Mitchell Mesenbrink Is Compiling One of Penn State Wrestling's Great Careers

CLEVELAND | Mitchell Mesenbrink is compiling what could finish as one of the greatest careers in Penn State wrestling history. Mesenbrink won his second title at the NCAA Wrestling Championships on Saturday, defeating Iowa's Mikey Caliendo by a 20-4 technical fall in the 165-pound final.

Mesenbrink won Penn State's first national championship of the night among the team's four, earning a deserved outstanding wrestler award in the process. The Nittany Lions clinched their fifth straight NCAA team title during the medal round earlier Saturday.

With the win, Mesenbrink improved his career-record at Penn State to 82-1. He holds the best career winning percentage in Penn State history (98.8 percent) and is a three-time All-American. His only loss was in the 2024 NCAA final, a 9-8 decision to Iowa State's David Carr. Mesenbrink has won 54 consecutive bouts since.

A TECH FALL TO WIN THE TITLE 😳

(1) Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) of @pennstateWREST defeats (3) Michael Caliendo of Iowa with a 20-4 tech fall to repeat as the National Champion at 165. #NCAAWrestling pic.twitter.com/sWqfjPk4Ir
— NCAA Men's Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling) March 21, 2026

Mesenbrink won 25 bouts this season with bonus points, getting just one decision in the NCAA quarterfinals. Mesenbrink has 11 technical falls this season (38 for his career) and 10 pins. And he beat Caliendo for the ninth time in three seasons, including the past two NCAA tournaments.

And he truly has perspective about it. Mesenbrink, from Hartland, Wisconsin, began his career at Cal-Baptist before he connected with Penn State coach Cael Sanderson about transferring. Since then, he has been among the most dominant wrestlers in the Nittany Lions' lineup. He also sings and plays chess, both of which he's passionate about as well.

"I really enjoy music, and I really enjoy the different aspects that it offers compared to wrestling," Mesenbrink said before the final. "Obviously like you're going out there and battling someone's will, and you've got to take them out. There's the weight aspect. There's all different aspects.

"I think I really like what music has to offer. I have a lot of great people on my side that love me for who I am and not what I am, and those people are helping me as we speak to get better at music.

"Not only that, I feel like it offers an out from wrestling. Not in a bad way, but wrestling is a very like niche community. So people are so like it's all or none. So like it's cool to have an out. It's cool to have something else where I'm sure there's diehard music fans that are all or none about that too. I just kind of try to stay out of those things, the theatrics and politics of it all. But, yes, I would like to be a musician afterwards."

Mesenbrink has led the Hodge Trophy standings for the entire season, according to Wrestlestat, and should be an even bigger favorite following Ohio State's Jesse Mendez's loss. He has perspective about that as well.

"The Hodge is such an opinionated thing, such a futile kind of thing at the end of the day that people vote on," Mesenbrink said. "I'm not going to put my hope or well-being into something that people are going to vote and think about. It's a cool thing, but yet again it's interesting because come Sunday night and Monday night or even when they crown the Hodge trophy, then they're going to be talking about who's going to get it the next time.

"It's just like we're talking about things that come and go, collect dust. Ben [Askren] has one at AWA [the Askren Wrestling Academy] back in Wisconsin, and all the arms are snapped off it because all the kids that come to AWA play with it. I think that's a good representation of what trophies do. They just sit, wear, and collect dust."

Special moment with his family 🥹#NCAAWrestling x @pennstateWREST pic.twitter.com/qXl9qXE5Vl
— NCAA Men's Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling) March 22, 2026

After the tournament, Mesenbrink planned to go to church in Cleveland on Sunday before returning to State College and begin pursuing his third title.

"They've got a really beautiful cathedral here," Mesenbrink said. "I'm really excited to go there with
my family and go to church and have breakfast and all the things that if I won or lost today, we would still have done.

"Riding back to State College, Happy Valley, with my best friend, Sam, and just really being present not in winning but present in the fruitfulness of people being healthy and just much greater things than winning a wrestling match."

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