Penn State Wrestling Was Even More Dominant Statistically This Season

The Nittany Lions, chasing their fifth straight NCAA title, won nearly 93 percent of their individual bouts in duals this season.

Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling coach Cael Sanderson reacts during a dual against the Iowa Hawkeyes. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

To senior Levi Haines, Penn State's wrestling dominance is simple.

"I think we just find a way to score more points than everybody else," Haines said after the Nittany Lions completed their sixth straight undefeated season.

And this season, Penn State scored more points than everybody else in a stunningly higher gear. After winning the past four NCAA team championships, the Nittany Lions produced a regular season even more dominant than any of those.

That foreshadows another potentially record-setting Penn State postseason, which begins with the Big Ten Wrestling Championships on March 7-8 at the Bryce Jordan Center. It's not whether Penn State will win its fifth straight NCAA team title; it's whether the team will break its scoring record for a third consecutive season.

"We have a special thing going here," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said earlier this season. How special? Here are the numbers.

RELATED: How Penn State remains dominant in the NIL era

The Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling team celebrates winning its sixth consecutive Big Ten regular-season title. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State Wrestling's Five-Year Run

Statistic	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Overall Record	17-0	16-0	12-0	15-0	15-0
Big Ten Record	8-0	8-0	8-0	8-0	8-0
Undefeated Starters	4	2	6	4	7
Cumulative Duals Score	509-154	541-112	428-69	599-62	630-39
Shutouts	2	0	3	5	8
Average Margin of Victory	20.9	26.8	29.9	35.8	39.4
Individual Duals Records	126-44	128-32	101-19	133-17	139-11
Individual Winning %	74.1 %	80 %	84.2 %	88.7 %	92.7 %
Big Ten Duals Records	59-21	64-16	67-13	67-13	84-6

Penn State's remarkable 2025-26 regular season

Penn State's Mitchell Mesenbrink defeats Ohio State's Paddy Gallagher at 165 pounds during a Big Ten wrestling dual inside the Bryce Jordan Center. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Nittany Lions began the 2025-26 season with a shutout and ended it with another. In all, Penn State shut out eight teams, or more than half its schedule, and racked up an individual win rate of nearly 93 percent.

During Penn State's previous four NCAA-championship seasons, its highest individual winning percentage was 88.7 percent (in 2024-25). This season, the Nittany Lions won 92.7 percent of their individual bouts in dual matches. Further, they went an astonishing 84-6 against the Big Ten.

Seven Penn State wrestlers will enter the postseason undefeated. That includes defending NCAA champ Mitchell Mesenbrink (19-0 at 165 pounds) and Haines, who is 18-0 and seeks to win his second NCAA title.

Penn State's four top-ranked wrestlers from 165-197 went a combined 70-0, scoring bonus points in 60 of those bouts. According to Wrestlestat, three of those wrestlers (Mesenbrink, Haines and Josh Barr at 197) are in the top four of the Hodge Trophy rankings. Rocco Welsh (17-0 at 184) is 11th.

Both Mesenbrink and Barr scored bonus points in every dual match they wrestled this season. Mesenbrink had eight pins, Barr seven technical falls.

The Nittany Lions scored 486 takedowns during the dual-meet season while allowing just 42. Last season, the differential was 368-34 for a similar 15-match schedule.

An impenetrable lineup

Penn State's Marcus Blaze defeats Ohio State's Ben Davino at 133 pounds during a Big Ten wrestling dual inside the Bryce Jordan Center. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Last season was historic for Penn State, which rostered the first five-time NCAA champion in Carter Starocci and became just the second program in NCAA Division I history to field 10 All-Americans at one tournament. It will be challenging to place an entire lineup in the top-6 of their weight classes again, though this team has an opportunity.

Penn State begins the postseason with a starting roster that is a combined 163-8, Two wrestlers have lost seven of those bouts. The remainder of the lineup is 140-1.

The Nittany Lions added four new starters to the lineup this season who are a combined 66-5. That includes unbeaten freshman Marcus Blaze (19-0 at 133) and fourth-ranked PJ Duke (16-1 at 157).

Welsh, an Ohio State transfer who redshirted last season, has taken control of the 184-pound weight class. And despite usually weighing in at 226 pounds, redshirt freshman heavyweight Cole Mirasola has climbed to No. 6 at his weight class.

Extending their freestyle success

Penn State's Luke Lilledahl celebrates after defeating Ohio State's Nic Bouzakis 4-1 in sudden victory at 125 pounds during a Big Ten wrestling dual inside the Bryce Jordan Center. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"The kids coming to Penn State are trying to be the best wrestlers in the world," Sanderson said. "They're trying to be world champions and Olympic champions."

Following last season, Penn State's roster jumped right into the international freestyle season, where it had tremendous success. Sophomore Luke Lilledahl, the nation's top-ranked 125-pounder, became the first U.S. wrestler to win world titles at the U17, U20 and U23 championships.

Six-time world champion Jordan Burroughs last summer called Duke a "superstar in the making" after the 18-year-old earned a spot on the U.S. Senior World Team. Duke went on to win gold at the U20 World Championships, one of six age-group gold medals the Nittany Lions won at world championships last year.

At the U23 World Championships, 70 percent of the team's roster (seven of 10 qualifiers) wrestled for Penn State. And Penn State wrestlers filled half of the 30 spots on the U.S. men's freestyle teams at Senior, U23 and U20 worlds.

The nation's most dominant wrestling team, perhaps its most dominant college program overall, begins another postseason March 7 at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. And the home crowd gets to watch the two-day event at the Bryce Jordan Center.

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