after loses to Johnny Lovett and Jared Franek. He then took an early loss at the start of the following year to Maryland's Ethen Miller before finding his groove that sophomore season and rattling off wins against ranked opponents including a technical fall against All-American Ethan Stiles, a 2-0 victory against All-American Peyten Kellar and then eventually a Big Ten tournament win against then-forthcoming NCAA champion Antrell Taylor.
Suddenly Blaze wasn't just an All-American threat. He was a championship threat. Still, at that time, he sat on the same side of the bracket as Big Ten champion Tyler Kasak, so his path looked tough. But a 5-4 win over Kasak elevated Blaze into the national semifinals and locked up his All-American status, and his next win over Northwestern's Trevor Chumbley made Blaze a national finalist. While he would ultimately drop to Nebraska's Taylor in the NCAA finals, the jump from a 17-12 record as a freshman to a national finalist as a sophomore suggests that Blaze is on a rapid upward trajectory.
This year, he's expected to move up to 165 pounds, which creates new problems for the All-American Boilermaker, namely the fact that he'll now be competing with Penn State NCAA champion and Iowa national finalist Michael Caliendo for that top honor. Blaze comes into the season ranked No. 3 behind these two stars, and while surpassing either of them would be unexpected, Blaze has notably shocked the country with wins over top-seeded Penn State wrestlers in the past. An even stronger, more confident 165-pound Blaze will be fun to watch regardless.
17. Ryan Crookham, Lehigh, 133 pounds
Ryan Crookham is far from a dark horse — in fact, he may very well be in the favorite at his weight class — but he’s flying under the radar just a tad because of his absence last season due to injury. Crookham returns the mat after a medical redshirt year last season following breakout freshman season the year prior where he earned two wins over world champion Vito Arujau and picked up an EIWA title in the process. Arujau ultimately avenged that loss in the national semifinals, but Crookham came back for third, meaning that Arujua, who has since graduated, is still the only college athlete to have a varsity win over the Mountain Hawk.
Crookham will have some early tests on his schedule, including a likely November battle against All-American Jacob Van Dee of Nebraska and a Dec. 7 match against Penn State’s 133-pounder, which could potentially be U20 World Champion Marcus Blaze based on Nittany Lion lineup choice at that point in the year. Crookham could also see Iowa State All-American Evan Frost and reigning NCAA champion Lucas Byrd before the end of the calendar year.
18. Max McEnelly, Minnesota, 184 pounds
Big Ten Freshman of the Year Max McEnelly impressed early and often in his rookie season with the Minnesota Gophers last year, with his only losses coming in overtime to NCAA champions Carter Starocci and Parker Keckeisen. His 70.37% bonus rate showcased just how much separation he put between himself and anyone else in the weight who had not previously won a national title. McEnelly will now enter his sophomore season fresh off his U20 world championship as the No. 1-ranked athlete in a stacked 184-pound weight class.
Chasing the young All-American will be former Ohio State national finalist and current Penn State U23 world team member Rocco Welsh and Iowa redshirt freshman Angelo Ferrari, with both also wrestling close matches against Penn State’s five-time NCAA champion Starocci and having shown themselves to be stingy, smart, positionally sound wrestlers with good instincts and strengths. McEnelly has not competed against either of these athletes in college, since both Ferrari and Welsh redshirted last season, but he will get his shot against Ferrari during the regular season in the Iowa vs. Minnesota dual on Jan. 30. McEnelly will be the face of the Gophers this year, and his polished, offensive style make his matches must-watch television.
19. Tyler Kasak, Penn State, 157 pounds
Penn State's Tyler Kasak is as hard-nosed as they come. As a true freshman, Kasak stepped up for the Nittany Lions in place of injured teammate Shayne Van Ness and gritted his way to a third-place finish at 149 pounds. He followed up that performance with a Big Ten title at 157 pounds and another third place finish in 2025, dropping his only non-injury default match of the season in surprising fashion to Joey Blaze of Purdue in the national quarterfinals.
