Seven Penn State wrestlers took part in the United World Wrestling U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, this weekend. Four of those seven Nittany Lions brought home U23 World Championships and Gold Medals while another won Bronze. The United States U23 World Team featured ten wrestlers, seven of whom were current Nittany Lions.

Junior Mitchell Mesenbrink won the Gold Medal at 74 kg. Mesenbrink began the tournament with three straight technical superiority wins. He downed UWW’s Aliaksandr Hulnik 12-2, India’s Parvinder Parvinder 10-0 and Egypt’s Omar Mourad 12-2 to advance to the semifinals.

He took on Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi in the semifinals and posted a 7-4 win, advancing to the Gold Medal bout. Mesenbrink took on Turkey’s Muhammed Ozmus in the title match and roared to a 12-2 first period tech to win the Gold Medal. Mesenbrink went 5-0 in Serbia to bring another world title back to Happy Valley.

Sophomore Luke Lilledahl won the Gold Medal 57 kg. Lilledahl won his first two bouts on Saturday, 10-0 over Honghang Liao of China and 11-5 over Milad Valizadeh of Iran, to move into the semfinals. He then posted a 7-1 win over Aiandai Ondar (UWW) in the semis to move on to the championship bout.

Lilledahl battled Japan’s Yuta Kikuchi in the Gold Medal bout and rolled to a 4-0 win. Lilledahl went 4-0 in Serbia to bring the U23 Championship back to Penn State.

Senior Levi Haines won gold at 79 kg. Haines won his first two bouts on Saturday, 7-0 over Iran’s Mahdi Yousefihajivar and 10- over Bulgaria’s Aykan Seid, to advance to the semifinals. He then downed UWW’s Davud Daudov 11-4 in the semis to advance to the Gold Medal bout.

Haines met Turkey’s Ibrahim Yaprek in the title bout and rolled to an 11-1 technical superiority. Haines dominated his weight with a 4-0 run in Serbia to bring home the U23 title.

True freshman PJ Duke won a Bronze Medal at 70 kg. Duke reeled off three straight wins to start his tournament, downing Begijon Kuldashev of Uzbekistan 7-1, Rostislav Leicht of Germany 10-0, and Kaito Morita of Japan 9-3, to advance to the semifinals.

He lost a 14-4 match to Kanan Heybatov of Azerbaijan in the semis to slip into a Bronze Medal bout. Duke faced off against Davit Margaryan of Armenia for Bronze and pinned the Armenian at the 2:53 mark in the first period. Duke went 4-1 in Serbia to bring home a U23 Bronze Medal.

Sophomore Rocco Welsh went 2-1 at 86 kg. Welsh began the tournament with two straight tech superiority victories, downing Israel’s Aaron Ayzerov 10-0 and China’s Minghui Liang 10-0. He lost a tough 7-4 bout to Iran’s Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjael in the quarters. The Iranian lost a tough 2-1 match in the semifinals and Welsh’s tournament came to an end with a 2-1 record.

Sophomore Josh Barr went 1-1 at 92 kg before bowing out with an injury. Barr opened the tournament with an 11-1 technical superiority over Turkey’s Alperin Tokgoz. In his next match, he was beating Iran’s Mohamadm0bin Azimi 3-1 when he sustained an injury while being taken down by the Iranian wrestler. Barr lost that bout and, although he was pulled into the repechage, withdrew from the tournament due to the injury.

True freshman Marcus Blaze competed at 65 kg. Blaze lost a hard fought 4-2 bout to Bilol Sharip Uulu of Kyrgyzstan in his first bout. Blaze then needed Uulu to advance to the finals in order to get pulled into the repechage. Uulu won his next two bouts but lost a close on in the semifinals, ending Blaze’s tournament run.

Penn State and the Penn State Olympic Regional Training Center had a very successful freestyle season winning a combined 11 world medals at the Senior World Championships, U20 World Championships and these U23 World Championships. Haines won Silver at Senior Worlds while RTC wrestler Kyle Snyder won Gold. Blaze and Duke had already won U20 Gold while William Henckel won U20 Silver and Connor and Cole Mirasola won U20 Bronze. Mesenbrink, Lilledahl and Haines won Gold while Duke won Bronze at U23s.