Penn State finishes with five champs, wins team title at the 2025 Big Ten Wrestling Championship

EVANSTON, Ill. — Back in 2011, at the old Welsh Ryan Arena, Penn State crowned five individual champs and held off Iowa to win the Big Ten tournament. It was the first conference tournament team title ever for the Nittany Lions, who crowned five champs that weekend and beat the Hawkeyes by a single point, 139-138.

Fourteen years later, Penn State returned to Evanston, this time at the new Welsh Ryan Arena. The script was similar, as the Nittany Lions finished with five individual Big Ten champs again — only this time, the team race wasn’t nearly as close as it was all those years ago.

When Sunday’s action finished, top-ranked Penn State piled up 181.5 team points to win the 2025 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. It is the school’s third-straight Big Ten tournament team title, and ninth all-time, under head coach Cael Sanderson.

“It feels great,” Sanderson, the 2024-25 Big Ten Coach of the Year, said afterward. “It’s obviously a very exciting tournament with a lot of great competition. Nationals are in two weeks, so we’ll sharpen our sticks a little bit and get ready for the nationals.

“We’re very happy right now.”

Penn State finished with five individual champs — Luke Lilledahl (125), Tyler Kasak (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174), Carter Starocci (184) — and had all 10 wrestlers finish sixth or better at their respective weights. The 181.5 team points is the most by a Big Ten team champion since Iowa put up 185 in both 1995 and 1992.

The Nittany Lions finished 44.5 points clear of second-place Nebraska, which finished with two champs, Brock Hardy (141) and Ridge Lovett (149). The Huskers had two more finalists and five wrestlers total finish fourth or better at their respective weights.

Iowa finished third with 112 points. The Hawkeyes did not have an individual champ but put three wrestlers in the finals: Drake Ayala (133), Michael Caliendo (165), and Stephen Buchanan (197).

Minnesota, led by heavyweight Gable Steveson, finished fourth with 108.5 points, just ahead of fifth-place Illinois, which scored 105.5. Steveson defeated Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet, 10-3, in the finals and was later named both the 2024-25 Big Ten Wrestler of the Year and the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Big Ten Championships.

Here’s a rundown of the finals results from Sunday:

125 pounds: Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl scored a takedown late in the first period for a 4-3 win over Nebraska’s Caleb Smith. Smith forced a trio of stall calls to close within a point in the third period, but Lilledahl’s length and hand-fighting kept Smith from getting to his offense. Purdue’s Matt Ramos, the 1-seed, rallied from a semifinal loss to Lilledahl to finish third.

133 pounds: Lucas Byrd was the highlight for an Illinois team that took fifth in the team race, its best team finish since 2012, when the Illini took fourth in West Lafayette. Byrd hit a whip-over and pinned Iowa’s top-seeded Drake Ayala in the second period to win his first Big Ten title. Ayala previously beat Byrd, 4-2, in January. Ohio State’s Nic Bouzakis won four consolation matches after a first-round loss to take third.

141 pounds: Nebraska’s Brock Hardy secured a first-period pin over Minnesota’s Vance Vombaur to win his first Big Ten title. Hardy countered a shot by Vombaur by locking up a cradle for the fall in less than two minutes. In the third-place match, Penn State’s Beau Bartlett scored a third-period takedown for a 4-2 win over Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez in a rematch of last year’s NCAA finals.

149 pounds: Ridge Lovett gave Nebraska back-to-back Big Ten champs, which helped solidify their runner-up team finish. Lovett knocked off Illinois’s Kannon Webster, 1-0, thanks to a second-period escape and stifling defense. Webster knocked off two All-Americans in Ohio State’s Dylan D’Emilio and Penn State’s Shayne Van Ness on Saturday to reach the finals. Van Ness rallied to beat Iowa’s Kyle Parco for third.

157 pounds: Tyler Kasak became Penn State’s second champ with a 12-2 win over Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon. Kasak scored a first-period takedown off a scramble, then took Cannon feet-to-back in the third on a re-shot sequence to secure the major decision. Purdue’s Joey Blaze, the 6-seed, won four straight consolation matches, including two in overtime, to take third.

165 pounds: Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink won his second Big Ten title with a 4-1 win over Iowa’s Michael Caliendo. Mesenbrink previously beat Caliendo by a 19-4 technical fall in January, but on Sunday, he scored a single takedown late in the first period to prevail. Mesenbrink is now 22-0 with 21 bonus-point wins. Michigan’s Beau Mantanona eked out a 2-1 decision over Minnesota’s Andrew Sparks for third.

174 pounds: Penn State’s Levi Haines won his third Big Ten title — his first two came at 157 pounds — with a 12-1 major decision over Nebraska’s Lenny Pinto. Haines scored a takedown late in the first period for a 3-0 lead, took Pinto feet-to-back in the second to go up 11-1, then rode out Pinto the entire third period for the win. Illinois’s Dan Braunagel rallied from a 9-8 loss to Pinto in Saturday’s semifinals to finish third, one of six Illini wrestlers to finish fifth or better at their respective weights.

184 pounds: Carter Starocci made it four in a row and five total champs for the Nittany Lions. The four-time NCAA champion rallied from an early 3-0 hole to beat Minnesota’s Max McEnelly 8-5 in sudden victory, scoring the match-winner on a go-behind near the edge. It was McEnelly’s first-ever collegiate loss. He went 15-0 in redshirt last year, and was 20-0 before losing to Starocci on Sunday. Illinois’s Edmond Ruth beat Maryland’s Jaxson Smith, 5-2, to finish third.

197 pounds: Michigan’s Jacob Cardenas, an EIWA champ in 2023 at Cornell, claimed his first Big Ten title with a 4-2 win over Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan. Cardenas beat Penn State’s Josh Barr, the 2-seed, on Saturday night, then scored a takedown in the second period to beat Buchanan, the 1-seed, on Sunday. It was Buchanan’s first loss of the season. Illinois’s Zac Braunagel beat Minnesota’s Isaiah Salazar, 4-1, in sudden victory to finish third.

285 pounds: Minnesota’s Gable Stevenson joined rare air in winning his fourth Big Ten title. He previously won in 2020, 2021, and 2022. He is the 19th Big Ten wrestler to win four conference tournament titles, and just the second-ever from Minnesota, joining Verne Gagne who won in 1944, 1947, 1948, and 1949. Steveson scored three takedowns, one in each period, to beat Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet, 10-3. Iowa’s Ben Kueter won four in a row after a quarterfinal loss to Kerkvliet to finish third.