Kasak returns as the No. 2 athlete at the weight behind Taylor, though he'll have his chance to take over the top spot on Jan. 30 when the Nittany Lions welcome the Huskers to the Bryce Jordan Center for a top-two showdown. Last year, Kasak battled his way to the No. 1 spot at the weight in February after an iconic win over NCAA finalist Jacori Teemer. He looked strong and unstoppable. Blaze shut down that momentum in March, but now Blaze is up a weight, and it's Kasak vs. Taylor.
Cornell's Meyer Shapiro will also be in the mix along with All-Americans Daniel Cardenas, Vinny Zerban, Ty Watters and Gavin Drexler. Big Ten finalist Brandon Cannon is also a threat on his best day, and NC State's Jackson Arrington has the potential to make things interesting as well. The 157-pound weight class is far from locked, but Kasak has every opportunity to make this his year.
20. Shayne Van Ness, Penn State, 149 pounds
Shayne Van Ness has finished in the same spot at the end of both of his varsity seasons, though those results came after two different types of seasons. As a freshman, Van Ness started hot, winning his first nine matches before taking a loss to Iowa State's Paniro Johnson. He followed that up with a loss to Austin Gomez of Wisconsin (at the time). Van Ness then settled in and finished the regular season with a 15-4 record before finishing fourth at the Big Ten tournament and earning the No. 12 seed at NCAAs. This is where Van Ness found a new gear. He topped Maryland's Ethen Miller, avenged his loss to Johnson from earlier in the year, stopped a red-hot Graham Rooks of Indiana and held Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis to a decision before going on a run on the backside of the bracket that involved wins over Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech and Kyle Parco of Arizona State. This was a version of Van Ness that made Penn State fans believe he could eventually win a national title.
An injury sidelined Van Ness in 2024, but those national title aspirations followed him into 2025. Henson was back in the mix, too, aiming to repeat after winning the weight in 2024, and Nebraska's Ridge Lovett was also looking for his shot at title. Van Ness ended the season slotted in third behind those two, making him one of five Penn State wrestlers to finish third.
Van Ness will start the year second this season behind only Henson, an athlete he's 1-0 against in his career. Like so many of his Nittany Lion teammates, Van Ness is primed for a championship season.
21. Rocky Elam, Iowa State, 197 pounds
As one of the most experienced athletes on this list, Rocky Elam’s list of collegiate accomplishments is long. He’s a four-time All-American, a two-time conference champion, a Southern Scuffle champ and a 2021 junior world champ. The next thing to accomplish: an NCAA title.
Injuries have impacted Elam on his quest for that ultimate goal in the past, as he had to miss last season with a longterm injury. But when he’s on, he’s on, and Elam can certainly be a title threat if he can maintain his health. In fact, during the 2023-24 season — the last year Elam was on the mat wrestling folkstyle — he notched wins over NCAA champion Stephen Buchanan and All-Americans Michael Beard, Jacob Cardenas, Mac Stout and Joey Novak.
He’ll be wrestling for a new team this year as a Cyclone after spending most of his career in Columbia with the Missouri Tigers, but the change in environment might be exactly what he needs to jump levels — this approach certainly worked for Buchanan, last year’s champ, who moved to Iowa for his final year of eligibility and won the title at the weight. Elam will come into the year ranked No. 2 at the weight behind sophomore Josh Barr, an athlete he has not yet wrestled in college, given their age differences.
22. Lachlan McNeil, Michigan, 149 pounds
Lachlan McNeil might be the most underrated three-time All-American in college wrestling. The former UNC middleweight was a staple for the Tar Heels, finishing in the top 6 every time he competed in the national tournament. Now at Michigan, McNeil is looking for more than just consistency. He has a chance to win a title.
McNeil comes into the season ranked third behind Caleb Henson and Shayne Van Ness, and while he's 0-1 against both Henson and Van Ness, his battle with Henson went to sudden victory. That's the kind of wrestler McNeil is — he competes hard and keeps everything close. In fact, outside of his redshirt season, McNeil has never been bonused in college. He's in every fight.
