The United States put 11 athletes on the podium at the 2025 U23 World Wrestling Championships in Serbia, and some of the student-athletes competing there will now prepare to return to the college mats and build on their momentum against NCAA competition.
Let’s break down some of the biggest results from Worlds and what this tournament showed about the talent and depth of Team USA.
Penn State leads all programs in 2025 U23 hardware with 3 gold medals and a bronze
The depth and success of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (NLWC) — the Regional Training Center based out of State College — was already a key storyline heading into the U23 World Wrestling Championships on the men’s freestyle side, as the club made up 70% of the roster. This squad wasn’t just about quantity, though — they put together the kind of results that spotlight the quality of the program. Four of the seven NLWC athletes ended up on the podium, with three of them earning gold. The only other college program with more than one medalist was Northern Michigan with two Greco medalists in Payton Jacobson and Otto Black.
NCAA champions Mitchell Mesenbrink and Levi Haines along with All-American Luke Lilledahl led the way for the Nittany Lions with gold medal performances at 74kg, 79kg and 57kg. Haines’ win marks his second world championship medal of the summer, as he previously finished second at the 2025 Senior World Championships in Croatia. Meanwhile, Mesenbrink and Lilledahl add to their age-level trophy cases with these performances. Mesenbrink won U20 worlds in 2023 after taking silver in 2022. He also has a U23 bronze medal from last year. Lilledahl, on the other hand, has a gold from U20 worlds in 2024 and a gold from U17 worlds in 2022. He also has silver medals from 2023 and 2021 at the U20 and U17 world championships, respectively.
Both Lilledahl and Haines got off to roaring starts at U23s, blanking their opening round opponents. Haines shut out his next foe, too, earning his way into the semifinals with a technical fall over Aykan Seid. Neither Ibrahim Yaprak of Turkey nor Davud Daudov posed a threat to Haines in the semifinals and finals either, as he beat Daudov 11-4 before teching Yaprak for his world title.
Lilledahl went 11-5, 7-1 and 4-0 in his next three matches after the opening round, giving up just one more offensive point than his teammate. Mesenbrink also was never really challenged, with his closest match on paper coming against Yoshinosuke Aoyagi of Japan, whom he beat 7-4 to advance to the finals before stopping Muhammed Ozmus of Turkey 12-2 for gold.
Haines and Mesebrink will come into the season as the top-ranked athletes at 174 and 165 pounds, respectively, while Lilledahl sits at No. 3 at 125 pounds behind NC State champion Vincent Robinson and NCAA finalist Troy Spratley of Oklahoma State.
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New Nittany Lion PJ Duke could also be in the mix after taking bronze at the U23 World championships at 70kg. Duke also won U20 worlds alongside teammate Marcus Blaze at 65kg. Blaze did not finish on the podium at U23s after taking a first round loss to Bilol Sharip Uulu of Kyrgyzstan, 4-2, but he is still expected to be a factor in the Penn State lineup at 133 pounds. Duke projects around 157 pounds in college, and the Nittany Lions currently have two-time All-American Tyler Kasak at that weight, though Duke could still wrestle five varsity matches this year without burning his redshirt, per NCAA policy.
Penn State athletes Rocco Welsh and Josh Barr also competed at the U23 world championships, finishing 7th and 10th respectively. They will enter the season ranked No. 2 and No. 1 at 184 and 197 pounds.
Rookie Jax Forrest and veteran Kylie Welker bring back golds to Stillwater and Iowa City
Penn State wasn’t the only team with gold medal-winning U23 athletes on its roster. The Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Iowa Hawkeyes can also add a gold medal to their team record books after 2026 commit Jax Forrest won 61kg and Kylie Welker earned top honors at 76kg. Forrest and Welker are at opposite places in their college career, with Forrest heading into this senior year of high school and Welker starting her redshirt junior year.
Welker, the reigning U23 champ at the weight and a 2025 senior world bronze medalist, blew through her first two opponents 10-0 and 11-0 before lighting up the scoreboard against Edna Esmeralda Jimenez Villalba in a 16-6 tech. She finished her tournament with one final tech against Valeriia Trifonova 10-0. She’ll now look to continue her freestyle success with the defending national champion Hawkeyes and chase her third individual NCWWC title.
Forrest, meanwhile, will continue his senior year of high school.
The Oklahoma State commit and 2025 senior world team member has had an electric last few months that began with him winning the U.S. Open back in April and continued through his Final X wins over world champion Vito Arujau, a fifth-place senior worlds finish in Croatia and now a world championship title at the U23 level. His matches at U23s weren’t particularly close either, as he beat his opponents 13-0, 10-0 and 15-5. The future Cowboy is all offense, all the time. Forrest is clearly ready to be a threat on the collegiate stage, but he’ll have to wait another nine months to do so as he wraps up his final year at Bishop McCort alongside teammates Bo Bassett and Melvin Miller, who have both committed to Virginia Tech.
Jimenez and Janiak’s world medals highlight the depth of women’s collegiate wrestling
When Iowa announced back in 2021 that it would become the first DI Power 4 program to sponsor women’s wrestling, the Hawkeyes started seeing a flood of commitments — including from Welker — and a wave of energy and momentum from fans. Head coach Clarissa Chun looked to be unstoppable as she built her historic squad. All of the traits remain for the two-time defending champion Hawks, but the health of women’s wrestling is best exemplified by the diversity of college programs represented amongst the U23 medalists.
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Audrey Jimenez of Lehigh and Alexis Janiak of Aurora earned silver and bronze medals, respectively, at U23 worlds, becoming the first athletes in their school’s history to earn these accolades. Janiak had one of the most intense matches of the tournament to earn her bronze medal, too — she beat Sarika Sarika of India, 4-2, Othelie Annette Hoeie of Norway, 9-2, and then gritted her way to a 17-17 criteria win over Olha Padoshyk. Her bronze medal becomes the latest honor in a list of accolades that also includes a U20 silver medal in 2024 and a U20 bronze in 2023.
Jimenez, who wrestles at 50kg, has similarly been a dominant force at the age group level throughout her career, previously earning a U23 silver medal along with three U20 silver medals and a U17 bronze medal. She was also a member of the 2025 senior world team, as she finished 15th.
The college season will start for Jimenez and the Mountain Hawks on Nov. 2 at the East Stroudsburg Open, while Aurora will open its season on Nov. 1 against Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Jimenez, a sophomore, will compete as part of Lehigh’s inaugural varsity team this year at 110 pounds. She and her squad will have its chance to take on the defending champion Hawkeyes on Jan. 18 in Iowa City.
Janiak previously won an NCWWC title at 131 pounds and will now look to repeat in her final season with the Spartans.
College stars weren’t the only medal winners on the women’s side either, however, as Jasmine Robinson also notched a silver at 72kg.
Team USA came to compete, and for the podium athletes with collegiate eligibility remaining, this will only help build momentum toward the goal of winning more NCAA titles.
