Top Takeaways From Penn State Wrestling's Opening Win Over Bloomsburg

Masanosuke Ono emerged from the Penn State wrestling huddle to a thunder of applause for which he could not suppress a smile. Though he had yet to wrestle a match yet for the Nittany Lions, Ono was the most popular person at Rec Hall on Thursday night.

Ono, a 2024 Senior World freestyle champion, made his long-awaited college wrestling debut against Bloomsburg, the highlight of Penn State's 42-3 victory to open the 2026-27 season. After Levi Haines helped raised the 14th national-championship banner in program history, Ono and the Nittany Lions set about winning the team's 15th overall title and sixth straight.

There was was plenty to digest from Penn State's opening win, its NCAA-record 87th in a row, so here are our top takeaways from the night.

Masanosuke Ono is still getting his folkstyle legs

Masanosuke Ono gets a resounding welcome from the Penn State fans. pic.twitter.com/icPydArg5m
— Zach Seyko (@zach_seyko) November 13, 2026

Despite committing to Penn State in March 2025 and training with the program for 20 months, Ono still had nerves Thursday. His family flew in from Japan to attend the match, and a Rec Hall sellout crowd of 6,378 cathartically cheered his introduction.

In interviews over the past year, Ono has discussed the difficult transition from freestyle, where he won a world championship in 2024, to folkstyle, where he competed for the first time Thursday. Penn State coach Cael Sanderson also has referenced that degree of difficulty, which he thought Ono handled well in his debut.

"He looked pretty dang good," Sanderson told reporters in State College after the match. "That's his first folkstyle match ever in his life, so it's klinda fun to see him get out there and get it going."

Ono, competing at 133 pounds, scored his first takedown 23 seconds into the match and had six by the end of the first period. He was inches from a technical fall to close the second period but couldn't finish the takedown, then gassed a bit in the third.

Ono gave up a takedown to Bloomsburg's Austin Pollard before closing out his first win 20-10. Sanderson sensed Ono got tired in the third, which he didn't consider unexpected.

"Folkstyle is a little different [than freestyle], but he'll make those adjustmeents really fast," Sanderson said. "... He's fine. He has a great attitude and he enjoyed it. He's been preparing to wrestle folkstyle for a couple years and finally got his first match and did some really nice things."

Ono got the nod Thursday after winning a team wrestleoff over Nate Desmond, who went 7-0 last season. He'll likely return to the mat Sunday, when Penn State visits Oklahoma for its second match of the season.

"I'm sure he was probably a little nervous wrestling his first folkstyle match ever, and wrestling in front of a crowd like Rec Hall is not an easy thing to do for the first time," said Luke Lilledahl, Penn State's 125-pounder who trains with Ono. "But he's a competitor and he has fun with the sport, and I think it was definitely a lot of fun for him as well as maybe a little nervous. And obviously it doesn't really matter. He just goes out and smashes the guys anyway."

Tyler Kasak's solid return

Tyler Kasak secures a last-second takedown to win the bout 7-1. #PSUwr pic.twitter.com/vsWvk2GjhR
— Penn State Wrestling (@PennStateWREST) November 13, 2026

Kasak had not wrestled a college match since the 2025 NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, where he placed third and went 4-0 in the consolations rounds. He wasn't completely crisp in his return, and had to work harder than he probably expected, but still finished an 8-1 victory at 157 pounds with a statement.

Leading 4-1 over Bloomsburg's Michael Turi, Kasak scored a takedown in the match's final second for the eventual margin of victory. He also hit the first takedown 20 seconds into the match and accumulated 2:40 of riding time, so the result wasn't in doubt. Still, that finish is what really made Sanderson happy.

"You miss him [in the lineup]," Sanderson said. "He's just a competitor. He's a the-bigger-the-match, the-better-he-wrestles kind of guy. We're really happy to have him back."

Penn State wrestling observations

Shayne Van Ness gets it done with a first-period fall. #PSUwr pic.twitter.com/JanGslLUbz
— Penn State Wrestling (@PennStateWREST) November 13, 2026

Bloomsburg is rebuilding its program under head coach John Stutzman, so the Huskies were not going to be competitive in the match. And Penn State owned just about every part of the scoreboard, winning eight bouts with bonus points and holding an enormous 39-3 advantage in takedowns.

But Sanderson saw flaws, obviously.

" You could tell it was our first match of the year," Sanderson said. "But everyone overall wrestled pretty good, and you have to give Bloomsburg a lot of credit. They were solid at every weight."

The bottom of Penn State's lineup, with two NCAA champs and four All-Americans, was predictably dominant, rolling up four straight technical falls and a major decision. The foursome of PJ Duke (165), Mitchell Mesenbrink (174), Rocco Welsh (184) and Josh Barr (197) outscored their opponents by a combined 76-13, with all of those points allowed coming on escapes.

Junior Connor Mirasola looked sharp in his heavyweight debut, scoring a late takedown for a 13-4 major decision over 28th-ranked Mason Rebuck. Like Kasak, Mirasola hit a takedown as time expired, with his clinching bonus points. Mirasola weighed in at 228, about 13 pounds lighter than Rebuck.

"It's a new weight class for him," Sanderson said. "Just like Masa at 133, he's going to continue to figure out how to wrestle heavyweight. But he looked big and strong and he's got a lot of attacks and he was figuring things out at the end to get that last takedown."

Hayden Cunningham earned the starting spot at 141 for the opener, falling 8-1 to Bloomsburg's Scotty Johnson in his dual-meet debut. Sanderson said that sophomore Marcus Blaze could return to the lineup Sunday against Oklahoma.

Up next

Top-ranked Penn State visits No. 18 Oklahoma for a prime-time match Sunday night in Niorman. The match is scheduled for an 8 p.m. ET start and will be streamed on ESPN+.

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