Competing in the Big Ten will put McNeil in a different kind of spotlight this year, though the 149-pound weight class is one of the least Big Ten top-heavy weights in the country. McNeil is one of just three Big Ten athletes, including Van Ness and Ohio State's Ethan Stiles, in the top 10, but he will get the chance to wrestle both of those guys in the regular season now. He could also see two-time finalist and 2024 NCAA champion Caleb Henson at the Cliff Keen Invitation in December.
McNeil's new Michigan coaching staff also has a good history of taking athletes, particularly international athletes like McNeil, and helping them jump levels, both on the folkstyle stage and internationally, so look for McNeil to make gains this year and continue to be in the mix for a national title.
23. Luke Lilledahl, Penn State, 125 pounds
Only at Penn State can an athlete win Big Tens, earn the No. 1 seed at NCAAs, finish 3rd as a true freshman and be the seventh athlete from his team mentioned on this list. But Luke Lilledahl’s impact and legacy with the Nittany Lions will be more than his freshman third-place finish. With his performance last year, he also became the first athlete to All-American at 125 pounds for the Nittany Lions since Nico Megaludis in 2016, and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Lilledahl will jumpstart his sophomore season (where he is once again in the title conversation) by representing Team USA at the U23 world championships after finishing second to three-time NCAA champion and two-time Hodge Winner Spencer Lee in Final X. While this will mark his first U23 world championship, Lilledahl has plenty of international experience more generally and has won U20 and U17 silver and gold medals. He’s someone who came to college with the confidence and maturity to compete right away, and his All-American finish and 26-3 record proved that. The next challenge will be winning a national title and adding his photo to the wall of Penn State legends.
24. Meyer Shapiro, Cornell, 157 pounds
From a talent, speed and pace standpoint, few athletes in the country can compete with Cornell’s Meyer Shapiro. The junior from Cornell has finished third and fifth thus far in his career with statement wins over All-Americans Ed Scott, Daniel Cardenas, Bryce Andonian, Jared Franek, Brock Mauller, Matt Bianchi and Trevor Chumbley. He’s also racked up international hardware, winning a U20 national title in 2023 and a cadet world title in 2021. A healthy Shapiro is a problem for the 157 pound weight class.
The Big Red star has famously battled with concussions throughout his career and also at NCAAs, when he revealed that he had been hospitalized for days for seizures and punctured lungs earlier in the season. He’s not expected to compete in the first semester while he continues to recover from these experiences and works to regroup, but if Shapiro comes back in January refreshed, watch out.
25. Luke Stanich, Lehigh, 141 pounds
Lehigh redshirt sophomore Luke Stanich is one part of what is really a stellar trio for the Mountain Hawks at the lightweights, as he directly follows sophomore teammate and fellow All-American Ryan Crookham in the lineup and wrestles two weights above another All-American teammate in 125-pounder Sheldon Seymour.
Stanich put together a solid true freshman regular season in 2024 with an 18-3 record before going on a postseason run that resulted in his first conference title and a 5th place podium finish after wins over NCAA finalist Matt Ramos, All-Americans Caleb Smith and Jore Volk as well as victories against Tyler Klinsky, Dean Peterson, Jakob Camacho. He then took a redshirt year last season and bulked up, moving from 125 pounds to 141 pounds and competing at 65kg on the freestyle circuit.
Earlier this summer, Stanich won gold at the U20 World Championships, adding to his resume and creating even higher expectations for the 2025-2026 folkstyle season. His biggest competition at the weight will be two-time NCAA champion Jesse Mendez and returning NCAA finalist Brock Hardy, the former of whom beat Stanich 14-3 at the Clarion Open last fall while Stanich was in redshirt. Stanich does have wins at 141 pounds over other All-Americans at the weight from that same redshirt season, including an 8-2 victory against Penn’s two-time All-American CJ Composto and a 4-1 win over two-time All-American Kai Orine (who All-American’d at 133 pounds) from NC State. Momentum is in Stanich’s favor after his performances on the international stage, and he has the potential to be part of a special Lehigh squad this year.
